Broken Promises: How Debt-Financed Higher Education Rewrote America's Social Contract and Fueled a Quiet Crisis

Abstract

The U.S. student loan market stands at $1.5 trillion--the second largest consumer debt market in the country. Despite the vast size of this market and the far-reaching spillover effects of student loan debt on individuals and communities, the American higher education system increasingly relies on debt financing as the predominant mechanism by which American families pay for college. Furthermore, student loans still lack a comprehensive twenty-first century consumer protection infrastructure. Researchers and policymakers are only now beginning to acknowledge the threat runaway student debt poses to the American social contract-even as millions of borrowers across the country struggle with the consequences of this quiet crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]