Melanie Hanson, Student Loan Debt by Race.  Continually updated.  Very important and helpful statistics.  As of Dec 12, 2021:  “Black and African American college graduates owe an average of $25,000 more in student loan debt than White college graduates.  Four years after graduation, 48% of Black students owe an average of 12.5% more than they borrowed. Black and African American student borrowers are the most likely to struggle financially due to student loan debt, with 29% making monthly payments of $350 or more. 54% of all student loan debt is held by White and Caucasian student borrowers. Asian college graduates are fastest to repay their loan debt and the most likely to earn a salary that exceeds their student loan debt balance.”

Thomas C. Hunt, The National Defense Education Act of 1958 (Encyclopedia Britannica) the legislation that kicked off student loan programs coordinated by the federal government, to engage the Soviets in the "space race" after they launched Sputnik.

Post Secondary Opportunity, College Enrollment by Age: 1950 to 2000 (PostSecondary website)

Princeton Brookings, The Future of Children (website)

U.S. Census Bureau, Educational Attainment Over Time (website)

Ian Ayres, Colleges in Collusion (originally in The New Republic, Oct 1989)

Anthony DePalma, Ivy Universities Deny Price-Fixing But Agree to Avoid It in the Future. New York Times, May 23, 1991.

Andy Kroll, Steve Eisman’s Next Big Short: For-Profit Colleges. Mother Jones, May 27, 2010.  Eisman was one of the financiers behind the 2008 financial crisis, who profited by shorting the housing market. This same Eisman said in May 2010, “Until recently, I thought that there would never again be an opportunity to be involved with an industry as socially destructive and morally bankrupt as the subprime mortgage industry. I was wrong. The for-profit education industry has proven equal to the task.”

Richard D. Kahlenberg, 10 Myths About Legacy Preferences in College Admissions. Chronicle of Higher Education, Sep 22, 2010.

Thomas Frank, The Price of Admission. Originally in Harper's Magazine, Jun 2012.

Dan Caplinger, Private Student Loans are the Subprime Mortgages of the College World. Daily Finance, Jul 20, 2012.

Bruce Watson, Why College May Not Be the Best Choice for Your Education Dollar. Daily Finance, Aug 9, 2012.

Noam Chomsky, The Corporatization of the University. youtube video, Jul 12, 2013.

Scott Jaschik, Meritocracy or Bias? White Definitions of Merit and Admissions Change When They Think About Asian Americans. Insider HigherEd, Aug 13, 2013.

Rodney Carmichael, Is White Student Disengagement a Problem at Georgia State University? Fresh Loaf, Sep 5, 2013.

Sarah Kendizor, The Immorality of College Admissions: Wealth is the Overriding Factor for College Admissions... Aljazeera, Oct 29, 2013.

Samantha Stainburn, Catching Up on the Bennett Hypothesis. New York Times, Nov 1, 2013.

Julie J. Park, Black Men at UCLA: The Devastating Effects of Proposition 209. Huffington Post, Nov 18, 2013.

Donald J. Farish, The Jobs of Tomorrow Require a College Degree - or Do They? Roger Williams University, Dec 3, 2013.

Jon Marcus, New Analysis Shows Problematic Boom in Higher Ed Administrators. Huffington Post, Feb 6, 2014.

Anthony Carnevale, Too Many College Grads - Or Too Few? PBS, Feb 21, 2014.

Tamar Lewin, Student Debt Grows Faster at Universities with Highest-Paid Leaders, Study Finds. New York Times, May 18, 2014.

Ronan Keenan, What's Behind America's Soaring College Costs? The Atlantic, Apr 10, 2014.

New York Times, Student Loan Calculator. New York Times, May 16, 2014.

Maggie McGrath, The Invisible Force Behind College Admissions. Forbes, Jul 30, 2014.

Ron Unz, The Myth of American Meritocracy: How Corrupt Are Ivy League Admissions? The American Conservative, Nov 28, 2012.  A very lengthy, data-driven article

Libby Nelson, 3 Maps That Show School Segregation in the US. Vox, Aug 28, 2014.  Data from 2011-12

Robert Reich, College is a Ludicrous Waste of Money. Salon, Sep 3, 2014.

John Oliver, Student Debt. Last Week Tonight, Sep 7, 2014.  Focuses on for-profit schools.

David Leonhardt, The Most Economically Diverse Top Colleges. New York Times, Sep 9, 2014.

Catherine Rampell, The College Degree Has Become the New High School Degree. Washington Post, Sep 9, 2014.  Badly titled, but good references about the labor market.

Anya Kamenetz, These People Can Make Student Loans Disappear. NPR, Sep 17, 2014.

Susan Dynarski, Why Federal College Ratings Won't Rein in Tuition. New York Times, Sep 20, 2014.

Josephine Goube, German Universities Now All Free of Tuition Fees for International Students. Migreat Blog, Oct 2, 2014.

Rick Noack, 7 Countries Where Americans Can Study At Universities, in English, For Free (or Almost Free). Washington Post, Oct 29, 2014.

Reina A. E. Gattuso, Dude, Why the Legacy Preference? End Legacy Preference, Increase Equity of Access. Harvard Crimson, Nov 24, 2014.

Lani Guinier, Ivy League’s Meritocracy Lie: How Harvard and Yale Cook the Books for the 1 Percent. Salon, Jan 11, 2015.

Tim Donovan, Student Loan Breakthrough? Why a New Victory Has Lessons for Stopping the Madness. Salon, Feb 17, 2015.

Alia Wong, The Downfall of For-Profit Colleges. The Atlantic, Feb 23, 2015.

Paul F. Campos, The Real Reason College Tuition Costs So Much. New York Times, Apr 4, 2015.  Notes bloated administration but not info asymmetry

Brooke Lea Foster, What Is It Like to Be Poor at an Ivy-League School? Boston Globe, Apr 9, 2015.

Janet Lorin, Fed: People With Old Student Loans Are Struggling to Pay Them Back. Bloomberg, Apr 16, 2015.

Tyler S.B. Olkowski, Study Proposes Excise Tax on Harvard’s Endowment. Harvard Crimson, Apr 22, 2015.

Diane Ravitch, David Brooks Gets Everything Wrong (Again). blog, Mar 6, 2015.  criticizing Brooks' resistance to labor stats and redistribution

Mark Baeurlein, What's the Point of a Professor? New York Times, May 9, 2015.

The Hechinger Report, Which Vocational Degrees Pay Off? US News, May 18, 2015.

Abby Jackson, Malcolm Gladwell Just Went Nuts on a Wall Street Billionaire's $400 Million Donation to Harvard. Business Insider, Jun 3, 2015.

Dylan Matthews, Malcolm Gladwell Mercilessly Mocks John Paulson’s Obscene $400 Million Gift to Harvard. Vox, Jun 3, 2015.

Victoria M. Massie, White Women Benefit Most from Affirmative Action - and Are Among Its Fiercest Critics. Vox, Jun 23, 2016.

Kevin Carey, A Quiet Revolution in Helping Lift the Burden of Student Debt. New York Times, Jun 24, 2015.  income-based loan repayment

David O. Lucca, Taylor Nadauld, and Karen Shen, Credit Supply and the Rise in College Tuition: Evidence from the Expansion in Federal Student Aid Programs. Federal Reserve Bank of New York Staff Reports, Jul 2015.

Bonnie Kristian, Study: Federal Student Loans Increase Tuition, Not Enrollment. The Week, Jul 7, 2015.

Danielle Douglas-Gabriel, These 20 Schools Are Responsible for a Fifth of All Graduate School Debt (Washington Post, Jul 9, 2015.

Kevin Carey, The Fundamental Way Universities Are an Illusion. New York Times, Jul 23, 2015.

George Anders, That 'Useless' Liberal Arts Degree Has Become Tech's Hottest Ticket. Forbes, Jul 29, 2015.

Nikole Hannah-Jones, The Continuing Reality of Segregated Schools. New York Times Magazine, Jul 31, 2015.

Nikole Hannah-Jones, The Problem We All Live With - Part 1. This American Life WBEZ, Jul 31, 2015.  school districts of Normandy and Ferguson, Missouri.

Libby Nelson, This American Life Explains Why School Segregation Still Exists - and Is So Hard to Change. Vox, Aug 3, 2015.  About racial tensions about school integration in Ferguson and Missouri; why segregation has been rising since 1988

Nikole Hannah-Jones, The Problem We All Live With - Part 2. This American Life WBEZ, Aug 7, 2015.  Hartford CT schools integration efforts; interview with Arne Duncan, Secretary of Education.

Victor Fleischer, Stop Universities from Hoarding Money. New York Times, Aug 19, 2015.

Abby Jackson, Malcolm Gladwell Unloads on Yale for Reportedly Paying $480 Million to Hedge Fund Managers Last Year. Business Insider, Aug 19, 2015.

NPR Staff, In Elite Schools' Vast Endowments, Malcolm Gladwell Sees 'Obscene' Inequity. NPR, Aug 22, 2015.

Chris Kirk, Just How Rich Are America’s Richest Universities? A Quiz. Slate, Sep 7, 2015.

Jordan Weissman, Is It Time to Tax Harvard’s Endowment? Slate, Sep 7, 2015.

Adam Davidson, Is College Tuition Really Too High? New York Times Magazine, Sep 8, 2015.

Kyle Clauss, How Much Do Debt-Strapped Graduates of Boston’s Universities Make? Boston Magazine, Sep 14, 2015.

Annie Waldman and Sisi Wei, The Rich Schools That Leave Poor Students Stuck With Debt. The Atlantic, Sep 15, 2015.

Libby Nelson, What Scotland Learned From Making College Tuition Free. Vox, Oct 22, 2015.

Jillian Berman, Elizabeth Warren: This Report's a Stunning Indictment of the Department of Education. MarketWatch, Mar 2, 2016.

Zoe Williams, The Party's Over for Young People, Debt Laden and Risk Averse. Guardian, Mar 13, 2016.

Goodbye Loans, For Profit Education is Failing, Here's Why. Goodbye Loans, Mar 21, 2016.

Brook Larmer, The Long March from China to the Ivies. 1843 Magazine, April-May 2016.

Rochelle Sharpe, Why Upperclassmen Lose Financial Aid. New York Times, Apr 6, 2016.

Rachel L. Swarns and Sona Patel, 'A Million Questions' From Descendants of Slaves Sold to Aid Georgetown. New York Times, May 20, 2016.

Kathy Orton, Student Loan Debt is Hurting the Housing Market, Survey Finds. Washington Post, Jun 13, 2016.

James B. Steele and Lance Williams, Who Got Rich Off the Student Debt Crisis?  Reveal News, June 28, 2016.  Steele and Williams narrate the history of these policies and institutions.  “The federal government holds roughly 90 percent of the $1.3 trillion in outstanding student loans. That makes the Department of Education effectively one of the world’s largest banks, but one that rarely deals with its customers. That job has been turned over to private contractors that are paid commissions and sometimes bonuses to collect on student loans… Private equity funds controlled by JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Citigroup bought established debt collection firms, as did a fund led by one of Mitt Romney’s former partners at Bain Capital. Some family-owned debt collectors, such as NCO Financial Systems, became hot properties and would be sold to one private equity fund after another. Today, 1 in 4 borrowers are behind in their payments, with nearly 8 million in default.”

Andrew Donohue, The Takeaway: How Privatization Changed the Student Loan Game. Reveal News, Jun 28, 2016.

Reveal News, Who's Getting Rich Off Your Student Debt? Reveal News, Jul 2, 2016.

Susan Dynarski, America Can Fix Its Student Loan Crisis. Just Ask Australia. New York Times, Jul 9, 2016.  income-based loan repayment

Christopher Nelson, The Lie That Is The Student Debt Crisis. The Imaginative Conservative, Aug, 2016.   An unusual take, narrowly focused.

Jon Gorey, How Student Loan Debt Causes a Chain Reaction in the Housing Market. Boston Globe, Sep 30, 2016.

Jon Marcus, The Reason Behind Colleges' Ballooning Bureaucracies. The Atlantic, Oct 6, 2016.

Jon Marcus, Germany Proves Tuition-Free College Is Not Silver Bullet for America's Education Woes. Quartz, Oct 18, 2016.

Rochelle Sharpe, Those Hidden College Fees. New York Times, Nov 3, 2016.

Ramesh Ponnuru, The Big Threat on Campus Isn't Political Correctness. The State, Dec 9, 2016.

Zach Carter, The Student Debt Crisis Is Driving Elderly People Into Poverty. Huffington Post, Dec 20, 2016.

Gregor Aisch, Larry Buchanan, Amanda Cox and Kevin Quealy, Some Colleges Have More Students From the Top 1 Percent Than the Bottom 60. Find Yours. New York Times, Jan 18, 2017.

Stacy Cowley and Jessica Silver-Greenberg, Loans ‘Designed to Fail’: States Say Navient Preyed on Students. New York Times, Apr 9, 2017.

Melody Gutierrez, Auditor Rips UC for Keeping Millions in Secret Fund. San Francisco Gate, Apr 25, 2017.

Stacy Cowley, 18 States Sue Betsy DeVos Over Student Loan Protections. New York Times, Jul 6, 2017.  Regarding for-profit colleges and student loan trickery

Melinda D. Anderson, Why the Myth of Meritocracy Hurts Kids of Color. The Atlantic, Jul 27, 2017.

Rann Miller, Why the NAACP Said "Enough" to School Privatization. Salon, Aug 9, 2017.

Michelle Singletary, Don't Spend More Than You Can Afford for Your Child's Education. Boston Globe, Jan 6, 2018.

Arielle Gray, I Couldn’t Afford To Pay My Student Loans. Then I Received A Warrant For My Arrest. Huffington Post, Jun 22, 2018.  Highlights many of the dangers of student loan arrangements.

Tara Siegel Bernard, ‘Too Little Too Late’: Bankruptcy Booms Among Older Americans. New York Times, Aug 5, 2018.  Because parents are sharing more in the student loans of their children, and also going bankrupt from health emergencies.

Ben Miller, The Student Debt Problem Is Worse Than We Imagined. New York Times, Aug 25, 2018.  Newly released federal information shows that 30% of students repaying loans were in serious trouble.

Emily Stewart, The Government's Top Student Loan Watchdog Is Quitting in Protest. Vox, Aug 27, 2018.  Within the CFPB.  See also Cory Turner, The Why Public Service Loan Forgiveness Is So Unforgiving. NPR, Oct 17, 2018.

The Young Turks, Judge Reams Trump Cabinet Member. The Young Turks, Sep 13, 2018.  Betsy DeVos and her attempt to annul student loan relief from private for-profit colleges.

Stacy Cowley, 28,000 Public Servants Sought Student Loan Forgiveness. 96 Got It. New York Times, Sep 27, 2018.

Amanda Ripley, Why Is College in America So Expensive? The Atlantic, Oct 2018.  extras, secondary non-teaching staff, unregulation.

Hasan Minhaj, Student Loans. Patriot Act, Feb 24, 2019.

Kelly McLaughlin, 3 Million Senior Citizens in the US Are Still Paying Off Their Student Loans. Business Insider, May 3, 2019.

Adam Harris, What Happens When a Billionaire Swoops In to Solve the Student-Debt Crisis. The Atlantic, May 19, 2019.  “A philanthropist surprised Morehouse College graduates at commencement by announcing he would pay off their student loans. But one person—even a very generous one—can only do so much.”

Editorial Board, We Are Applauding the ‘Gift’ of an Affordable Education. Something Has Gone Wrong. New York Times, May 20, 2019.

Lara Takenaga, 4 Years of College, $0 in Debt: How Some Countries Make Higher Education Affordable. New York Times, May 28, 2019.

Josh Mitchell, The Long Road to the Student Debt Crisis. Wall Street Journal, Jun 7, 2019.  “A series of well-intentioned government decisions since the 1960s has left us with today’s out-of-control higher education market”

Iman Ghosh, How Much Student Debt Does Each State Hold? Visual Capitalist Aug 14, 2019.  helpful graphical representation of data per state; a timeline of tuition cost increases of private and public schools.

Krystal Ball and Saagar Enjeti, Student Loan Crisis Experts: We're Creating a Debtor Class. Rising | The Hill, Sep 19, 2019.

The Young Turks, Cenk Uygur Stuns Biden Campaign With Question. The Young Turks, Oct 16, 2019.  About student debt, Biden’s role in passing a law preventing $150 billion of student loan debt from being discharged, rescheduled, or renegotiated in bankruptcy court. Uygur and Kasparian survey Biden’s wider legislative record, which is substantially problematic. See also Aida Chavez, Joe Biden’s Role in Creating the Student Debt Crisis Stretches Back to the 1970’s. The Intercept, Jan 7, 2020.

Jon Basil Utley, Bankruptcy Could Help Millions Struggling Under Student Debt. The American Conservative, Jan 23, 2020.  “In 2005, Congress took this one possible life raft away. Why?”

Natasha Lennard, Yes, a Progressive President Could Cancel Student Debt on Day One — by Following the Grassroots. The Intercept, Feb 8, 2020.

John Iadarola and Jayar Jackson, Minority Graduates Targeted In Major College Scandal. The Damage Report, Feb 12, 2020.  higher rate loans given to students going to HBCU’s and colleges in more Latino areas

Richard Fry, Jeffrey S. Passel, and D’Vera Cohn, A Majority of Young Adults Live with Their Parents for the First Time Since the Great Depression. Pew Research Center, Sep 4, 2020.  Suggests much about the rise of home prices, the effect of student loans, and the stagnation of wages. There are some racial differences but the differences have decreased over time.

Cory Turner, How Education Secretary Betsy DeVos Will Be Remembered. NPR, Nov 19, 2020.  revising Title IX sexual assault allegation processes; borrower defense and student loans; school choice (charter and voucher).

Annie Lowrey, Go Ahead, Forgive Student Debt. The Atlantic, Nov 21, 2020.  “Debt forgiveness is not the best form of stimulus available. But Joe Biden shouldn’t waver.”

Wall Street Journal, How Public Universities Became So Expensive. Wall Street Journal, Feb 23, 2021.  An 8 minute video.

CBS News, Head of Federal Student Aid Office Resigns Amid Pressure from Progressive Groups. CBS News, Mar 8, 2021.  

Matt Taibbi, The Trillion-Dollar Lie. Taibbi Substack, Jul 22, 2021.  “Universities built palaces and financiers made fortunes in part through a lie: that student loans can't be discharged in bankruptcy. But a series of court cases is helping unravel the scam.”

Laura Meckler, Public Education is Facing a Crisis of Epic Proportions.  Washington Post, Jan 30, 2022.  Meckler examines many aspects the way the COVID pandemic has affected students, teachers, performance, enrollment, etc.

Krystal Ball and Saagar Enjeti, Debate: The Left & Right Case Against College For All.  Breaking Points with Krystal and Saagar, Feb 3, 2022.  Freddie DeBoer and Oren Cass both advocate for more options, not just college:  trade schools, apprenticeships, community colleges.  They also examine the labor force structure, including wages but also automation.  They cite helpful resources:  Claudia Goldin and Lawrence F. Katz, Long-Run Changes in the U.S. Wage Structure: Narrowing, Widening, Polarizing.  NBER, Sep 2007.  See also Freddie DeBoer, The Cult of Smart: How Our Broken Education System Perpetuates Social Injustice.  Macmillan Publishers, Aug 2020.  Freddie DeBoer, Substack. Oren Cass, The Once and Future Worker: A Vision for the Renewal of Work in America. Encounter Books, Nov 2018. Oren Cass, A Guide to College-for-All.  American Compass, Jan 2022.

Aditi Ramaswami, Cheat Sheet: The Truth About Student Debt.  The Lever News, Apr 14, 2022.

Matt Bruenig, The Racial Dynamics of Student Debt.  People’s Policy Project, May 10, 2022. 

Yoonji Han, Biden’s Reported Student Loan Plan is Just a “Band Aid” Solution for Communities of Color, Expert and Borrowers Say.  Insider, Jun 6, 2022.  “The Biden administration is reportedly planning to cancel $10,000 in student debt for some borrowers.  Communities of color, especially Black borrowers, are disproportionately affected by student loans.  The plan fails to address systemic issues that make loans necessary in the first place, experts say.”

Krystal Ball and Saagar Enjeti, Krystal and Saagar Have Heated Debate On Biden's Student Debt Cancellation.  Breaking Points, Aug 27, 2022.  Krystal points out that 529’s are a federal tax benefit to middle-class and upper-class families who can afford to put money away for their children.  

Briahna Joy Gray, Heated Debate: Is Student Debt Cancellation A Terrible Policy Or A Step Towards Debt Jubilee?  Rising | The Hill, Aug 25, 2022.  Briahna does an excellent job criticizing tax cuts and pairing the student loan forgiveness with the billionaire tax proposals of Sanders and Warren to cover the shortfall.  She also includes the impact of paying interest accrued, which means that borrowers benefit more than other tax policy adjustments.  She does, however, pointedly say that if you want to tax income and wealth at higher rates, to hold supposedly wealthier college graduates accountable, then that we certainly can do that.  Two other panelists basically believe that taxes are immoral and only redistributive, as opposed to reflective of people’s consumption of public goods and publicly funded technologies like roads, computers, the internet, etc.  She does the most to challenge the narrative of individual meritocracy, that “it’s not fair” for those who paid their student loans back.

David French, Is There a Christian Case for Biden’s Debt Relief Plan?  The French Press | The Dispatch, Aug 28, 2022.  Argues that this is a wealth transfer from the lower, working class to the middle class, which is an assumption about how to fund the student debt forgiveness.  

Symone, The Impact Of Student Loan Debt Relief And Other Political Headlines.  Symone, Aug 28, 2022.  Symone’s panel discusses how the majority -- not the average -- student loan borrower will benefit (majority owes under $40,000), and how this will lift black student loan borrowers -- 500,000 families -- from a negative to positive net worth.  See also White House, Twitter, Aug 25, 2022 on a list of Republican critics of student debt relief who also received PPP loan forgiveness.

Briahna Joy Gray, Elites' Identity Politics Attack On Student Debtors.  Rising | The Hill, Aug 31, 2022.  Briahna makes helpful observations about “identity politics” being used against the working class.  

Stefani McDade, Is Student Loan Forgiveness Biblical?  Christianity Today, Aug 28, 2022.  A comparison of three views.  

Sheelah Kolhatkar, Biden’s Student-Debt Plan Could Chip Away at the Racial Wealth Gap.  The New Yorker, Aug 31, 2022.  “Loan forgiveness and other measures don’t solve the problem of rising tuition costs, but they could help some Black families start to catch up.”  “Around half of borrowers have less than twenty thousand dollars in outstanding loans, and the White House estimates that as many as forty-three million borrowers could see some or all of their loans cancelled. According to the National Action Network, this could move five hundred thousand Black families from a negative net worth to a positive one.”

A Martinez and Cory Turner, Millions of Student Loan Borrowers’ Debt Unnecessarily Spent Years in Forbearance. NPR, Dec 18, 2022.

More Perfect Union, Why School Lunch Debt Exists — And How These Kids Are Wiping It Out.  More Perfect Union, May 17, 2023.  “Kids across the U.S. have been organizing to win universal school meals and wipe out student lunch debt. So far this year, Minnesota and New Mexico have passed universal school meals laws, joining California and Colorado. That’s just the start.”

Brian Tyler Cohen, Ro Khanna on Saving Student Loan Debt Cancellation.  Brian Tyler Cohen, Jun 25, 2023.  

CNBC, How Wall Street Profits From Student Loans.  CNBC, Aug 31, 2023.  Like mortgage-backed securities, “Billions of dollars worth of student loans are packaged and sold as assets known as SLABS to some of the biggest investors in America. So what exactly are SLABS and how does it help Wall Street profit from student loans?”

U.S. Department of Education, Biden-Harris Administration Announces Additional $4.9 Billion in Approved Student Debt Relief. U.S. Department of Education, Jan 19, 2024.