Student Debt

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xiii

   PDF

2. Student Debt: Good, Bad, and Misunderstood

   • Sandy Baum

   Pages 1-15

3. Student Loan Programs and the Realities of Student Debt

   • Sandy Baum

   Pages 17-42

4. Putting the Stories into Perspective

   • Sandy Baum

   Pages 43-64

5. The Evidence About the Impact of Student Debt

   • Sandy Baum

   Pages 65-81

6. How Can Public Policy Help?

   • Sandy Baum

   Pages 83-106

7. Back Matter

   Pages 107-120

   PDF

This book analyzes reliable evidence to tell the true story of student debt in America. One of the nation’s foremost experts on college finance, Sandy Baum exposes how misleading the widely accepted narrative on student debt is. Baum combines data, research, and analysis to show how the current discourse obscures serious problems, risks misdirecting taxpayer dollars, and could deprive too many Americans of the educational opportunities they deserve. This book and its policy recommendations provide the basis for a new and more constructive national agenda to make paying for college more manageable.

• Student debt
• financial aid
• paying for college
• higher education finance
• college affordability

“Many consider student debt a major problem, generating financial difficulties as well as delayed marriage and home buying. This excellent volume argues that college debt is not a problem for most people. It helps far more than it hurts; graduates benefit from higher future earnings and should pay something for their gains. … Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty.” (S. Pressman, Choice, Vol. 54 (9), May, 2017)

• School of Education, George Washington University, Washington, USA

  Sandy Baum

Sandy Baum is Senior Fellow in the Income and Benefits Policy Center at the Urban Institute. Previously, she has been a Research Professor of Education Policy at the George Washington University, USA, and Professor of Economics at Skidmore College, USA. She has written and spoken extensively on college access, college pricing, student aid, student debt, and college affordability.

Policies and ethics