Student Debt in the US

By Lucia Valente July 2019

I read The Guardian Newspaper daily. It has a range of excellent journalists and opinion writers. I support The Guardian because it is a non-profit newspaper with a long history of excellence in journalism.

Recently I read an article by Ross Barkan about the ‘quiet war on education’ being undertaken by the current US administration.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/jun/14/trump-betsy-devos-education-quiet-war

Ross Barkan

A few highlights from the article: Research has shown that for-profit colleges disproportionately enroll black students, single parents, older students and those who did not follow the traditional path through secondary school and higher education. For-profit schools spend aggressively on advertising to rope students in, promising new skills and a quick return on investment.

“Without regulation, there are few consequences for saddling students with unsustainable debt and limited incentives for even pushing them to graduate”

Yet for-profit schools are usually more expensive, have lower graduation rates and entice students to take out more loans they are likely to default on. The not-for-profit status most educational institutions carry isn’t just a tax designation. It accords a distinct mandate to an institution, certifying its primary purpose: to educate, not deliver returns to shareholders and investors.

“…the Trump/DeVos vision of American education: unshackle the rich and let them turn a profit at the expense of working-class students desperate to better themselves.”

What a contrast to the mission and vision of CCN and our non-profit, Loss of Generality. We are committed to providing top quality education to students at reasonable cost. Education, at any level and for most subject specialties, should not result in crushing debt and at the same time, should not take several years. Education, in many ways, has lost focus on its core ethos – placing students first.

CCN’s education model works – it is cost effective, time effective, top quality, aligned to the way in which modern students want to learn, with direct correlations between study time and subject mastery. When I read articles like this, I am saddened because there are better solutions to what is being foisted on the American public. In the US, profit is first and students are last.