Two Birmingham students have received national recognition for their documentary about educators’ student loan debt.
Ramsay IB High School seniors Jacari Dillard and Erial Malone are second-prize winners in C-SPAN’s student documentary competition. Each will receive $1,500 for their documentary, “The Two Trillion Dollar Crisis,” which aired April 14.
Their video highlights the significant debt incurred by their teachers and principals due to student loans.
“I was very excited to film these teachers at our school,” Malone said.
One educator featured is their assistant principal, Ja’Net Sharpe, who said she has $191,000 in student loan debt. Other educators referenced debt up to $200,000.
“We saw a lot of questions about student debt not only in our school and our family, but also in ourselves, because we’re going to college, but also it was a larger picture because, you know, in the news, all you see is information about Biden student loan forgiveness,” Dillard said.
The students entered the competition last year, too. Their video, “Inflation, A Losing Game,” earned third-place, showing their creativity and validating their ability to make award-winning films.
Malone and Dillard said they hope their documentary reaches policymakers and helps them understand the importance of student loan debt and, hopefully, find a solution.
“I hope it touches the screens of some policy makers to make sure that they understand that student loans are truly affecting not only the generation that they’re in but the next generation and the current generation that is going to college. So it needs to be some change lifted, especially with everything that’s going on with the Free Application for Student Aid right now. This is crazy,” Dillard said.
In Birmingham, C-SPAN is available locally through Spectrum.