Racial & Economic Justice
Household debt and predatory actors are widening racial and economic wealth gaps.
Household debt is crushing economically vulnerable communities and communities of color; it is both a cause and a consequence of America’s persistent racial wealth divide and a driver of economic distress. Protect Borrowers is committed to exposing the ways that debt prevents historically marginalized groups from building generational wealth and protecting consumers from predatory actors who profit by threatening the financial well-being of marginalized people.
What We’re Doing
Protect Borrowers is exposing discrimination and predatory industries that saddle communities of color with debt in exchange for the promise of a better life. We investigate and report on predatory for-profit lenders, firms, and schools that take advantage of underserved communities through predatory inclusion and discriminatory practices. Through innovative advocacy and the novel application of legal tools, Protect Borrowers is working to address discrimination in the market and demonstrate how protecting borrowers is critical to advancing racial equity and economic justice.
By The Numbers
2.6x more likely to fall behind
A borrower in a majority-minority neighborhood is 2.6 times more likely to fall behind on their student loans than a borrower in a majority-white neighborhood.
5x more likely to fall behind
A borrower in a 90 percent-minority neighborhood is 5 times more likely to fall behind on their student loans than a borrower in the whitest areas.
2x as likely
For-profit schools are roughly twice as likely to set up in majority Latino or majority Black zip codes as compared to majority white zip codes.
more than doubled
In Atlanta, the number of borrowers—especially borrowers in majority-Black zip codes with non-declining balances, or runaway debt—has more than doubled over the past decade.
2/3 of Black Borrowers
Nationally, approximately two-thirds of Black borrowers see balances climb 12 years after beginning college, compared to only 1-in-9 white borrowers.
Featured Work
In The Field
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EXPLORE OUR OTHER WORK
Workplace Debt & Labor Exploitation
Every year, tens of millions of Americans leave their jobs. But for many of them, this can come with a surprise: a bill. That’s because more employers are relying on “stay-or-pay” contracts to trap workers, requiring them to pay a penalty if they leave a job. If left unchecked, stay-or-pay contracts have the potential to leave workers buried in debt just for taking a better opportunity or for having to quit a job to navigate personal hardship.
FREE COLLEGE
It’s time to deliver a truly public, debt-free system and accountability for those who profit off the status quo, deny opportunity, and push borrowers further into debt.
Predatory Lending & Private Credit
We believe that opportunity should not come with a lifetime of debt. We are fighting to hold private companies accountable, demanding justice for families, and rewriting the rules that shape how private credit is extended, serviced, collected, and reported across the economy.
Public Corruption & Attacks On Public Power
Working families’ last defense against debt traps is often the federal agencies responsible for holding corporations accountable and enforcing the rules that govern our economy. Protect Borrowers will continue to expose public corruption and aggressively pursue the officials responsible for looting the federal government to the benefit of billionaires and the biggest corporations.
federal student loans
Even with extremists in power, we can still defend borrowers from attempts to sabotage existing relief programs, make servicing companies follow the rules, and expose predatory practices that keep people in debt.
State & Local Projects
We support state and local efforts to ensure we have a safe and well-regulated economy that works for everyone across the country by helping legislatures enact new laws, providing technical assistance as agencies implement and enforce these laws, and training local offices to provide services to their communities.