Explaining the High Cost of Higher Education to Black Americans: A Focus on Black American Women

Abstract

This article claims that Black Americans, especially Black women have made substantial progress in college enrollment and degree attainment in recent decades. From 2000 to 2015, Black American females were either second to Asian males or third to Asian males and Asian females in their proportion of those enrolled in college in the United States. In 2016, there were 2.446 million Black women and 1.841 million Black men aged 18 and over with at least a bachelor's degree. However, these achievements have come at a very high financial cost, compared to other groups. The factors cited for the high debt burden on Black American students, especially Black women include: the shift from grants to loans with interests to pay for college; lack of scholarships (research assistantship and traineeship) compared to students from other groups; the high cost of college education at for-profit institutions; and lack of funding from parents or family members. A number of recommendations to manage this problem, including increase in the number of "grant aid" and lowering the cost of undergraduate instruction, are presented in this article.

A Survey of the Geographic Area, Altitude, Coastline, and Climate of African Countries and Regions: Implications for Africa’s Development

“…The painful history of slavery and colonialism are what have separated these two entities (Africa and the African diaspora), and each needs the other. These two entities must work together and the sooner they forge a stronger economic and social partnership the faster they can solve the interrelated problems they face (Kaba, 2006b(Kaba, , 2008(Kaba, , 2009ab, 2010abc, 2011abcdef, 2012ab, 2013ab, 2015(Kaba, , 2016(Kaba, , 2017Kaba and Ward, 2009). The Black population in the United States is increasingly engaging with the continent of Africa, and one positive sign is that those returning or relocating partially or fully to Africa are spread across the continent, and they bring their expertise with them.…”

Like Any Other Trap: The Circuitous Path of Student Loan Repayment

“…Student debt also disproportionately burdens first-generation college-goers (Furquim et al, 2017;Javine, 2013) and women, who hold almost two-thirds of student loan balances (American Association of University Women, 2017Women, , 2020Kaba, 2017). An exception is that Latinx college students tend to borrow at lower rates than their peers (Cunningham & Santiago, 2008;McDonough et al, 2015;Taylor et al, 2020).…”