Book Announcement: The Neoliberal Agenda and the Student Debt Crisis in U.S. Higher Education (Routledge)

Book Announcement: The Neoliberal Agenda and the Student Debt Crisis in U.S. Higher Education (Routledge)

Description:

Capturing the voices of Americans living with student debt in the United States, this collection critiques the neoliberal interest-driven, debt-based system of U.S. higher education and offers alternatives to neoliberal capitalism and the corporatized university. Grounded in an understanding of the historical and political economic context, this book offers auto-ethnographic experiences of living in debt, and analyzes alternatives to the current system. Chapter authors address real questions such as, Do collegians overestimate the economic value of going to college? and How does the monetary system that student loans are part of operate? Pinpointing how developments in the political economy are accountable for students’ university experiences, this book provides an authoritative contribution to research in the fields of educational foundations and higher education policy and finance.

Reviews:

"An ideology which makes higher education a privilege instead of a societal benefit has commodified human life and human freedom and placed high academic achievement out of the financial means of many young Americans. This book is a deep exploration of the disastrous educational funding system of America. It is required reading for every person concerned about whether future generations will be equipped intellectually to defend our freedoms, which will require access to higher learning, as a basic right." --Dennis Kucinich, Member of Congress, 1997-2013, Senior Member of House Committee on Education. Presidential candidate 2004 and 2008

"This book offers a unique perspective – that of those in debt. The text provides a useful and timely overview of college finance and student debt, and offers a birds-eye view of the multiple problems students face once they encounter, and have to live with, debt." --William G. Tierney, Wilbur Kieffer Professor of Higher Education, University of Southern California, USA

"Higher education in the United States has been transformed from a public good to a poverty industry under the aegis of debtfarism. With wide-ranging coverage of vital themes ranging from the exploitative practices of student loans to the politics of financing education, this edited volume brings together an invaluable collection of critical interrogations into the complex practices of neoliberalizing colleges. This excellent volume will quickly become a standard reference for understanding the commodification of tertiary education." --Susanne Soederberg, author of Debtfare States and the Poverty Industry

"These authors remind us to be wary of the increasing commodification of college. They are right to be concerned that college costs and debt threatens to turn too many students into indentured foot soldiers for American capitalism. A college education is more than dollars and cents. Free nations need free colleges." --Anthony P. Carnevale, Research Professor and Director McCourt School of Public Policy, Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce

"Student debt has become a prison and this excellent collection of essays raises the question of whether the augmentation of labor power through higher education is worth the cost. This powerful text exposes the current crisis of education, and courageously brings the reader face-to-face with the consequences of capital unchained. It should be read by all in the higher education community."  --Peter McLaren, Distinguished Professor, Chapman University

Available at:

https://www.routledge.com/The-Neoliberal-Agenda-and-the-Student-Debt-Crisis-in-US-Higher-Education/Hartlep-Eckrich-Hensley/p/book/9781138194656

https://www.amazon.com/Neoliberal-Student-Education-Routledge-Neoliberalism/dp/1138194654/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1501511323&sr=8-1&keywords=neoliberal+agenda+student+debt