PP2
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Sure it does. If that wasn't the case, you wouldn't have gains and increases with multiple ethnicities closing the gap on white students with post secondary enrollment and education.
That's a part of the age we live in - data analysis. Companies pull advanced data and analytics about the customers with whom they do business. In that vein, I can't blame them for taking into account the median income of the neighborhood the person is living in nor their race. Their analytics will show payback rates and periods of similar people with whom they've done business with in the past. If someone is requesting a $60k loan and their neighborhood shows a median income of $30k, why should the bank lend them that money?
It's only the exception rather than the norm because most people aren't willing to patiently wait, go through the process, take advantage of it, take longer doing it, and work while they do it. Per a Time Magazine article dated 4/25/16, roughly 60% of employers nation-wide offer tuition reimbursement programs with similar caps to what my company has. That means that the majority of employers, on average, in any given area of the country, offer reimbursement programs of some sort. That's because advanced analytics show the benefits to companies of such programs. More here: Paying Their Workers' College Tuition Can Pay Off for Companies
Oh, I don't need to Google it. I went that route for a good reason. As I said before, it would have been much less stressful on me at the time to simply go the federal loan route and become a full time student. But I didn't want to rack up that debt because, by the time I got out, I was going to be in my late 20's and wasn't sure what direction my life was going to take me in at that time (I.E., marriage, house buying, car payments, etc.) coupled with the fact that I already had some loan debt from my previous foray in college for a job that I had quickly become disenchanted by. That said, they are available and the majority of students that wish to take advantage of them. Roughly 70% of students nationwide graduate with student loan debt. It's not optimal, but it is a way out should you wish to take it.
But, getting back to a previous point, I have a hard time squaring the fact that roughly 60% of employers (and this number is supposedly increasing with analytics that show the benefits of offering reimbursement programs) offer tuition reimbursement and yet 70% of graduate and undergraduate students hold about $1.5 trillion in student loan debt. Why? The only conclusion that I can come to is that it's because taking out loan debt is the easier path of the two. But, again, those are two ways through higher education and out of poverty. The other is through scholarships, which you address below...
Sounds like an interesting read and I would like to research it a bit more when I have time. That being said, that data is between 10 and 14 years old, from what I can tell. A lot changes in a decade. I went to look up more recent data from the U.S. department of education and here were a few things that stood out...
However...
Simply put, we wouldn't see these kinds of gains if the system was designed to keep people (and specifically minorities) in poverty.
The mere fact that you had to go through a lot simply to get the education you wanted is evidence enough that the system works against you, not for you.
Why is college student debt even such a thing? Why does this country punish people for trying to learn? Trying to succeed?
Wouldn't producing smart people keep this country on top, economy-wise?
And no, it's not a matter of money. This country spent $14 trillion over 18 years on two completely useless wars that have achieved absolutely nothing. Just ask my friend, a photojournalist who recently went to Kabul on a photo op (she was hired by the military to paint a "Situation Normal" picture) and came back very disenchanted. Unfortunately because of the NDA she signed with them, she can't share her opinions.