Sen. Doug Jones, D-AL, is spearheading an effort to investigate the disproportionate amount of student debt being carried by minorities across the United States, according to a press release issued Thursday.

In a letter co-signed by other prominent Democratic lawmakers, including Senators Elizabeth Warren, D-MA, Kamala Harris, D-CA, and Catherine Cortez-Masto, D-NM, Jones requested insight from more than 100 “stakeholders” regarding this issue.

The letter was addressed to experts in education police and leaders in business, advocacy, academia, civil rights, consumer protection and women’s issues and sought feedback on how to “help improve federal policies for student borrowers of color and make access to higher education more equitable.”

“Students of color are more likely to borrow, borrow in greater amounts, and are less likely to be able to pay down their debt than their white peers – even if they graduate,” the senators wrote in the letter. “This disproportionate debt burden can cause significant financial distress and affect their ability to build their path to the middle class, a key goal of the federal financial aid investment.”

According to the letter, “African-American and Latino students still owe more than 100 percent of their loan balance after 12 years of college entry.”

That statistic is significantly lower for white students, who owe between 47 and 70 percent during the same time frame, according to a study released by the U.S. Department of Education.

Further, the debt gap more than triples after graduation, even for minority students who earn a bachelor’s degree, due to “differences in interest accrual, graduate school borrowing, and ongoing deeper issues related to labor market discrimination, racialized economic hardships, and familial wealth.”

“These outcomes are staggering and unacceptable,” the letter states. “As members of Congress, we are committed to doing better for these students…”

The press release noted that Jones is aiming to discuss this topic and others impacting Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) in his upcoming HBCU Summit to be held Fed. 1 in Birmingham.

For Wallace Community College – Selma (WCCS) President Dr. James Mitchell, this reality is all too real, not only as a university leader but as a father who has children still paying on student loans.

Mitchell noted that at WCCS, administrators strive to provide alternate avenues for funding, such as financial aid and scholarships, so that students can avoid having to take out expensive and often predatory loans.

“It’s not a problem for our students because we don’t have loans,” Mitchell said. “We do that for this very reason.”

Despite that, Mitchell stated that some students still take out private loans to pay for their education and are often straddled with debt that can make achieving goals later in life more difficult.

“Often times, this is what causes students to not succeed at anything,” Mitchell said. “It is a big problem and it has been a big problem and something has to be done.”

Mitchell applauded the efforts of Jones and his colleagues while simultaneously criticizing the failure of past lawmakers to adequately address the problem.

“We haven’t been creative or tried to address this student loan issue,” Mitchell said. “It’s time.”

For his part, Mitchell can see a variety of ways in which legislators can step in to improve the situation and ensure that all students are able to fund their college education without being crippled with debt once they leave the classroom – more avenues for funding must be explored; more programs, such as those for education or medical students, which provide tuition reimbursement after a student graduates and works a set amount of time in a nigh-need area or field, should be implemented; actions must be taken to address “exorbitant tuitions and the schools that charge them.

“There are many creative ways to do it,” Mitchell said.