Burdened: Student Debt and the Making of an American Crisis

Burdened: Student Debt and the Making of an American Crisis. by Ryann Liebenthal

Student loan debt disproportionately affects women and people of color. There's a reason for that!

Ryann Liebenthal’s Burdened reveals how 1940's - 1960's progressive legislators and presidents warred with segregationist politicians, banks, and corporations over how higher education could be used to solve national security issues - first with the GI Bill, and then with student loans.

Liebenthal's research makes clear that early policy-makers, who never wanted to see black people or women gain marketable skills, fought progressive pro-education leaders in order to result in the great compromise we have now - education as a commodity, on loan, for America's poorest and most marginalized groups. While marketing pushed America's poor toward education as a pathway to economic mobility, the student loan program pushed those very same poor into irrecoverable debt.

So much for economic opportunity right?

READ THIS BOOK!

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