A01=Eric Best
A01=Joel Best
american dream
Author_Eric Best
Author_Joel Best
Category=JNKG
Category=JNM
college
college costs
college education
college students
crushing debt
deadbeat students
defaulting on debts
economic crisis
economy
education
eq_bestseller
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
father and son team
federal education legislation
finances
financial aid
for profit colleges
former banker
higher education
loans
money
mortgage meltdown
political
retrospective
social concerns
sociologist
student loan debts
student loan disaster
student loan policies
students and schools
teachers and faculty
university
wealth
Product details
- ISBN 9780520276451
- Weight: 499g
- Dimensions: 152 x 229mm
- Publication Date: 02 May 2014
- Publisher: University of California Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Hardback
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This illuminating investigation uncovers the full dimensions of the student loan disaster. A father and son team--one a best-selling sociologist, the other a former banker and current quantitative researcher--probe how we've reached the point at which student loan debt--now exceeding $1 trillion and predicted to reach $2 trillion by 2020--threatens to become the sequel to the mortgage meltdown. In spite of their good intentions, Americans have allowed concerns about deadbeat students, crushing debt, exploitative for-profit colleges, and changing attitudes about the purpose of college education to blind them to a growing crisis. With college costs climbing faster than the cost of living, how can access to higher education remain a central part of the American dream? With more than half of college students carrying an average debt of $27,000 at graduation, what are the prospects for young adults in the current economy? Examining how we've arrived at and how we might extricate ourselves from this grave social problem, The Student Loan Mess is a must-read for everyone concerned about the future of American education.
Hard facts about the student loan crisis: * Student loan debt is rising by more than $100 billion every year and is likely to reach $2 trillion by 2020. * Among recent college students who are supposed to be repaying their loans, more than a third are delinquent. * Because student loans cannot be discharged through bankruptcy, the federal government misleadingly treats student loan debt as a government asset. * Higher default rates, spiraling college costs, and proposals for more generous terms for student borrowers make it increasingly likely that student loan policies will eventually cost taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars.
Joel Best is Professor of Sociology and Criminal Justice at the University of Delaware and author of Damned Lies and Statistics, Stat-Spotting, and Everyone's a Winner, all from UC Press. Eric Best is Assistant Professor of Emergency Management at Jacksonville State University.
