GREENSBORO, N.C. — Over the years, Americans have racked up more than $1.7 trillion dollars in student loans. That number is spread out over 43 million individual borrowers across the country.
Lawmakers are working on a long-term solution to help out debtors, however, for now, one of our local colleges received a pleasant surprise that relieved a large amount of stress for current and former students.
A $1.7 million dollar investment opened the door to the possibilities of 462 Bennett Belles. These current and former students have had 100% of their debts to the college, wiped completely away.
Today we spoke with Bennett College President and Chief Executive Officer, Suzanne Walsh about what this investment means to one to the school and the students.
"I think my favorite thing that has come out of this is the number of women who've said, now this debt is paid off, I want to come back to Bennett and finish my degree. That's significant because if that debt isn't paid off they don't have access to their transcripts, they don't even have access to their degrees even if they completed it."
The massive investment came from the 'Rolling Jubilee Fund'. Its mission is to buy and cancel as much student debt as possible, making education more accessible for everyone.
"So we were delighted to receive an investment from the Rolling Jubilee Fund, and it paid off almost 500 students back debt to the college."
Just to be clear, this fund didn't forgive any federal or private loans the students may have had, it only cleared up debts owed to Bennett College itself.