An Ohio law mandating that public colleges and universities certify student debt to the Attorney General’s office burdens students with multiple fees and high interest rates, at times doubling the debt. Students of color tend to feel the impact the most, according to findings by Policy Matters Ohio, a Cleveland-based non-profit research institute.
Among the institutions, Central State University, Ohio’s sole historically black state school, and community colleges such as Sinclair and Clark State are hardest hit by the law, according to Policy Matters’ findings, which were released Thursday. CSU and the community colleges tend to have more people of color who come from low-income families and are first-generation students, the report said.
“That is really concerning,” said Piet van Lier, a Policy Matters Ohio researcher who wrote the report.
