If you are a young person, and you work hard enough, you can get a college degree and set yourself on the path to a good life, right? Not necessarily, says Sara Goldrick-Rab, and with Paying the Price, she shows in damning detail exactly why. Quite simply, college is far too expensive for many people today, and the confusing mix of federal, state, institutional, and private financial aid leaves countless students without the resources they need to...

"It is widely understood that student loan assistance has inflated college tuition, student debt, and lender profits. Less often recognized is that these outcomes were intended. Elizabeth Tandy Shermer uncovers the history of federal student loans, showing that they were designed to appease constituencies opposed to affordable higher education"--