Feds’ Student Debt Relief Plan Still Leaves Ex-Offenders in the Cold
President Joe Biden plan to forgive federal student loans won't benefit a generation of Black and Hispanic Americans who were disproportionately excluded from the Pell Grant program and eligibility for student loans, in part due to a bill championed earlier by Biden.
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A generation of Black and Hispanic Americans disproportionately excluded from the Pell Grant program and eligibility for student loans won’t benefit from President Joe Biden’s plan to forgive federal student loans, thanks in part to an earlier Biden bill, Spectrum News reports. The Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994, a bill drafted by then-senator Biden, blocked federal financial aid, including Pell Grants and federal student loans, to hundreds of thousands of drug offenders. Those impacted had to take out larger, frequently predatory private student loans if they wanted to attend college after serving their sentences.
By having to disclose their drug history on financial aid applications, some people were deterred from applying for federal aid, while others postponed or skipped college entirely, and, with disproportionate policing on drugs, many Black and Latino Americans were shut out of higher education. Now, they won’t be eligible for student debt relief, which hinges on existing federal student loans instead of private and on Pell Grants.
