According to a new report, minorities have a harder time getting out of college debt and accumulating wealth.

Sean Higgins of the Washington Examiner has the story.

Student debt undermining advantages of college for minorities

The average black household headed by a college graduate has a median wealth of $23,000, about $160,000 less than those of their college-educated white peers, according to a study by New York’s New School found.

The finding highlights a grim aspect of the current economy: Members of minority groups who obtain higher education still lag far behind whites in accumulating wealth and obtaining financial stability.

The major driver of the income disparity reason is debt. For minorities, paying off their students loans is an even heavier burden because their parents cannot do as much to help finance their educations. As a consequence, those graduates spend more time paying off their loans, preventing them from acquiring wealth of their own, a situation that could perpetuate itself for generations to come.

“The source of the inequality is … the intergenerational transfers,” said Darrick Hamilton, a professor of economics at the New School. Public policies that have focused on higher education as the pathway to social mobility for minorities have boosted their incomes but ironically held down their median wealth, he said.