The man who paid off the student debt of 400 Morehouse College graduates has a new initiative to help borrowers – Market Watch
Billionaire Robert Smith’s new plan to help historically black colleges and university students pay for college
Last year, billionaire Robert Smith shocked roughly 400 graduates of Morehouse College (and the world) when he announced that he would pay off their student debt.
Now, he’s back with an initiative he says will address the challenges Black student-loan borrowers face on a broader scale. Through a nonprofit, called the Student Freedom Initiative, Smith is aiming to “create a sustainable, pay-it-forward model,” for funding higher education, he told TIME in an interview.
Smith plans to do this by helping students pay for college through what SFI calls income-contingent funding. Essentially, a participant would agree to repay the money as a percentage of their income over a certain period of time.
The organization is still in the process of determining the terms of the financing, which will be offered initially to juniors and seniors studying science, technology, engineering and math at 11 Historically Black Colleges and Universities starting in fall 2021.