Where will the video be posted ?

Ashley - CFT - WFH Plano!!

John Fitzpatrick, Educate Texas/CFT

Richard Simonds, University of Houston-Downtown

Cayce Pierce - Austin Community College - Austin, TX

Lydia Riley, University of Texas System Adminsitration

Eileen Eiden from Austin Community College

Greg Mangum, United Way of Metropolitan Dallas

Annika Little in Plano

Diana Hidrogo, ACC

Good morning everyone! My name is Malcolm Sullivan, I'm joining from Young Invincibles in Austin, TX

Karen Serna, Austin Community College, ATX :)

Kevin Byrne | MSDF | Austin

Amy Desler, Educate TExas

Karina, Educate Texas, Dallas

Tim Shaw, The Aspen Institute Financial Security Program, Arlington, VA

Trisha Kahan, Austin Community College, Austin, TX

Dawn Plug, Austin Community College Austin TX

Austin Community College

Karen Murrell, Asset Funders Network—Silver Spring MD

Don Baylor, Jr. The Annie E Casey Foundation, joining from Austin

Janet Morrison-Lane, Vickery Meadow Youth Development Foundation, Dallas

Jeff Webster, Dir of Research, Trellis Company, Austin, TX

Mariella Ozuna- SAGE- San Antonio, Texas

Vanessa Alvarado

Scott Giles, Trellis Company, Austin

Richard Owens - Tarrant To & Through - Fort Worth, TX

Barbara LeCesne Western Governors University Dallas

Natalie Applegate, Educate Texas, Dallas

Shareea Woods, Educate Texas/ TxCAN Dallas

Dany Guerrero, Every Texan in Austin, TX

Annette Hernandez, Success Coach at Austin Community College

Courtney Vasquez from Austin Community College in Austin, TX

Latisha Addison - Austin Community College

Vanessa Brown, Strategic Partnership Manager for WGU Texas

Nadine Dechausay, CFT, working from Richardson

Gavin Nichols, San Antonio Area Foundation

Victoria Valdez, United Way Fort Bend THRIVE & Family Houston

Emily Ryder Perlmeter, Dallas Fed :)

Sandra Diaz ACC

Ewan Watt, Charles Koch Foundation (Central TX)

Sandy.- HACU - SATX

Rio Gonzalez, Young Invincibles, CA

Linda Kuhn - Austin Community College

Chalese Connors, Texas Woman's University, Denton

Cary Rodriguez- Austin Community College- Austin, TX

Chuni Lu, International Rescue Committee

Ruby Stevens-Morgan, Texas Higher Ed Coordinating Board, Austin, TX

Jennifer Cook, San Antonio Area Foundation

Joe Antolin, Asset Funders Network, New Mexico

Velvet Bryant, The Annie E. Casey Foundation (Maryland)

Vanessa Perez- Austin Community College- Austin, TX

Morning! Clarissa, EdTX, The RGV

Dorothy Vasquez- Breakthrough CTX- Austin tx

Annie Jones, THECB, Austin

Robert Perez, KIPP Texas Public Schools

Marcille McClure Financial Coach Center for Transforming Lived Fort Worth

Felicia Jackson Houston Texas

ASAR ALKEBULAN, Uni Tex at Austin

TaShunda Scott, Tarrant county Workforce Solutions Board

Vanessa Alvarado - Mexican American Unity Council San Antonio Texas

Sergio Rodriguez - Hector and Gloria Foundation, Austin

Can you repeat the question?

Yes

yes the poll came up.

Jason Vaaler - Texas A&M University

The poll did pop up

Angela McCorkle AgriLife Extension College Station

Hello! Sarah Jensen with the Commit Partnership in Dallas.

What is the difference between a Doctoral Degree and a Professional Degree?

Professional degrees often include lawyers

Okay, so we can think of it as a Board certification (law board, CPA, etc.)?

Is no one going to question WHY higher ed costs so much?

Professional degree's also tend to include MD's when talking about data. (In addition to JD, etc.)

And how both state and the federal gov’t should be SUBSIDIZING a good education for all their citizens?

Does THECB data include propriety schools? What is the default rate of loans by ethnicity?

Y’all all need to go visit debtcollective.org and familiarize yourself with the options to going into debt for higher education!

You should NOT be going into debt, this is a trap.

Thank you Simon!

Thank you for sharing your story, Simon! :)

Great job, Simon -- sincere thanks for sharing.

Thanks, Simon!

thank you Simon!

Thanks everyone!

How do assist students so they borrow enough for school (avoid not borrow sufficient amount for school)?

Yes, the SOLUTION is going back to the time, like when I was a student, when a semester at UT-Austin cost only $100/semester, so almost no one needed to borrow money to go to school.

debtcollective.org

Free college for all.

I attend webinar with Veronica Herrera from Experian and Kat Delgrosso from College Ave. Their data is saying Texas is number one for not making any loan payments during this period of postpone payments for Federal Loans.

Compare to other states...

How can we can we make our outreach more equitable.

It seems like a vicious cycle where BIPOC students have less wealth and thus need to take more loans and then after college they face discrimination in the labor market and have a harder time in repayment. Racial wealth gap as both a cause and consequence of the student loan burden.

I'm concerned that as public colleges and universities get less affordable, more Black and Latinx students are going to enroll at for-profit colleges

Certainly the disparities related to defaults and delinquencies for students of color. What is the responsibility of institutions to lower default rates?

That only rich people will be able to afford to get an education, or if one does get an education, a student can never afford a house, as their entire credit load is mired in student debt.

Not earth shattering thought - but with cost of attendance likely to rise - and aid programs not likely to match the increase, this will affect our students experiencing poverty more acutely.

@Malcolm, it’s a good concern. https://www.usnews.com/news/education-news/articles/2020-09-23/for-profit-colleges-look-to-urban-members-of-congress-to-protect-gains-under-trump

Curious who all is advocating for higher ed funding and/or student aid programs for our next legislative session.

Equity specifically means not equal - how to get more grant money to students/families/communities directly impacted by systemic and structural racial disparities … also related forgiveness of debt

Our states, and the federal gov’t, are not prioritizing the education of its citizenry, but putting mass profits into the hands of lenders….and debt collection companies.

Because there are equity gaps in income we are fighting against the lack of money in latinx and black households. What I mean by this is, latinx and black students are more likely to take on debt in order to support themselves and their families. It can be difficult to reduce the debt when their are deficiencies in income and lifestyle choices. The one thing is to make sure that students that fall in these categories understand the responsibility that they are taking on by incurring such large amounts of debt. But ultimately this may be a game of catch up for these groups of students.

@DBaylor I do agree with you. I have work with students in South Texas regarding their default and delinquencies. I had to explain to the loan servicer that not everyone has internet access. The loan servicer has issue with mailing forms to the students.

Getting an education should not be a question of money, but of knowledge and expertise.

@susan true education should not be a question of money, however there are many students that go to college with the idea it is an easy way to get money to support their lifestyles. That is something that is not being talked about as much as it should.

Having served with Dallas County Promise - agree with all you shared, Charles! There is no common definition of Promise though, and we hope to define what Promise programs in Texas means and how they differ from a tuition-guarantee program or traditional scholarships (which also have value).

Latisha…I agree, but this is part of a quality education: understanding the debt trap.

Yes, education for that needs to be there @susan. Unfortunately, for some students the education is not going to change the amount of debt that they take on.

No young person should have tens of thousands of dollars wagged in their faces. This is too tempting, and a real problem.

Employers are now investigating ways to help students with their debt as a benefit. Competition for talent.

I wish more young people realized how much things have changed in the past decades around how much of the cost of college used to be subsidized by the state.

These days, people have been brainwashed into thinking that college has to be expensive, when that did not used to be the case.

As part of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act, signed into law in March 2020, employer contributions toward employee student loans are now nontaxable for both federal and state purposes for the remainder of 2020.

We need to go BACK to financially supporting students, where a person without funds can support themselves a a minor part time job.

Education is a public good, and should be encouraged and paid for by the society as a whole, not by individual students.

Most scholarships (by the school as well as private) limit the use toward tuition. Though colleges are often offering free tuition, the scholarships students receive often only go toward tuition. The cost of room and board, which can be equal to or more than tuition, can keep students from attending.

Money should never be the reason a student decides not to get an education.

+1 Janet - this is not something that gets a lot of airtime. College displacement policies can also contribute to this complication.

Do you find that a schools internal academic progression policy, to remain eligible for fin aid are contributors towards creating barriers for students to progress through and complete their program?

@susancook... Last time Texas was subsidizing more than student was paying tuition was in 2003 (2019 Texas Public Higher Education Almanac).

Student tuition

Also there is a growing movement that is anti-debt without recognizing that some of us could not ever have gone to college without student loans. A student taking 7 years to get a bachelor's degree means lost wages, loss of upward job opportunities, loss of retirement savings.

@eileen: And do you find this acceptable? I do not.

#DebtinTexas

@susancook, I agree with you. We need to communicating this to our Federal and State representative. This is why voting is important

@Linda: money should never be a barrier to education, and this perpetuates the stratification of society, where rich kids graduate without debt, whereas poor and middle class kids find themselves in almost permanent debt.

DebtCollective.org

@susancook yes! I agree. I have seen students in my career outright quit college because the cost and the notion of being in debt gives them so much anxiety.

Yes, this is a legislative task, and we need to educate our lawmakers on the need for prioritization of education.

Students of color (in my experience) are often going to work because their parents have lost jobs. They are either working *and* going to school or working and changing from a 4-yr to a 2-yr to stay home or working *instead* of college. …all of which impacts theirs and their family’s future and our economy.

For profit schools also make sure students get through the process....through a literal hand holding process.

Yes! Thank you for saying that, Denisa!

Education should not be a business. There.

Has anyone broken out debt levels for competency based programs like SNHU?

Public institutions need to also review their admissions policies and make sure they aren't too difficult for first gen, students of color. For profits have an advantage because of the processes to get admitted are much easier and students seem to feel more welcomed.

Education has become a business, and YOU are the product and the investor. Hmmmm.

I feel like we need to do more with Consumer Education at the high school level. I feel we are education students about financial information. when we do it too late.

For-profits also don’t tell students how much debt they are taking on. They walk them through the process and make them sign on the dotted line without ever telling them what they are doing for them. Students often don’t realize they could get the same degree/certificate at a community college for 75% less.

Very true! @Dr. Janet

@eileen I would challenge you there for the need to reframe financial wellness. Students can get all the information they need in high school and still be saddled with debt. You cannot knowledge yourself out of poverty sometimes.

@Latisha, agree. Good resource on this topic from EdTrust is at https://edtrust.org/resource/segregation-forever/. The report uses federal education and U.S. Census data to show that most of these prestigious and best-funded public colleges enroll a smaller percentage of Black students today than they did 20 years ago, and while the numbers of Latino students on these campuses has increased, Latino enrollment is not keeping pace with the Latino population growth in most states.

Our approaches have to match the needs of the students. Meaning we also have to understand the students we are working with and that is a problem. Having worked at an HBCU, for profit, 4-year institution and now a 2-year I can say that we aren't understanding our students yet we are trying to get them to understand financial literacy etc. and that is a problem in itself.

Will Julie's presentation be shared with everyone?

@Linda I do not agree with you. My school has been requiring Face to face Loan Information Workshop. We have see big improvement because of it. A lot of students are thankful for it. A lot of them will go back and reject the loans. They have better understand on how loans work.

A lot of them are not aware of this information.

@eileen I am not saying the knowledge sharing is the issue--I highly praise being taught about financial literacy. BUT the fact that we still live in a system where they, by virtue of their financial situation, they have to deal with these things.

@julia that is a great resource. Thank you!

Money should not even be a factor, not to the individual student.

DebtCollective.org

If money should not even be a factor, how to you envision education being funded for the individual student?

@Linda I do understand what you are saying.

Your decision to go to college should not be premised on “going into debt,” but in getting an education

Very interesting @susan

@Lisa: By the state, like it was when I first went to college, at UT-Austin, in the 70s. I paid $100/semester.

@susan I believe we all feel the same way, however that is not our reality so at this moment I think we are trying to brainstorm and find solutions. Make sure to Vote in November so that maybe some of your and all of our concerns can be addressed.

This is the way it used to be for all state schools, but in the ensuing decades, the cost of education has shifted to the individual student and her family.

This is simply a change in how our society works, and has put young people into massive debt for sometimes the rest of their lives.

It changed before. It can change back. This isn’t magic, it is just budgeting.

@susan you're the real MVP

We like to think this is really complicated but it is really not.

@susan Where is the funding from the state coming from? Where did it come from in the 70's?

Thank you Simon.

Yes, Simon! Thank you for all your great solutions to this huge problem that our generation has inherited!

Taxes. Like everything else.

Simon - love your perspectives!

@Simon, you are an inspiration!

Great work!!!

It's budgeting, educating, advocating, unlearning, re-learning, collaborating, supporting...many layers. I'm thankful to expand the network of this type of good work!

Thank you for your leadership, @Simon!

This discussion has been so informative and high in value. Thank you to all the sponsors and presenters for their time today.

Thank you for a great discussion!

Thanks for using your voice and sharing your story @Simon. I appreciate it.

Very well said Simon!

Great session with great information

This has been fantastic! Thank you! Looking forward to the next two!

Thanks for mentioning student and community voice

DebtCollective.org

Thank you so much for a great conversation! Very interested in connecting with others looking to advocate for affordability in the next session. Sarah.Jensen@commitpartnership.org

Thanks to everyone. To answer the earlier, important, question, my average debt data did not include for-profit schools. I will footnote the slides and make them available.

Thank you all for such a great session!

Thank you all for this amazing session!

Thank you all!