by Jeff Sovern
The current issue of Consumer Reports cover reads "I kind of ruined my life by going to college." Consumer Reports teamed with RevealNews.org to cover student loans. You can read the RevealNews.org coverage here. Here's the upsetting beginning:
A generation ago, Congress privatized a student loan program intended to give more Americans access to higher education.
In its place, lawmakers created another profit center for Wall Street and a system of college finance that has fed the nation’s cycle of inequality. Step by step, Congress has enacted one law after another to make student debt the worst kind of debt for Americans – and the best kind for banks and debt collectors.
Today, just about everyone involved in the student loan industry makes money off students – the banks, private investors, even the federal government.
College is today's ticket to the middle class–which means that for many, entrance to the middle class comes only by assuming "the worst kind of debt." I wonder: the community of consumer law professors is so small: are there any law professors who specialize in studying student loans? There certainly should be; the area is ripe for study.
Both Rafael Pardo and Aaron Taylor have done some work on the issue from a bankruptcy perspective.