E1: INDENTURED STUDENTS
A number of scholars including Elizabeth Shermer, PhD, author of INDENTURED STUDENTS: How Government Guaranteed Loans Left Generations Drowning in Debt, help unravel why the cost of college has risen so dramatically in the 21st Century. It’s actually decades in the making. Viewers discover how a privatized lending system derail a once public good. Consumer protections mysteriously disappear from student loans in 1998, permitting Congress and college presidents to raise the cost of tuition well passed the rate of inflation. Education, once the pathway to moving up the economic ladder, becomes a direct burden to millions of Americans — with only the guarantee going to the banks. This debt transfers to family members, impacting women and people of color disproportionately, leaving three generations drowning in debt. The debt ball grows to $1.8 Trillion, what some call a uniquely “American catastrophe.”