Without judging the merits, why is Student Debt Relief a civil rights issue?

[WhiskeyGrinder]

29. The ACLU wrote a whole article about this issue, which you can read here:

https://www.aclu.org/news/racial-justice/student-debt-is-a-racial-justice-issue-heres-what-president-biden-can-do-to-help/

To understand the systemic issues rooted in the student debt crisis, we must start with its history. Though we have normalized the idea that students must take on debt for college, historically students benefited from broad public investment in higher education. However, not all students benefited equally: Black students had little access to GI Bill benefits and, even a decade after Brown v. Board of Education (1954), predominately white institutions (PWIs) in many states resisted integration and equal treatment. Further, state and federal governments continued to inadequately and inequitably fund historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) despite the high-quality opportunities they provided and the critical function they performed for Black students and communities. This created and cemented the racial wealth and resource gap in institutions of higher education.

It was in this context that Congress and President Lyndon B. Johnson passed the Higher Education Act of 1965. Recognizing the value of broad higher education access, Johnson hoped the legislation would open the doors of opportunity to everyone, especially Black students and other students of color, through Pell Grants and other subsidies.

Yet by the end of the 20th century, just as Black and Brown students and women gained entry after decades-long legal battles and social struggles, reactionary policymakers shifted the significant costs of higher education from the public to individual families. What had been considered a public good when it was predominantly for white men, became a public burden to be shifted to families.

This shift away from public financing, which accelerated after the Great Recession, led to predictable and damaging results: Today the cost of higher education is beyond imagination. It is out of reach for most families, especially Black and Brown students, unless they agree to unsustainable debt. In effect, we are perpetuating the ugly legacy of redlining and housing discrimination by requiring the same Black families that were historically denied wealth to take on a greater debt burden than their white peers.

There are plenty of facts readily available as well, with a quick web search. Such as:

The racial disparity in student loan debt remains prevalent for Black people, based on research released in November 2019 by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. The researchers found that people in Black-majority neighborhoods were more likely to pay for college through borrowing, with 23 percent of Black residents taking out student loans. However, that figure drops to 17 percent among people in Latino-majority neighborhoods and 14 percent in white-majority areas.

and

Black voters hold higher education in higher esteem than the public at large, according to the survey’s findings, “given the perception that it is a ladder to socioeconomic success and that Black families and households are less likely to inherit wealth.” But the impressions largely haven’t aligned with the outcomes for Black people, who have been exploited or shut out of many economic programs and opportunities due to the persistent impact of slavery, the Jim Crow era, redlining, predatory lending and banking discrimination.