“Are you listening to me?” Michelle Obama, who is used to handling teenagers at home, asked a crowd of high schoolers in Atlanta on 9 September.



The crowd at Booker T Washington high school seemed restless and the First Lady had an important message to deliver: Do not drop out of school. Go to college. Get out of poverty. Giving up on education is not an option.

“Do you hear what I’m telling you?” she asked the students. “Because I’m giving you some insights that a lot of rich kids all over the country – they know this stuff, and I want you to know it, too. Because you have got to go and get your education. You’ve got to.”

Many of them are getting their education – at least their high school degrees. The dropout rate for black students is now at 8%, a record low. At the same time, the number of black 18-to-24-year-olds who have a high school diploma or an equivalent has increased to 82%, according to Pew Research Center.

A high school degree, however, will only get you so far.

Higher education has long been viewed as the way out of poverty. Unfortunately, it comes at a cost: student loan debt. For black students this cost is often greater than for their white classmates. This burden often follows them for decades after school, reinforcing income and racial inequalities that are so prominent in the US.

A Gallup poll released in September found that in the last 14 years about half of black college students graduated with student debt over $25,000 – whereas only 35% of white students did. During that same time, the number of black Americans enrolled in college had increased by 74%. In 2012, the total number of black college students was 2.96 million, up from 1.7 million in 2000. Black students make up 15% of US college students.

Often, the only way for these students to afford the college education that eludes many of their friends and classmates is by taking on loans. Four out of five black students take out loans to go to college. They are also the most likely to hold the most debt – with an average debt burden of $28,692 as compared to $24,742 for white students, according to a 2012 report by the Center for American Progress.

The income inequality is often emphasised by racial inequality. A Demos analysis of a recent US census report showed that on average white high school dropouts have more wealth than black college graduates.

“White families with less than a high school education have $161,000 of wealth, which is higher than every black and Hispanic family, except those with college degrees,” Matt Bruenig wrote on Demos’s Policyshop blog.

Black families with college degrees have a mean wealth of $162.8k, which is effectively the same as the mean wealth of white families with less than a high school education.

The plight of black students should not come as a surprise. There is deep racial inequality in the US. In 2013, the median income for black households was just $34,600. The poverty rate for black Americans is 27%, almost three times that of white Americans.

Even those that manage to make it to college, often drop out because the financial burden is just too much. The most recent college graduation rate for black students is 20.5%, about half of the total US graduation rate of 39%. It’s not that they lack drive or ambition. It’s that they often can’t afford to stay in school. According to the Center for American Progress, “69% of black students who don’t finish school cite the burden of high student loan debt as the reason, compared with 43% of their white peers.”

About half of black college graduates are likely to have over $25,000 in student debt, according to a recent Gallup study. Photograph: Gallup

Those that do graduate, do so with debt that will take years and years to pay off. The student loan debt that many black college students have to take on in order to graduate can have lasting effects. Just 17% of black college graduates described themselves as thriving financially, compare to 29% of all graduates, according to Gallup.

The Obamas have never made it a secret that loans helped finance their education. Just this June, Obama tried to convey to America’s youth that he sympathises with their burden.

“Neither Michelle or I came from a lot of money, but with hard work, and help from scholarships and student loans, we got to go to great schools. We did not have this kind of burden that we’re seeing, at least at the undergraduate stages,” he said. “As I said, because of law school, we only finished paying off our own student loans just 10 years ago. So we know what many of you are going through or look forward – or don’t look forward to.”

They are currently saving money for their daughters’ tuitions, he added.

According to Sallie Mae, about half of black families are doing the same. On average, they manage to save up about $11,445. Currently, annual tuition for a public four-year college is on average $18,391.



You do the math.