Hartford Has a Solution to the Student Debt Crisis

COMMENTARY

America is facing a student debt crisis. Over the past 50 years, college tuition has tripled and over the past two decades student loan debt has doubled — creating an economic storm that is stifling our nation’s economic growth. 

This storm is only intensifying and may soon turn into a true economic disaster — as the federal government this week resumed collections for millions of borrowers in default.

We must stop this madness.

In Hartford, Connecticut, we are facing this crisis by trying something new: We’re offering students in our city’s public schools a debt-free pathway to college — one that will help many of our most talented scholars graduate with zero debt and help significantly reduce the financial burden for many others.

We believe this approach offers a path forward for reframing the conversation — offering a model for the public sector to partner with philanthropy and the private sector to prepare a new generation of Americans to enter the work force without being saddled with student debt in the first place.

The Greater Futures Scholarship Fund, unveiled this spring, provides qualifying graduates of Hartford Public Schools up to $100,000 over four years. Scholars also receive up to 10 years of wraparound support from Hartford Promise, a nonprofit with a proven approach for supporting scholars as they pursue their education.

The scale of this initiative is unlike any other we’ve encountered. And we believe it has the potential to spark a powerful shift, encouraging families to plant roots in our city, enroll their children in public schools, and become champions for their success.

To qualify, students must be Hartford residents, attend a Hartford public school continuously since ninth grade, have a 93% or better attendance record, and achieve at least a 3.0 cumulative GPA. That’s it.

More than 110 students from the city’s upcoming class of 2025 have met this threshold — and many of their families have already shared powerful stories about how this investment is changing what’s possible for their children.

Many are future first-generation college students who have been working multiple part-time jobs through high school to help their families pay the bills. They are budding forensic pathologists, engineers and entrepreneurs who can attend the colleges of their choice without having to worry about starting out with six-figures’ worth of debt.

The Hartford Foundation has committed $20 million to help launch and sustain this initiative, which will cover $20,000 of the annual cost for each student’s scholarship. That investment is augmented by a commitment from Hartford Promise, which in addition to the wraparound services is providing each student with $5,000 annually.

Hartford’s business community is seeing the value of this program as an investment in our workforce and economy — with companies such as CVS Health/Aetna, The Hartford, Bank of America, Travelers, Liberty Bank Foundation and Fairview Capital Partners already pledging more than $6 million to expand the foundation’s initial support.

We’re doing this because incremental, yet immediate action is likely the only way we can begin to address a spiraling problem. 

There is ample culpability to be shared among colleges and universities, policymakers and lenders. And yes, students and families also bear some responsibility in making decisions about the schools they choose to attend and how they plan to pay tuition.

Whether we muster the collective political courage and will to fully address this crisis remains to be seen. Nevertheless, we face an unsustainable problem that is crippling our students, and by extension our communities. Let’s stop punishing our promising students for the failures of their “leaders.”

Instead, let’s have communities take the lead in opening doors of opportunity to current and future generations of graduates by ensuring they enter the workforce without a massive yoke of debt. In turn, we can unleash a ripple effect of benefits — giving graduates needed capital that will stimulate business and economic growth, increase home ownership rates and create stronger local economies where talented young professionals will work, lead and invest.

Philanthropy, businesses and local and state government have an opportunity to co-invest in similar community-based efforts to help students succeed in high school, college and beyond.

That’s exactly what’s happening in Connecticut, where our state Senate has approved a bill that will study the needs of students in our state and strategies for expanding programs like the Greater Futures Fund.

At a time when our federal government is pulling back investments in our young people, let’s go even farther by expanding the Hartford model to create community-based solutions in states across the country.

If even an incremental solution to this crisis is within our grasp, we believe we owe it to these students to pursue that solution with alacrity.

Anything less is unacceptable. 

Jay Williams is president and CEO of the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving. He formerly served as assistant secretary of Commerce for Economic Development and as mayor of Youngstown, Ohio. He can be reached by email.