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1
HOUSE RESOLUTION

 
2    WHEREAS, According to the Federal Reserve, 54% of Americans
3who went to college took on some form of debt in order to do so;
4and
 
5    WHEREAS, Over 45 million people in the United States
6collectively owe more than $1.5 trillion in student loan debt,
7making it the second highest form of consumer debt, behind only
8home mortgages, and higher than credit card debt and auto loan
9debt; and
 
10    WHEREAS, Student loans have a higher delinquency rate than
11credit cards, auto loans, and mortgages; the delinquency rate
12(90 days or more overdue) for student loans is 10.85%;
13comparatively, the delinquency rate for auto loans is 4.69%,
14and the delinquency rate for credit cards is 8.32%; and
 
15    WHEREAS, Over 1.5 million student loan borrowers in the
16State of Illinois have a collective balance of $49 billion in
17student loans, with a student loan delinquency rate (90+ days
18delinquent) of 11.4%; and
 
19    WHEREAS, Student loan debt has caused great division
20between Americans; the average debt for African American
21bachelor's degree recipients was $34,000, compared to $30,000

 

 

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1for white bachelor's recipients and just under $25,000 for
2Hispanic and Asian bachelor's recipients; and
 
3    WHEREAS, African American students who complete a
4bachelor's degree are more likely to struggle to repay their
5loans, and 12 years later, the typical African American student
6who entered college in 2003 and who completed a bachelor's
7degree owed 114% of what they originally borrowed, compared to
847% for white graduates; additionally, 49% of African American
9students who borrowed for their undergraduate education
10defaulted on a federal student loan, representing the highest
11default of all borrowers; and
 
12    WHEREAS, Student loan debt has created a clear divide among
13all gendered people; for example, women hold nearly two-thirds
14of the outstanding student debt in the United States, almost
15$929 billion as of early 2019 according to studies; the burden
16of student debt is compounded by existing and intersecting
17inequalities, women working full time with college degrees make
1826% less than their male counterparts; and
 
19    WHEREAS, One year after graduating, female college
20graduates working full time are paid 18% less than their male
21peers; by four years after graduation, that gap widens to 20%;
22and
 

 

 

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1    WHEREAS, A 2019 Federal Reserve study found that student
2loan debt is linked to over 20% of the decline in
3homeownership, which is recognized as one of the most important
4ways to build wealth; homeownership has returned to 50-year
5lows, and the African American homeownership rate in 2019 was
6as low as it was when the Fair Housing Act was passed in 1968;
7and
 
8    WHEREAS, Research from the National Association of
9Realtors revealed that 61% of millennials said they have
10delayed buying a house because of student loan debt, with the
11average student loan borrower delaying the purchase of their
12first home by an average of seven years; and
 
13    WHEREAS, Student loan servicers are a critical link in
14determining whether borrowers will have a pathway towards
15paying off their debt or be continually rolled into one
16unaffordable payment after another; and
 
17    WHEREAS, Without strong federal and state guidelines,
18servicers have engaged in a range of abusive practices that
19include misapplying student loan payments in ways which
20maximize fees to the servicer and placing borrowers into plans
21that delay the debt rather than repay it; and
 
22    WHEREAS, The U.S. Department of Education has recently

 

 

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1signaled that it is willing to make it easier for servicers of
2federal student loan debt to operate with less oversight and
3fewer protections for students by rolling back existing federal
4guidance and by seeking to thwart states' rights to protect
5students in their own states against student loan abuses; and
 
6    WHEREAS, Several states have already begun to take
7legislative and enforcement actions related to unfair and
8deceptive practices of student loan servicers; therefore, be it
 
9    RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE ONE
10HUNDRED FIRST GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that
11we urge the United States Congress to recognize outstanding
12student debt as a crisis for Americans seeking an education
13that endangers the well-being of Americans and to work to
14develop and enact legislation that will forgive student loans
15for all current student loan borrowers and prevent future
16students from shouldering an insurmountable burden of debt; and
17be it further
 
18    RESOLVED, That suitable copies of this resolution be
19delivered to the President of the United States, the U.S.
20Senate Majority Leader, the U.S. Senate Minority Leader, the
21U.S. Speaker of the House, the U.S. House of Representatives
22Minority Leader, and all members of the Illinois Congressional
23Delegation.