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HOUSE RESOLUTION

 
2    WHEREAS, The Illinois House of Representatives seeks to
3educate and empower its members as they consider questions of
4public policy which impact, directly or indirectly, the general
5welfare of African American constituents within their
6respective districts; and
 
7    WHEREAS, Over 45 million people in the United States
8collectively owe more than $1.5 trillion in student loan debt,
9making it the second highest form of consumer debt; and
 
10    WHEREAS, Recent federal data demonstrates that college
11completion is a necessary but insufficient solution to
12inequality challenges, and according to the Center for American
13Progress analysis, our federal student loan system provides
14African American borrowers only a 50-50 shot for successfully
15completing college; and
 
16    WHEREAS, In 2016 the Urban Institute found that 42% of
17African American families have student debt compared with 34%
18of similar white families; and
 
19    WHEREAS, The average debt for African American bachelor's
20degree recipients was $34,000 compared to just $30,000 for
21White bachelor's recipients and just under $25,000 for Hispanic

 

 

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1and Asian bachelor's degree recipients with student loans; and
 
2    WHEREAS, African American students who complete a
3bachelor's degree are more likely to struggle to repay their
4loans; among those who entered college in 2003, the typical
5African American borrower who completed a bachelor's degree
6owed 114% of what they originally borrowed 12 years earlier,
7compared to 47% for white graduates who borrowed for their
8education; 49% of African American students who borrowed for
9their undergraduate education defaulted on a federal student
10loan, representing the highest default of all borrowers; and
 
11    WHEREAS, The burden of student debt is compounded by
12existing and intersecting inequalities; women working full
13time with college degrees make 26% less than their male
14counterparts; and
 
15    WHEREAS, Women overall, and especially African American
16women, are more likely to struggle with student loan debt and
17face even greater income disparity; 57% of Black women who were
18repaying loans reported that they were unable to meet essential
19expenses in the last year; and
 
20    WHEREAS, The rate of homeownership, one of the most
21important ways to build wealth, has returned to a fifty-year
22low, and the African American homeownership rate in 2019 was as

 

 

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1low as it was when the Fair Housing Act was passed in 1968; and
 
2    WHEREAS, Research from the National Association of
3Realtors has demonstrated that student loans are leading to
4serious delays in home purchases, with the average student loan
5borrower delaying the purchase of their first home by an
6average of seven years; and
 
7    WHEREAS, Student loan servicers are a critical link in
8determining whether borrowers will have a pathway towards
9paying off their debt or simply be continually rolled into one
10unaffordable payment after another; and
 
11    WHEREAS, Without strong federal and state guidelines,
12servicers have engaged in a range of abusive practices that
13include misapplying student loan payments in ways which
14maximize fees to the servicer and placing borrowers into plans
15that delay the debt rather than repay it; and
 
16    WHEREAS, The U.S. Department of Education has recently
17signaled that it is willing to make it easier for servicers of
18federal student loan debt to operate with less oversight and
19fewer protections for students, both by rolling back existing
20federal guidance and by seeking to thwart states' rights to
21protect students in their own states against student loan
22abuses; and
 

 

 

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1    WHEREAS, Several states have already begun to take
2legislative and enforcement actions related to unfair and
3deceptive practices of student loan servicers; therefore, be it
 
4    RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE ONE
5HUNDRED FIRST GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that
6we urge the United States Congress to recognize outstanding
7student debt as a crisis that endangers not only the well-being
8of African Americans but the nation at large and to work to
9enact legislation that will ease the burden of student debt on
10current student loan borrowers; and be it further
 
11    RESOLVED, That we urge legislators across the country to
12enact legislation in their respective states aimed at ensuring
13that students are treated fairly by student loan servicers when
14trying to repay their debt, and that such legislation should
15set standards for student loan servicers and end unfair and
16deceptive practices; and be it further
 
17    RESOLVED, That we affirm the position that states have the
18right to license and regulate the student loan servicers
19operating in their state; and be it further
 
20    RESOLVED, That we urge the full funding of public higher
21education, ensuring that the highest quality education is both

 

 

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1affordable and accessible to students who wish to pursue it,
2and that such funding should prioritize addressing and
3resolving historic inequalities that have denied African
4Americans full access to higher education; and be it further
 
5    RESOLVED, That we urge the development of innovative
6solutions for student debt held by states, either by state
7agencies that serve as guarantors for Federal Family Education
8Loans or student loans that are solely issued by the states;
9and be it further
 
10    RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be sent
11to the President of the United States, the Vice President of
12the United States, members of the United States House of
13Representatives and the United States Senate, and all members
14of the Illinois General Assembly.