The Real Story Behind Skyrocketing Student Debt

TRANSCRIPT

Heather McGhee: Public college used to be debt-free in America.

Ian Haney Lopez: We have funded public college and experienced the benefits of a well-educated, talented workforce.

Heather McGhee: In the 1950s, 60s, and 70s, millions of families could send their kids to college, and they did it debt-free. The GI bill for returning veterans was an investment in people that paid off for society, with seven dollars for every dollar invested. This investment in making college virtually free for everyone helped unleash the greatest middle class the world had ever seen. And yet, somehow, all we seem to be able to do is cut, cut, cut. Tuition has tripled over the course of a generation, and student debt has skyrocketed, surpassing over 1 trillion dollars.

Ian Haney Lopez: So, what happened? Racism, or more specifically, the way racism evolved to become a political weapon. Dog whistle politics has always centrally involved public education and integration. From the beginning, dog whistle politics turned on stoking resentment of integration of educational settings. It starts with a dog whistle phrase like "States' Rights," which was the right of Southern states to resist integration ordered by the federal government. It includes "Forced Busing," a Northern analogue which pretended that the issue was putting children on buses rather than the integration the busing was designed to achieve.

Heather McGhee: Dog whistle politics helps explain how the wealthy and the powerful have used a simple formula to sell their economic agenda in a way that hurts all of us: fear people of color, hate the government, trust the market.

Ian Haney Lopez: And as we've scared whites about integrative public education, we've built support for politics that says cut public funding to public schools, public colleges, and indeed, to just about everything public.

Heather McGhee: Over the course of one generation, states have cut about a quarter out of every dollar they used to spend on funding public college. What's made up the difference? A tripling of tuition and an average of almost $30,000 in student debt, which makes it harder for them to start a business, buy a house, and save for retirement. How is that good for America? It's obviously not.

Ian Haney Lopez: When we disinvest from the public, the costs of college go up for everybody, student debt goes up for everybody, and that means for white students, too. Racism as a political tool hurts everybody of every color and background.