Demand Student Loan Forgiveness for HBCU’s Impacted by $2.1 Billion Funding Lapse
Demand Student Loan Forgiveness for HBCU’s Impacted by $2.1 Billion Funding Lapse
The Issue
In August 2008, during the beginning of the worst economic downturn that would later be coined the Great Recession, I enrolled at North Carolina A&T State University thinking that a college degree would be the only way that I could become successful and help my family who were all struggling financially at the time. My real story however, begins sadly with a daunting figure - $187,000. That's my current student loan debt, including interest, reflecting a truth many HBCU graduates and attendees have been grappling with. We were offered little else but loans and rarely awarded scholarships, guided by Student Financial Aid Offices declaring a lack of grant money beyond the Pell Grant and the UNC Grant (for NC Residents).
But now, a new light has been shed on our financial challenges. It has come to our attention that over $2.1 Billion in grants and scholarships have been withheld from HBCU students since 1987, as attested by U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona and U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Thomas Vilsack. These funds, meant to aid our academic pursuits and resource management, were never materialized, despite the mandates under the Second Morrill Act of 1890. On September 18, 2023, Secretary Cardona issued a statement on the US Department of Education website that I have linked here: Secretary Cardona issues an official statement about the historical misappropriation of funding in letters to Governors in 16 of the 18 States that have HBCU’s. You can also view the letters to each Governor at the end of his statement.
Like many others, I'd like to ask the State "where did all the money go?" $2.1 billion would have made a significant difference in the lives of countless HBCU students and graduates in the sixteen states, alleviating the burdensome loans that were forced upon those seeking higher education and now loom over us.
This issue goes beyond my personal story; it's a testament to systemic discrepancies that need immediate correction. Please, add your voice to this petition. Demand student loan forgiveness for HBCU attendees and graduates who have suffered under this unjust funding lapse. Not only this, but we must insist on the repayment of loans already painstakingly paid by students who were never awarded the grants and scholarships they rightfully deserved.
Please stand with us. Sign the petition!
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The Issue
In August 2008, during the beginning of the worst economic downturn that would later be coined the Great Recession, I enrolled at North Carolina A&T State University thinking that a college degree would be the only way that I could become successful and help my family who were all struggling financially at the time. My real story however, begins sadly with a daunting figure - $187,000. That's my current student loan debt, including interest, reflecting a truth many HBCU graduates and attendees have been grappling with. We were offered little else but loans and rarely awarded scholarships, guided by Student Financial Aid Offices declaring a lack of grant money beyond the Pell Grant and the UNC Grant (for NC Residents).
But now, a new light has been shed on our financial challenges. It has come to our attention that over $2.1 Billion in grants and scholarships have been withheld from HBCU students since 1987, as attested by U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona and U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Thomas Vilsack. These funds, meant to aid our academic pursuits and resource management, were never materialized, despite the mandates under the Second Morrill Act of 1890. On September 18, 2023, Secretary Cardona issued a statement on the US Department of Education website that I have linked here: Secretary Cardona issues an official statement about the historical misappropriation of funding in letters to Governors in 16 of the 18 States that have HBCU’s. You can also view the letters to each Governor at the end of his statement.
Like many others, I'd like to ask the State "where did all the money go?" $2.1 billion would have made a significant difference in the lives of countless HBCU students and graduates in the sixteen states, alleviating the burdensome loans that were forced upon those seeking higher education and now loom over us.
This issue goes beyond my personal story; it's a testament to systemic discrepancies that need immediate correction. Please, add your voice to this petition. Demand student loan forgiveness for HBCU attendees and graduates who have suffered under this unjust funding lapse. Not only this, but we must insist on the repayment of loans already painstakingly paid by students who were never awarded the grants and scholarships they rightfully deserved.
Please stand with us. Sign the petition!
6
Petition created on August 19, 2024