The nationwide spread of student debt default is growing worse with time, according to a new report from the Brookings Institution, and black students are especially economically vulnerable.

More than 1 in 4 borrowers currently default on their student loans, and the author warns that if current trends persist, the rate could skyrocket over the next few years.

The report, authored by Columbia Teachers College professor Judith Scott-Clayton, uses federal Education Department data on student debt and repayment released last year.

White college graduates who didn’t attend for-profit schools defaulted at among the lowest rates of any group, just 4 percent. Black students who dropped out of a for-profit school, meanwhile, defaulted on loans at a rate of 67 percent. That’s a differential of almost 17-to-1.

The default rate for black holders of bachelor’s degrees — perhaps the safest educational investment available — is over five times as high as that of their white classmates on the commencement stage (21 percent versus 4 percent). Black BA graduates are even more likely to default than white dropouts from BA programs (21 percent versus 18 percent).

Read the full article on racial gaps in debt default by Kevin Mahnken at The 74