Student debt
November, 2019
I was lucky enough to be born into a family of academics.
My grandmothers on both sides of my family single handedly raised their families of 4-5 children while getting their degrees, in spite of their abusive, alcoholic husbands. My mom single handedly raised her family of three children while getting her degrees, in spite of an absent, alcoholic husband. She is the first in my family to get her doctorate.
“You’re going to college,” was a household mantra. Questions about my grades and college plans came up in every family conversation. I felt as though college haunted my dreams. This looming Twilight Zone episode where we talk about how college is our “ticket out” of the lower/working class, yet somehow the middle class has shrunk 10% since the 70s(1).
We are sold this myth of the comfortable middle class, but we need to reevaluate our class system. In the words of Dana White, an equity and inclusion/social impact strategist, we do not make the cutoff for middle class(2) if we don’t own our car, home, savings, and are living paycheck to paycheck, or barely covering the minimum payment on our student loans.
I am extremely blessed to be a part of the one percent when it comes to college debt. In a world where teens are forced to join the $1.5 trillion student debt portfolio in the U.S.(3), I managed to make it out of the other side of college with no loans.
And no, this is not because my family has the kind of wealth that can support a household with multiple higher education fees. Nor is it because I scored one of the few highly competitive full-ride scholarships we all grow up hearing about. This is because my masani, my maternal grandmother, instilled in my mom the knowledge that she could go to college in the first place.
My mom attended a private ivy league college/university for her undergrad by scraping together scholarships and work-study jobs to cover tuition. She learned firsthand the backbreaking work it took to get herself through college. Since then, tuition has increased 213% for undergrads in public schools, adjusting for inflation(4). So when she had her first child she made a decision. She enrolled me and my siblings in our father’s tribe, the Ho-Chunk Nation, instead of her tribe, the Navajo Nation. From that point on, my future was all but written for me.
In Native America, there are some state/federally recognized tribes that own businesses on what lands we have left, ranging from movie theaters to casinos to gas stations. Sometimes, if the tribe is small enough (due in part to the genocidal practice of “blood quantum” requirements, or percentages of Indian Blood), they are able to provide services for their tribal members such as healthcare benefits, cultural revitalization programs, or in my case, a lump sum of money once they turn a certain age.
At 18 I was given more money than anyone in my family had previously ever held at one time. My mom had given me the rarest gift, the best chance I had at a life out of the poverty that was our generational trauma. I grew up watching her get her higher degrees, I knew how hard finding funding was for her. I gained my sense of future planning and a deep appreciation for this amazing opportunity my mother had the insight to plan for.
With this money, I chose to help my family where I could but invested most of it in my education. I also applied for FAFSA, tribal scholarships, and worked while in college. Even with the generations of preparation and all my privileges only got me to the end of my junior year. I was forced to piece together other scholarships and work three jobs with a full course load my last year of college. It was a nightmare.
With all this talk about forgiving student debt, the scam that is the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program, and all other issues coming to light, I think how far back does this go? College seems integral to my family, a generations old practice, but what has it done for us really?
I’m third generation alright. Third generation in poverty.
When I say “Third-Generation,” I don’t think “my mom went to an ivy league.” I think about how even now, my mom owes thousands in student debt for her masters from over a decade ago. When I say I am not the first in my family to go to college, I mean that my grandmother has a degree and still she won’t be able to fully retire without becoming destitute. Debt is a hard disease to shake.
My journey into higher ed always felt a little like a trust fall. I open my eyes to see rising student debt on one side and a tanking economy on the other. I jump in and hope that the future I’ve seen my aunties and grandmothers fall victim to will skip a generation, several generations. Maybe we won’t fall, but rise. Maybe we will reach a point of mutual prosperity and wellness that makes it seem like capitalism and extreme exploitation never existed in the first place. Maybe our voting power, despite operating within an outdated system, will come together. And maybe, we will collectively shift our existence onto a better path, focused on the beauty of education and not the profit we make off our children.
Maybe. I hope.
1 https://pewrsr.ch/2N1cTtk
2 Dana Vivian White, an equity & inclusion/social impact strategist at http://www.danavivianwhite.com