Dear Friend,

My name’s Carleigh Fernandez, and I’m the Development Manager here at NextGen America. I’ve already paid off my student loans — and I am still deeply passionate about providing relief for those who haven’t yet.

Our staff has been resolutely pushing the Biden-Harris administration to roll out a robust relief plan for the 45 million people in the United States who bear the burden of student loan debt. Collectively, that’s $1.6 trillion in student debt that prevents those seeking better lives for themselves and their families from achieving the very goal that inspired their higher education journeys. 

As one of the millions of college graduates who sank hundreds of dollars every month on student loan payments, I’m writing to share my story.

In 2016, I graduated from the University of San Diego, a private school that cost around $50,000 every year while I attended. Now, the cost of attendance has jumped to well over $70,000 per year, and that’s still lower than the majority of private universities in America — shocking, I know. 

I was really lucky that I qualified for financial aid and merit scholarships and my family was in a position to help pay for part of my tuition. However, even with all that help, I still had to take out student loans for all four years. I was left with a total of around $27,000 in student debt by the time I graduated. 

I knew right away that I wanted to pay the loans off as quickly as possible, but I also knew I wanted to pursue nonprofit work. Ultimately, it became clear that I wasn’t going to be able to simultaneously pay off my debt while living on my own and saving for my future comfortably. So, I made the decision to live with my parents for a couple years after college to focus on saving.

Since then, I am proud to say I have been debt-free for almost three years. But paying thousands in payments every month for nearly three years did not come without sacrifice. During that time, I was unable to pursue my long-term financial goals. Here, it is absolutely essential to recognize the immense privilege I had to even be in a place to pay off my loans on such an aggressive schedule.

The path that I was able to take is simply not afforded to too many others in this country, especially Black and brown college graduates. Roughly 85 percent of Black bachelor’s degree recipients currently hold student loan debt. Building generational wealth in Black families have been explicitly halted by racist policies stemming from slavery through Jim Crow and mass incarceration. An average white family’s net worth overshadows that of a Black family’s by a 10:1 margin.

The unsurprising, sickening truth of the matter is that Black students have been forced to take on more loans with relatively less means to pay off their debt, and the vicious cycle continues. 

The facts of structural discrimination in student loan borrowing are clear. Student debt cancellation is undoubtedly a racial justice issue that even those, like me, who have paid off their debt must fight for. 

Joe Biden recognized the pain of this plight last year on the campaign trail and pledged to alleviate this crippling burden once he was elected — now’s his chance to honor his promise. 

Send a message to President Biden: Take executive action to eliminate student debt for millions of Americans.

We are building a better future with improved access to a quality education for everyone. We need your voice.

Thank you for listening,

Carleigh Fernandez
Development Manager
NextGen America