Breaking Point

The College Affordability Crisis and Our Next Financial Bubble

By (author) Kevin W. Connell

Publication date:

30 September 2016

Length of book:

164 pages

Publisher

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

ISBN-13: 9781475826029

In recent decades, the crisis of college affordability has emerged as one of the defining challenges of our era. Since 1978, college tuition and fees have soared by 1,120 percent, growing at three times the rate of housing prices and four times the rate of the increase in the hourly wage. The inevitable consequence has resulted in a national student debt that surpassed $1.3 trillion in 2015, crushing the average household under $35,000 in student debt.

Breaking Point explains flaws in the structure of higher education that have caused college prices to soar over our lifetime, including “prestige maximization,” a perpetual “amenities war,” and a predatory lending industry that has not only fostered but encouraged the explosion of college costs. To counter this trend, Kevin Connell proposes several bold solutions that are intended to induce colleges and lenders alike to redefine the structure, price, and ultimate purpose of higher education in America.

Acknowledgments
Introduction: The Ticking Time Bomb
Chapter 1: Sowing the Seeds of Crisis
Chapter 2: Tanked By Rank
Chapter 3: Penniless for Perks
Chapter 4: Lending Roots: Inception of Greed
Chapter 5: Sallie Mae: The Rise of a Lending Empire
Chapter 6: Rigged
Chapter 7: Breaking Backs to Balance Budgets
Chapter 8: A Stake in the Game
Chapter 9: The New American College & University

This thoughtful and provocative book highlights the problems that contribute to intolerable debt burdens and limited job prospects for too many students. Kevin Connell makes an important contribution to the debate on how we can improve our global competitiveness while satisfying the legitimate needs of students who are poorly served by today’s education-financial complex.