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The Billionaire Who Promised to Pay Off Student Loans for an Entire Graduating Class Just Pledged to Pay Off Their Parents' Educational Loans, Too

September 21, 2019

Last May, billionaire Robert F. Smith announced he'd be setting up a grant to wipe out the entire Morehouse College class of 2019's student-loan debt.

Now that offer has been expanded to also cover those students' parents' education debt.

Robert F. Smith / Getty Images

According to the press release, Smith will make the donation to Morehouse's new Student Success Program, which will in turn completely pay off all federal student loans borrowed by the 400 Morehouse students who graduated in May, nearly all of whom are black men, as well as loans owed by their parents and legal guardians.

The gift will cost Smith $34 million.

"This liberation gift from Robert Smith — the first of its kind to be announced at a graduation in higher education — will be life-changing for our new Morehouse Men and their families," Morehouse College President David A. Thomas said in a statement. "It is our hope that our graduates will use their newfound financial freedom to pursue their career goals, to lead and serve the community, and to remember the spirit of the gift given to them by paying it forward to support the education of future classes of Morehouse Men."