Colleges across the nation are struggling to confront a growing problem in higher education: student debt. As more students borrow more money than ever before, and recent graduates enter the worst job market in a generation, students are increasingly unable to pay back their loans. This report discusses the growing problem of students defaulting on their student loans. Based on the experiences of a small group of Texas HBCUs and a new statistical analysis of cohort default rates, the authors argue that institutions play a significant role in helping students avoid default. The experiences of these 12 HBCUs disputes two arguments often used by colleges, particularly for-profit institutions, to lobby against the default rate measure: (1) the cohort default rate is primarily a reflection of the demographics of students enrolled and not institutional practice; and (2) the rate unfairly punishes schools that enroll high numbers of low-income students. The Methodology and Results of Analysis of Cohort Default Rates are appended to this report. (Contains 11 tables, 2 figures, and 42 endnotes.)