HR0696 101ST GENERAL ASSEMBLY

HR0696 LRB101 16776 ECR 66169 r

HOUSE RESOLUTION

WHEREAS, The Illinois House of Representatives seeks to educate and empower its members as they consider questions of public policy which impact, directly or indirectly, the general welfare of African American constituents within their respective districts; and

WHEREAS, Over 45 million people in the United States collectively owe more than $1.5 trillion in student loan debt, making it the second highest form of consumer debt; and

WHEREAS, Recent federal data demonstrates that college completion is a necessary but insufficient solution to inequality challenges, and according to the Center for American Progress analysis, our federal student loan system provides African American borrowers only a 50-50 shot for successfully completing college; and

WHEREAS, In 2016 the Urban Institute found that 42% of African American families have student debt compared with 34% of similar white families; and

WHEREAS, The average debt for African American bachelor's degree recipients was $34,000 compared to just $30,000 for White bachelor's recipients and just under $25,000 for Hispanic and Asian bachelor's degree recipients with student loans; and

WHEREAS, African American students who complete a bachelor's degree are more likely to struggle to repay their loans; among those who entered college in 2003, the typical African American borrower who completed a bachelor's degree owed 114% of what they originally borrowed 12 years earlier, compared to 47% for white graduates who borrowed for their education; 49% of African American students who borrowed for their undergraduate education defaulted on a federal student loan, representing the highest default of all borrowers; and

WHEREAS, The burden of student debt is compounded by existing and intersecting inequalities; women working full time with college degrees make 26% less than their male counterparts; and

WHEREAS, Women overall, and especially African American women, are more likely to struggle with student loan debt and face even greater income disparity; 57% of Black women who were repaying loans reported that they were unable to meet essential expenses in the last year; and

WHEREAS, The rate of homeownership, one of the most important ways to build wealth, has returned to a fifty-year low, and the African American homeownership rate in 2019 was as low as it was when the Fair Housing Act was passed in 1968; and

WHEREAS, Research from the National Association of Realtors has demonstrated that student loans are leading to serious delays in home purchases, with the average student loan borrower delaying the purchase of their first home by an average of seven years; and

WHEREAS, Student loan servicers are a critical link in determining whether borrowers will have a pathway towards paying off their debt or simply be continually rolled into one unaffordable payment after another; and

WHEREAS, Without strong federal and state guidelines, servicers have engaged in a range of abusive practices that include misapplying student loan payments in ways which maximize fees to the servicer and placing borrowers into plans that delay the debt rather than repay it; and

WHEREAS, The U.S. Department of Education has recently signaled that it is willing to make it easier for servicers of federal student loan debt to operate with less oversight and fewer protections for students, both by rolling back existing federal guidance and by seeking to thwart states' rights to protect students in their own states against student loan abuses; and

WHEREAS, Several states have already begun to take legislative and enforcement actions related to unfair and deceptive practices of student loan servicers; therefore, be it

RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE ONE HUNDRED FIRST GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we urge the United States Congress to recognize outstanding student debt as a crisis that endangers not only the well-being of African Americans but the nation at large and to work to enact legislation that will ease the burden of student debt on current student loan borrowers; and be it further

RESOLVED, That we urge legislators across the country to enact legislation in their respective states aimed at ensuring that students are treated fairly by student loan servicers when trying to repay their debt, and that such legislation should set standards for student loan servicers and end unfair and deceptive practices; and be it further

RESOLVED, That we affirm the position that states have the right to license and regulate the student loan servicers operating in their state; and be it further

RESOLVED, That we urge the full funding of public higher education, ensuring that the highest quality education is both affordable and accessible to students who wish to pursue it, and that such funding should prioritize addressing and resolving historic inequalities that have denied African Americans full access to higher education; and be it further

RESOLVED, That we urge the development of innovative solutions for student debt held by states, either by state agencies that serve as guarantors for Federal Family Education Loans or student loans that are solely issued by the states; and be it further

RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be sent to the President of the United States, the Vice President of the United States, members of the United States House of Representatives and the United States Senate, and all members of the Illinois General Assembly.