Appeal for college funds draws mixed reaction

weren’t enough to cover all her expenses. To at least be able to move into her dorm, they needed to come up with $4,000.

Downs tried to get a federal Parent Plus loan, but she was denied because of an unpaid student loan of her own. A veteran, Downs says she had exhausted the financial aid available to her under the GI Bill. So she had taken out a student loan to help make it through a graduate program.

“I definitely take full responsibility,” Downs said. “I should have been far more aware of everything.”

The single mother pleaded for assistance on her Facebook page. Mother and daughter also did an interview on a local Indianapolis TV station. And Downs, who is an educator, created a GoFundMe campaign.

With no scholarships or grants, Martinique and her mother are looking at a price tag of just over $179,000 for four years at this historically black college.

By midafternoon on Aug. 14, the GoFundMe campaign alone had raised more than $7,600. One woman reached Downs through Facebook and then sent $4,000 directly to Spelman. Martinique was then cleared to move in.

I’ve got mixed feelings about this feel- good story.

Despite the generosity of strangers, I’ve seen this before: families who passionately believe that the money will come, and when it doesn’t, they are left to do some heavy borrowing.

This family’s saga also highlights the financial hardship of getting a college education, especially for women and particularly for African-American women.

Women hold almost twothirds of the country’s $1.4 trillion student debt, according to a recent report from the American Association of University Women.

Black women graduate with the most college debt, ending up with an average of $30,400 in debt compared with $22,000 for white women and $19,500 for white men, the association said.

Downs and her daughter represent the many Americans who feel they have no choice but to take out student loans for a chance to advance economically.

“While we cannot comment on specific situations for any of our students, Spelman is always mindful that there are many talented young women who are unable to meet their dreams of obtaining a college degree because of finances,” Ingrid W. Hayes, Spelman’s vice president for enrollment management, said in an email.

I’m concerned about what happens after this story stops trending.

Downs says she’s arranging to get current on her defaulted loan. Once she does that, she is willing to borrow as much as needed to keep her daughter at Spelman.

“I know God got me,” Downs said, tearing up. “So, if I go into debt ... I just have so much faith that God is going to provide for us.”

But as a woman of faith myself, I know the Bible also says that borrowing makes you a slave to the lender.