The Subprime Student Loan Racket

For-profit colleges draw from poor and working-class populations, yet these students incur three times the amount of debt -- $30,000 -- as students who graduate from public colleges and community colleges and are much more likely to take out costly private loans. Furthermore, the median graduation rate at for-profit colleges is a low 38 percent, and job prospects for graduates of these less-prestigious institutions are far from robust.

New America Foundation's Stephen Burd examines the lobbying efforts of the for-profit education industry and how it has pushed costly private loans on students to a detrimental effect in a new Washington Monthly article, "The Subprime Student Loan Racket."

Full article: http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2009/0911.burd.html

Please contact Kate Brown with press inquiries at 202-596-3365 or brown@newamerica.net.

About the New America Foundation
The New America Foundation is a nonprofit, nonpartisan public policy institute that invests in new thinkers and new ideas to address the next generation of challenges facing the United States.

Learn More About: Stephen Burd
Related Programs: Education Policy Program, Higher Ed Watch, Student Loans
Topics: Education