How Student Debt Changed Higher Education

Before it was a crisis, student debt was a strategy.

In this Discourse, we'll learn how student debt emerged as a compromise, how it grew by submerging political disagreements, and how it came to be seen as a "crisis", which brought those disagreements back to the surface. We'll explore how student debt's growth changed the way colleges manage their resources and think of their students, the way states manage their higher education budgets, and the way students and society think about the purpose of higher education. Finally, we'll examine where the politics of student debt is today and where it might be going.

Luke Herrine is Assistant Professor of Law at Alabama Law. He was recently named a “Freedom Scholar” by the Marguerite Casey Foundation in recognition of his pioneering work on student debt cancellation. He has also contributed to rethinking of the proper approach to consumer protection and agricultur…