Is there a Pink Tax on Student Loan Debt?
The data taken from College Score Card shows that there is an elevated pattern for women’s student loan debt versus their male counterpart, especially at Bryan university where it leads as the most for females in the state of Arkansas. By furthering the research and breaking down the key components as to why one gender has a higher student loan debt rate, students can have a better understanding for the fundamental infrastructure of the student loan debt crisis.
Due to the certain demographics this research will help to divine whether there is a raised requisite for loans. By exploring the inflated interest rates and rate of defaulting loans by demographics, the object of this is to define and understand why some student loan companies appraise more students than others. Thus, the underlying question is, is there such a thing as a “Pink Tax” or a “Pink Interest Rate” for female student loan default and/or debts?
Bryan University had the highest rate for female student loan debt and defaults and should also be noted as a private institution. According to the debt findings from College Score Card and Student Loan Hero, about 75 percent of students who graduated from private nonprofit colleges had an average loan debt of $32,300. Whereas, 88 percent of graduates from for-profit colleges had loans on an average debt of $39,950.
Senior Financial aid analyst for Bryan university, Roe Ontizeros’ job is to help students at the university deal with their student loans and financial accounts with the school. “I’m not really supposed to talk with you about our student loan debt but I suggest you look up our data online because we do have to report a specific amount of our information for reference,” Ontizeros said.
Due to privacy laws about student’s financial aid, financial aid analysts with universities do not have the ability to openly discuss the data unless it is already open to the public through databases funded by the federal government.
Financial Aid Analystfor the University of Arkansas, Chelsea Smythedescribes what she knows about the university’s student loan debt. “I actually don’t really know a lot about our school’s student loan debt disparity precisely for the men and women at our school off the top of my head, but I do know that we don’t have the most loan debt in Arkansas,”Smythe said.
Women carry nearly two-thirds of the country’s outstanding student loan debt, according to a new report by the American Association of University Women, an education advocacy group titled, “Deeper in Debt: Women and Student Loans.” This study recognizes why certain demographics are targeted for higher loan interest rates above others.
Illuminating the details as to why loan companies target women so much, Lisa Corrigan, director at the University of Arkansas’ Gender Studies Program, explains.
“Predatory lending is gendered. Women are recruited for for-profit degrees at higher rates than men, where they also default on their loans at a higher rate,” Corrigan said. “So, there are several parts to that matter. That they are recruited, that they have higher interest rates, and that they default. That’s particularly problematic for women of color, who are getting scammed into degrees with unaccredited programs or programs that have massive class action law suits because the students are not graduating or are not employable or that the programs collapse.
So, yes, women are defaulting on loans that have higher interest rates, they’re doing it faster and for more money, but it’s particularly worse for women of color,” Corrigan said.
This data reveals an ongoing standard that women are paying significantly more than men as reflected with the term “Pink Tax” where women pay more in common material goods than men.
“I don’t know that it is theoretically wise to put debt itself into that. I think it’s useful to put them in conversation about the ways in which women are forced to pay more for services in goods that they’re entitled to and or that they need. But I don’t know that it is savvy to put it in the same category as consumer or tangible material goods. I think we want to make a difference because it is a service that the government is providing like higher education,” Corrigan said.
Corrigan also said that data will eventually show that women of color are going to see a decrease in attendance at accredited universities.
“I think that higher education is collapsing. So eventually women are not going to get the chance to go to college. I think you’re probably the last generation of women who are going to have, what we might consider as wide access to education. And that’s a result of the fact that the federal government pulled massive funding away from higher education during the ‘07 to ‘08 economic collapse under George W. Bush. And the states followed suit and under-invested in higher education,” Corrigan said.
But Corrigan also thinks that specific demographics will not be affected by this restructuring. “White wealthy women will always have access to education. They’ve always had and always will. They’ll find a way, they will structure it into privilege and so they will always have access. The entire political moment is restructuring power away from women of color, poor women of color and certainly LGBTQ+ people and it will hit extremely hard,” Corrigan said.
Offering advice for what could be described as the next steps for people spreading awareness about the student loan crisis, Corrigan said, “I would say to start with the white women because that’s your wheelhouse. Democracy is only as strong as its weakest member. So, if you want a strong and healthy community and you want strong and healthy families and you want a strong and healthy life then that means everyone in that community needs to be strong and healthy.
You can’t be punitive. Crime is the product of poverty. So, if you don’t want crime and you want healthy and safe communities, you have to support everyone in that community and that’s not always going to happen in jobs and wages because of the privatization,” Corrigan said. “It’s the politics of cruelty and that’s going to last.”
Contact List:
Senior Financial aid analysts for Bryan University, Roe Ontizeros–
Phone: (602) 384-2555
Email: financialaid@bryanuniversity.edu
Gender Studies Program Director, Lisa Corrigan–
Phone: 479-575-3046
Email: lcorriga@uark.edu
Financial Aid Analyst,Chelsea Smythe–
Phone: 479-575-3806
Email: csmythe@uark.edu
Financial Aid Analyst, Jeremy Hodges–
Email: jmh020@uark.edu
Phone: 479-575-8644
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