The College Affordability Crisis (21st-Century Turning Points)

This volume provides a comprehensive and evenhanded overview of the escalating college affordability crisis in the United States. It explains how higher education became so expensive and explores the implications of high college loan debt for students and American society.The 21st Century Turning Point series is a one-stop resource for understanding the people and events changing America today. Each volume provides readers with a clear authoritative and unbiased understanding of a single issue or event that is driving national debate about our countrys leaders institutions values and priorities.This particular volume is devoted to the issue of the rising cost of higher education in the United States. The expense of pursuing a college degree has become so high for so many students in fact that the country is experiencing what many educators economists parents and students describe as a college affordability crisis. This work provides an accessible accurate account of the factors driving this trend including dramatic reductions in higher education spending by states; for-profit colleges; predatory unscrupulous and lightly regulated student loan service companies; and spiraling spending by colleges and universities competing to attract students.Entries devoted to specific events and milestones related to the student loan crisisBiographical profiles of important lawmakers public officials and reformersEssays that explore the lasting impact of the college affordability crisis on students families institutions of higher education and American society as a wholeAnnotated bibliography of sources for further study