When single mother Elizabeth Cain sent her son to college, she did what many American families do to bridge the gap between grants, student loans and the cost of attendance: She took out a federal Parent PLUS Loan.
Her son Chance entered Morehouse College, a historically black school, this year. Cain is a self-employed educational therapist and is in a master’s degree program where she has accumulated $11,000 in student debt. Now, the New Yorker has taken on a $39,000 Parent PLUS Loan for her son.
“I try not to worry about that stuff because it will consume me,” Cain said. “I try to take it one day at a time.”
“I try not to worry about that stuff because it will consume me,” Cain said. “I try to take it one day at a time.”
While the PLUS Loan makes it easy for parents to help their kids pay for college, the program’s administrators aren’t required to check whether families can handle the debt.
It’s a problem that hits African-Americans particularly hard.
For many families, the federal loan program for parents is often the final piece of the financial package needed to realize their college dream. While it sounds like a lifeline, the PLUS program can weigh down families, especially low-income black families, for generations.
“It puts a real strain on any social and economic mobility that can happen for black families in particular,” said Colleen Campbell, director for postsecondary education at the Center for American Progress. “Once you add Parent PLUS debt on top of whatever student debt the student is accruing, that wipes out any potential advantages or gains that the parent has made in terms of their own wealth.”
