The Student Loan System: A Rigged Game

📘 The Student Loan System: A Rigged GameHow U.S. Higher Education Became a Wealth Transfer from the Poor and Middle Class to the EliteExecutive Summary The American student loan system has evolved into a mechanism of upward wealth transfer, extracting income and opportunity from working- and middle-class students while enriching elite universities, financial institutions, and loan servicers. By removing bankruptcy protections, allowing unchecked tuition increases, and obscuring the risks and returns of educational debt, policymakers and institutions have created a rigged system — one that fails to serve students, the economy, or the public interest. 1. Origins of the Crisis:...