1 00:00:06,006 --> 00:00:07,132 [crowd cheering] 2 00:00:07,215 --> 00:00:09,384 [narrator] At college graduation ceremonies, 3 00:00:09,467 --> 00:00:13,263 students are often told that the wait is finally over… 4 00:00:13,346 --> 00:00:15,640 You are moments away from graduating, 5 00:00:15,724 --> 00:00:18,643 moments away from beginning your journey through life. 6 00:00:18,727 --> 00:00:22,605 [narrator] …that they're now set up for success, ready for anything. 7 00:00:22,689 --> 00:00:24,941 You are capable of greatness in your profession. 8 00:00:25,025 --> 00:00:28,528 You will be ready for work, no matter what that work may be. 9 00:00:28,611 --> 00:00:32,157 You are prepared to play… the game of life. 10 00:00:32,240 --> 00:00:34,325 -The game of life. -The game of life. 11 00:00:34,909 --> 00:00:38,204 [narrator] In the actual Game of Life, a classic board game, 12 00:00:38,288 --> 00:00:42,500 the very first decision players make is whether or not to go to college. 13 00:00:43,376 --> 00:00:47,005 To pay for it, you have to take out a loan, but that's fine. 14 00:00:47,088 --> 00:00:49,257 Your degree gets you a higher-paying job, 15 00:00:49,340 --> 00:00:51,718 you pay off your debts, no problem, 16 00:00:51,801 --> 00:00:55,680 and you buy a house, get married, and fill your minivan with kids. 17 00:00:56,347 --> 00:00:57,849 That's how it works in the game, 18 00:00:57,932 --> 00:01:00,435 and for some people in the real world, too. 19 00:01:01,436 --> 00:01:04,898 But for others, it doesn't go so smoothly or so quickly. 20 00:01:05,648 --> 00:01:10,070 Student loans can set you up on a path of disappointment and dead ends. 21 00:01:10,153 --> 00:01:11,821 It's supposed to be a good decision. 22 00:01:11,905 --> 00:01:13,907 They think they're signing up for opportunity, 23 00:01:13,990 --> 00:01:15,992 but in many ways they're signing up for debt. 24 00:01:16,576 --> 00:01:19,746 One day, I logged in to check my student loan balance. 25 00:01:19,829 --> 00:01:24,167 I clicked record and kind of captured the reaction I had. 26 00:01:24,250 --> 00:01:26,127 I started with 80,000. 27 00:01:26,211 --> 00:01:28,838 I have been paying for 10 years. 28 00:01:28,922 --> 00:01:34,260 The grand total is I have paid $120,000, 29 00:01:34,344 --> 00:01:37,472 and I still owe 76. 30 00:01:37,555 --> 00:01:41,935 How the **** is this possible? 31 00:01:42,519 --> 00:01:48,024 There's now more than $1.7 trillion of student loan debt, 32 00:01:48,108 --> 00:01:53,822 with nearly 45 million Americans getting a student loan bill each month. 33 00:01:54,489 --> 00:01:58,868 [narrator] Total student debt has tripled in less than 15 years. 34 00:01:58,952 --> 00:02:01,412 Americans now owe more in student loans 35 00:02:01,496 --> 00:02:04,624 than in auto loans or in credit card debt. 36 00:02:04,707 --> 00:02:08,086 It's a crisis that we have to address. 37 00:02:08,169 --> 00:02:11,464 [narrator] Why are so many people drowning in student loan debt 38 00:02:11,548 --> 00:02:14,050 for years after they graduate? 39 00:02:14,134 --> 00:02:16,261 And what can we do about it? 40 00:02:18,596 --> 00:02:22,142 [narrator 2] Good education is good business. 41 00:02:22,225 --> 00:02:25,895 We cannot meet the complexities of modern life 42 00:02:25,979 --> 00:02:28,481 with outmoded school systems. 43 00:02:28,565 --> 00:02:31,568 Do you think China's cutting back on education right now? 44 00:02:31,651 --> 00:02:33,611 [man] People paying the price are young Americans, 45 00:02:33,695 --> 00:02:36,239 some straddling thousands of dollars in student loans 46 00:02:36,322 --> 00:02:38,741 they borrowed for a degree that doesn't lead to a job. 47 00:02:38,825 --> 00:02:42,579 If you don't go to college, you might as well get a face tattoo. 48 00:02:43,163 --> 00:02:45,498 I might be late to the game learning about this. 49 00:02:45,582 --> 00:02:47,667 Student loans are really messed up. 50 00:02:55,884 --> 00:03:00,805 [narrator] It all started back in 1957, when Earth got an extra moon. 51 00:03:01,598 --> 00:03:03,057 That's what headlines called it, 52 00:03:04,225 --> 00:03:07,020 though its Russian name was Sputnik. 53 00:03:07,937 --> 00:03:10,064 It was about the size of a beach ball, 54 00:03:10,148 --> 00:03:13,818 and it was hurled into space by a Soviet rocket. 55 00:03:13,902 --> 00:03:15,486 [Soviet nationalist music plays] 56 00:03:15,570 --> 00:03:19,574 Anyone with a halfway decent radio could listen to its faint bleating 57 00:03:19,657 --> 00:03:21,326 as it raced around the globe. 58 00:03:21,409 --> 00:03:23,578 [beeping] 59 00:03:24,787 --> 00:03:26,706 The space race had begun. 60 00:03:28,124 --> 00:03:31,711 Two months later, the US tried to launch their own satellite… 61 00:03:37,592 --> 00:03:38,968 …with less success. 62 00:03:40,553 --> 00:03:43,932 The Soviets were not above trolling their rival superpower. 63 00:03:44,515 --> 00:03:47,936 They jokingly asked if the US was interested in receiving aid 64 00:03:48,019 --> 00:03:50,438 earmarked for backward nations. 65 00:03:52,607 --> 00:03:56,819 President Dwight Eisenhower addressed his nervous constituents. 66 00:03:56,903 --> 00:03:58,905 My fellow citizens, 67 00:03:58,988 --> 00:04:02,700 my subject tonight is science and national security. 68 00:04:02,784 --> 00:04:06,913 One of our glaring deficiencies is the failure of this country 69 00:04:06,996 --> 00:04:10,333 to give high priority to scientific education 70 00:04:10,416 --> 00:04:13,211 and to the place of science in our national life. 71 00:04:13,294 --> 00:04:14,462 [narrator] At the time, 72 00:04:14,545 --> 00:04:17,590 less than eight percent of Americans had a bachelor's degree, 73 00:04:17,674 --> 00:04:20,218 and most of those graduates were white and male. 74 00:04:20,843 --> 00:04:23,429 Some went to expensive private schools. 75 00:04:23,513 --> 00:04:28,268 Others attended public universities, where state funding kept tuition low. 76 00:04:28,351 --> 00:04:30,853 But some people still couldn't afford it. 77 00:04:31,396 --> 00:04:34,649 Student loans weren't really an option, because banks weren't interested 78 00:04:34,732 --> 00:04:37,568 in handing out thousands of dollars to teenagers. 79 00:04:38,152 --> 00:04:40,863 And so, in the fall of 1958, 80 00:04:40,947 --> 00:04:44,575 Eisenhower signed the National Defense Education Act. 81 00:04:44,659 --> 00:04:46,828 It created the first federal loan program 82 00:04:46,911 --> 00:04:50,164 for students who were good at science, math, or engineering, 83 00:04:50,248 --> 00:04:54,627 and who promised not to try and violently overthrow the government. 84 00:04:54,711 --> 00:04:58,965 Everyone hoped that these students would one day help the US beat the Soviets 85 00:04:59,048 --> 00:05:01,384 in their scientific Cold War. 86 00:05:02,010 --> 00:05:03,386 A few years later, 87 00:05:03,469 --> 00:05:06,139 President Lyndon Johnson expanded the program 88 00:05:06,222 --> 00:05:09,183 by signing the Higher Education Act. 89 00:05:09,267 --> 00:05:13,062 The act created a low-interest loan program for everyone, 90 00:05:13,146 --> 00:05:14,647 not just science nerds, 91 00:05:14,731 --> 00:05:19,736 and it provided grants that didn't need to be paid back for low-income students. 92 00:05:19,819 --> 00:05:22,155 [Lyndon B. Johnson] This nation can never make 93 00:05:22,238 --> 00:05:27,118 a wiser or a more profitable investment anywhere. 94 00:05:27,201 --> 00:05:28,870 [crowd cheering] 95 00:05:28,953 --> 00:05:31,205 [upbeat music playing] 96 00:05:32,957 --> 00:05:35,335 [narrator] And that investment paid off. 97 00:05:35,418 --> 00:05:39,088 [Ashley Harrington] This idea of America as the superpower that it is… 98 00:05:39,172 --> 00:05:41,632 [Neil Armstrong] It's one small step for man… 99 00:05:41,716 --> 00:05:44,844 [Ashley] …all of that begins with a workforce 100 00:05:44,927 --> 00:05:47,138 and a society that's highly educated. 101 00:05:47,221 --> 00:05:49,974 The federal investment in higher education 102 00:05:50,058 --> 00:05:53,811 has opened more doors to more people of color, 103 00:05:53,895 --> 00:05:55,938 to low-income people, to marginalized people. 104 00:05:56,022 --> 00:05:59,692 A highly-educated population absolutely benefits everyone. 105 00:06:00,276 --> 00:06:02,445 [narrator] When more people go to college, 106 00:06:02,528 --> 00:06:06,366 there's less crime, less illness, and less dependence on welfare, 107 00:06:06,449 --> 00:06:08,910 the kinds of things that cost the government money. 108 00:06:10,453 --> 00:06:13,164 More Americans are choosing the college path. 109 00:06:13,247 --> 00:06:15,708 A growing share of those students are relying on loans, 110 00:06:15,792 --> 00:06:18,753 and the loans themselves are getting bigger and bigger. 111 00:06:18,836 --> 00:06:22,715 The result? A country with an enormous pile of student debt. 112 00:06:23,716 --> 00:06:26,886 It's easy to lay the blame on the cost of college. 113 00:06:26,969 --> 00:06:30,223 It's true that sticker prices have been going up, 114 00:06:30,306 --> 00:06:32,517 but most students pay much less. 115 00:06:32,600 --> 00:06:35,478 Thanks to financial aid, the real cost of private school 116 00:06:35,561 --> 00:06:38,147 has actually stayed flat for the past 20 years. 117 00:06:38,231 --> 00:06:40,691 But the yearly cost of public schools, 118 00:06:40,775 --> 00:06:45,321 where around three quarters of bachelor's degrees are earned, has doubled. 119 00:06:45,405 --> 00:06:49,117 A lot of this is the result of the last recession. 120 00:06:49,200 --> 00:06:51,119 [droning] 121 00:06:51,661 --> 00:06:55,123 [news anchor] States continue to cut funds for higher education. 122 00:06:55,206 --> 00:06:57,834 So as the budgets for states get tighter and tighter, 123 00:06:57,917 --> 00:07:00,920 education is one of the first things to go away. 124 00:07:01,003 --> 00:07:02,964 And so when that happened, 125 00:07:03,047 --> 00:07:05,508 all of those costs were also shifted onto families. 126 00:07:05,591 --> 00:07:08,845 [narrator] The federal government's investment in higher education 127 00:07:08,928 --> 00:07:11,097 also hasn't kept pace with need. 128 00:07:11,180 --> 00:07:13,558 Federal Pell Grants for low-income students 129 00:07:13,641 --> 00:07:16,811 used to cover 79% of tuition, room and board, 130 00:07:17,311 --> 00:07:20,231 but now they cover just 29%. 131 00:07:20,314 --> 00:07:23,317 More and more people also are going to graduate school, 132 00:07:23,401 --> 00:07:25,111 which federal grants don't cover. 133 00:07:25,194 --> 00:07:26,612 And so how do you make that up? 134 00:07:26,696 --> 00:07:28,781 A trillion dollars of student loan debt. 135 00:07:28,865 --> 00:07:33,703 [narrator] The government used to give out roughly equal amounts of grants and loans, 136 00:07:33,786 --> 00:07:35,163 but not anymore. 137 00:07:35,246 --> 00:07:37,957 The federal government nationalized the student loans, 138 00:07:38,040 --> 00:07:39,917 flooded the market with them, 139 00:07:40,001 --> 00:07:42,086 encouraged young people to take them on. 140 00:07:42,712 --> 00:07:44,922 I had managed to get through 141 00:07:45,006 --> 00:07:47,175 all my undergraduate without student loans, 142 00:07:47,258 --> 00:07:51,304 and then took out about 80,000 for law school. 143 00:07:51,387 --> 00:07:53,723 [narrator] If she had a typical 10-year loan agreement, 144 00:07:53,806 --> 00:07:57,768 she'd have to pay all that back, plus 31,000 in interest, 145 00:07:57,852 --> 00:08:01,564 and her monthly payments would be over $900. 146 00:08:02,148 --> 00:08:06,027 After I graduated, I was not making enough money to pay back my loans. 147 00:08:06,110 --> 00:08:07,737 So I put my loans in deferment. 148 00:08:08,321 --> 00:08:10,615 [narrator] That means she paused her payments, 149 00:08:10,698 --> 00:08:12,825 but the interest kept adding up, 150 00:08:12,909 --> 00:08:14,243 and in many loan agreements, 151 00:08:14,327 --> 00:08:17,371 unpaid interest is added to the total amount owed. 152 00:08:17,872 --> 00:08:21,042 So now Holly has to pay even more interest 153 00:08:21,125 --> 00:08:24,587 because she's paying interest on her unpaid interest. 154 00:08:25,171 --> 00:08:30,885 That extra 31,000 can easily balloon to more than the original loan. 155 00:08:31,511 --> 00:08:32,595 So the plan was, 156 00:08:32,678 --> 00:08:36,057 I'll get out and make a lot of money. Lawyers make a lot of money, right? 157 00:08:36,641 --> 00:08:40,394 [narrator] College graduates can expect to make 76K a year, 158 00:08:40,478 --> 00:08:42,688 but that's an average over their whole careers. 159 00:08:42,772 --> 00:08:47,235 It takes 14 years to get there, and at first, they make much less. 160 00:08:47,735 --> 00:08:52,240 Especially if they graduated in the wake of a recession. 161 00:08:52,823 --> 00:08:57,620 There are a lot of people who have found themselves in an economy 162 00:08:57,703 --> 00:09:00,998 where their education isn't really paying off. 163 00:09:01,624 --> 00:09:05,002 The stress and the pressure of having all of that 164 00:09:05,086 --> 00:09:07,880 has kept me from making plans for the future. 165 00:09:08,548 --> 00:09:12,260 I honestly thought I was, kind of, getting ahead of the game a little bit, 166 00:09:12,343 --> 00:09:15,513 and come to find out, I'm actually behind everybody now. 167 00:09:15,596 --> 00:09:17,306 You look at this debt and go, "Well, 168 00:09:17,390 --> 00:09:19,183 I don't know if I can have a family." 169 00:09:19,267 --> 00:09:22,019 It has always felt oppressive. 170 00:09:22,520 --> 00:09:27,024 I even, sometimes, didn't have quite enough to eat. 171 00:09:27,108 --> 00:09:31,070 It certainly is a crisis in the individual lives of millions of people 172 00:09:31,153 --> 00:09:34,865 whose prospects have been blighted by the debt they can't get away from. 173 00:09:34,949 --> 00:09:40,121 It is the reason why so many 20-year-olds are living with their parents. 174 00:09:40,204 --> 00:09:44,166 It is the reason I never became a homeowner. 175 00:09:44,250 --> 00:09:49,005 It's the reason why so many young people are deciding not to start a family. 176 00:09:49,714 --> 00:09:52,300 [narrator] Fifty years ago, if you graduated college, 177 00:09:52,383 --> 00:09:55,511 you could probably afford to buy a house and raise a couple kids. 178 00:09:55,595 --> 00:09:58,723 And while the wages of college grads have gone up since then, 179 00:09:58,806 --> 00:10:02,018 housing and childcare costs have risen faster. 180 00:10:02,727 --> 00:10:06,939 Add on student loan payments, and this life could slip out of reach. 181 00:10:08,107 --> 00:10:11,527 People who don't go to college might avoid debt, 182 00:10:11,611 --> 00:10:13,487 but they can end up in worse shape. 183 00:10:13,571 --> 00:10:16,490 Fifty years ago, they could also afford a house and a couple kids. 184 00:10:16,574 --> 00:10:18,659 But today, that's much harder. 185 00:10:18,743 --> 00:10:20,911 Their wages are actually lower now. 186 00:10:21,829 --> 00:10:26,042 The bottom has fallen out on non-college educated workers. 187 00:10:26,125 --> 00:10:29,128 So you have to go to college in this economy. 188 00:10:29,211 --> 00:10:32,173 But the only way you can pay for it is loans. 189 00:10:32,256 --> 00:10:33,758 Is that a choice? 190 00:10:33,841 --> 00:10:35,217 No, it's not a real choice. 191 00:10:35,301 --> 00:10:36,677 It's-- It's a false choice. 192 00:10:37,511 --> 00:10:40,264 [narrator] Colleges are in a pretty sweet position. 193 00:10:40,348 --> 00:10:44,060 They have this essential product, and they can set whatever price they want, 194 00:10:44,143 --> 00:10:46,896 knowing that people can take out loans to pay it. 195 00:10:46,979 --> 00:10:51,067 Plus, they don't face many consequences if their graduates don't do well. 196 00:10:51,150 --> 00:10:53,653 If you were trying to design a system to cost too much, 197 00:10:53,736 --> 00:10:55,363 it would look pretty much like 198 00:10:55,446 --> 00:10:57,657 the higher ed environment that we've operated on. 199 00:10:57,740 --> 00:11:00,076 [narrator] And one particular type of school 200 00:11:00,159 --> 00:11:02,828 has definitely taken advantage of this environment: 201 00:11:02,912 --> 00:11:04,997 for-profit colleges. 202 00:11:05,081 --> 00:11:08,000 I went to one of them right out of high school. 203 00:11:08,084 --> 00:11:09,627 [narrator] These types of schools 204 00:11:09,710 --> 00:11:11,921 need to make money to please their shareholders, 205 00:11:12,004 --> 00:11:14,507 and so they tend to spend less on instruction 206 00:11:14,590 --> 00:11:17,051 and more on advertising and recruitment. 207 00:11:18,052 --> 00:11:21,847 There was a commercial… It's probably still on. 208 00:11:21,931 --> 00:11:24,141 It was like, "One day, one night, 209 00:11:24,225 --> 00:11:26,060 Saturday's all right." 210 00:11:26,143 --> 00:11:30,022 ♪ Online's just fine Nighttime, any time ♪ 211 00:11:31,315 --> 00:11:35,653 As a mother of two young children who's working two or three jobs, 212 00:11:35,736 --> 00:11:40,241 the thing that I was interested in was, obviously, getting an education, 213 00:11:40,324 --> 00:11:43,160 but trying to figure out how to manage it all. 214 00:11:43,244 --> 00:11:47,832 [narrator] And for-profit colleges target exactly that kind of person. 215 00:11:47,915 --> 00:11:50,751 [ad narrator] What if you could earn your bachelor's or master's degree 216 00:11:50,835 --> 00:11:53,963 from a leading accredited university, while you're at home? 217 00:11:55,131 --> 00:11:57,967 It worked around my schedule. Financial process was easy. 218 00:11:58,384 --> 00:12:01,929 They'll work with you after work, or you can go before work. It's easy. 219 00:12:02,847 --> 00:12:05,182 [Shaun] The recruiter, he just ran me down, like, 220 00:12:05,266 --> 00:12:07,351 "Hey, what are you looking to do?" 221 00:12:07,435 --> 00:12:10,229 "If I got my way, I want to do video game design." 222 00:12:10,312 --> 00:12:12,648 He was like, "That's perfect. We have video game…" 223 00:12:12,732 --> 00:12:15,651 No matter what I said, everything I said was "perfect." 224 00:12:15,735 --> 00:12:18,237 So I was like, "They seem to really want me to be here," 225 00:12:18,320 --> 00:12:21,323 and I wanted to go somewhere where people wanted me to be. 226 00:12:21,407 --> 00:12:25,077 These are institutions that target really vulnerable populations. 227 00:12:25,161 --> 00:12:29,039 People who feel like they've been left out of traditional higher ed. 228 00:12:29,123 --> 00:12:32,251 -They target low-income people. -I was a cashier. 229 00:12:32,334 --> 00:12:33,919 [man] I was doing construction. 230 00:12:34,003 --> 00:12:35,087 Working parents… 231 00:12:35,171 --> 00:12:36,797 -A single mom. -A single father. 232 00:12:36,881 --> 00:12:39,216 -…veterans… -[man 2] I did three tours in Iraq. 233 00:12:39,300 --> 00:12:43,971 And they present this package of a great job or a great future. 234 00:12:44,054 --> 00:12:45,681 They helped us get this great job. 235 00:12:45,765 --> 00:12:48,058 He kind of went all into detail about 236 00:12:48,142 --> 00:12:51,312 how they will help me get a job within the video game industry, 237 00:12:51,395 --> 00:12:53,647 that they have a 100% job placement rate. 238 00:12:53,731 --> 00:12:56,776 But come to find out, um, that wasn't it at all. 239 00:12:56,859 --> 00:12:59,570 [chuckling] I didn't learn video games at all. 240 00:12:59,653 --> 00:13:04,492 Less than eight percent of borrowers will go to a for-profit school, 241 00:13:04,575 --> 00:13:09,371 but they represent nearly 30% of all student loan defaults. 242 00:13:10,122 --> 00:13:13,584 [narrator] Defaulting is when you miss multiple loan payments. 243 00:13:13,667 --> 00:13:18,005 The default rate is actually the lowest for people who owe the most. 244 00:13:18,088 --> 00:13:21,258 They tend to have graduate degrees and higher incomes. 245 00:13:22,468 --> 00:13:25,262 And its highest for the people who owe the least. 246 00:13:25,346 --> 00:13:27,056 Many of them started a program, 247 00:13:27,139 --> 00:13:28,682 often at a for-profit, 248 00:13:28,766 --> 00:13:30,643 but weren't able to finish. 249 00:13:30,726 --> 00:13:32,520 Altogether in 2019, 250 00:13:32,603 --> 00:13:35,481 about one in 10 borrowers was in default. 251 00:13:35,564 --> 00:13:36,941 That's millions of people. 252 00:13:37,024 --> 00:13:39,235 And that number is expected to grow. 253 00:13:39,318 --> 00:13:43,864 It has long-lasting and drastic implications for your life. 254 00:13:43,948 --> 00:13:45,866 [narrator] Your credit score tanks, 255 00:13:45,950 --> 00:13:49,370 and your entire balance comes due immediately. 256 00:13:49,453 --> 00:13:52,915 The federal government has incredible collection powers. 257 00:13:52,998 --> 00:13:55,918 They can garnish your wages, they can garnish your tax returns. 258 00:13:56,001 --> 00:13:59,046 They will garnish your Social Security, 259 00:13:59,129 --> 00:14:02,883 and since that, in a few years, is going to be my only income, 260 00:14:02,967 --> 00:14:06,011 I can't afford to have that happen. 261 00:14:06,095 --> 00:14:09,890 The federal government can literally collect on your student loans 262 00:14:09,974 --> 00:14:11,684 all the way till you're in the grave. 263 00:14:12,893 --> 00:14:15,896 [narrator] Default rates are also higher for people of color. 264 00:14:15,980 --> 00:14:20,442 Almost a third of Black Americans who went to college a decade ago 265 00:14:20,526 --> 00:14:22,361 have since gone into default. 266 00:14:23,070 --> 00:14:25,573 Many of them come from families 267 00:14:25,656 --> 00:14:29,577 where there hasn't been savings for college, like I did, 268 00:14:29,660 --> 00:14:35,374 and many of them are having to work to support themselves and their family. 269 00:14:35,457 --> 00:14:39,128 When you get into employment, 270 00:14:39,211 --> 00:14:43,799 we know that Black people are paid less than their white counterparts 271 00:14:43,883 --> 00:14:45,593 for the same job. 272 00:14:45,676 --> 00:14:47,761 One of the most startling statistics I've heard 273 00:14:47,845 --> 00:14:49,930 is that Black graduates are actually 274 00:14:50,014 --> 00:14:52,266 more likely to default than white dropouts. 275 00:14:52,349 --> 00:14:55,436 The student debt crisis is a civil rights crisis. 276 00:14:55,519 --> 00:14:58,606 We see now how student debt drives income inequality, 277 00:14:58,689 --> 00:15:00,107 drives racial inequality. 278 00:15:00,190 --> 00:15:03,694 The very folks that this system was intended to help 279 00:15:03,777 --> 00:15:06,322 are actually getting the worst outcomes. 280 00:15:06,405 --> 00:15:07,990 [light applause] 281 00:15:08,574 --> 00:15:11,994 [narrator] We've tried to fix this problem for generations now. 282 00:15:12,077 --> 00:15:15,831 New rounds of policymakers come in and tweak the system in different ways. 283 00:15:16,415 --> 00:15:20,127 For example, the US now offers income-based repayment plans 284 00:15:20,210 --> 00:15:22,922 where you just pay a percentage of what you earn each month. 285 00:15:23,005 --> 00:15:26,008 [Mitch Daniels] If life doesn't work out, the student doesn't get a job, 286 00:15:26,091 --> 00:15:28,969 or the job doesn't pay much, you pay much less. 287 00:15:29,053 --> 00:15:33,307 [narrator] But there are several versions of this program now, which is confusing, 288 00:15:33,390 --> 00:15:35,392 with different rules, complicated paperwork, 289 00:15:35,476 --> 00:15:39,939 and sometimes, loan servicers fail to tell borrowers that they even exist. 290 00:15:40,522 --> 00:15:44,777 They would tell you if you knew to ask about it, 291 00:15:44,860 --> 00:15:48,697 but they never offered that information. 292 00:15:48,781 --> 00:15:52,576 And that caused me for years to go without income-based repayment 293 00:15:52,660 --> 00:15:54,912 because I just didn't know it was available. 294 00:15:54,995 --> 00:15:58,290 [narrator] So call your loan servicer and ask. 295 00:15:58,916 --> 00:16:01,669 If it was easier for everyone to use these programs, 296 00:16:01,752 --> 00:16:04,755 that would go a long way towards solving this crisis. 297 00:16:04,838 --> 00:16:07,716 It works for some other countries, like Australia. 298 00:16:08,550 --> 00:16:12,471 At Purdue University in Indiana, where Mitch Daniels is president, 299 00:16:12,554 --> 00:16:17,309 they're trying out a kind of privatized version of income-based repayment called… 300 00:16:17,393 --> 00:16:18,727 Income Share Agreements. 301 00:16:18,811 --> 00:16:22,439 We think of it as earning your way through college after college. 302 00:16:22,523 --> 00:16:24,900 [narrator] Purdue University and other investors, 303 00:16:24,984 --> 00:16:27,069 including wealthy alumni and a hedge fund, 304 00:16:27,152 --> 00:16:28,445 make a bet on students, 305 00:16:28,529 --> 00:16:32,783 paying their tuition bills now in exchange for a share of their income later. 306 00:16:32,866 --> 00:16:35,869 It shifts all the risk from the student to the investor, 307 00:16:35,953 --> 00:16:39,623 and I think that schools of all kinds ought to be at risk somehow 308 00:16:39,707 --> 00:16:42,334 if the degrees they're conferring 309 00:16:42,418 --> 00:16:45,963 don't enable their graduates to do well in the world. 310 00:16:46,046 --> 00:16:48,590 [narrator] But critics argue that these programs 311 00:16:48,674 --> 00:16:52,011 are just a new, unregulated way for students to go into debt. 312 00:16:52,678 --> 00:16:54,680 Moving to another loan product, 313 00:16:54,763 --> 00:16:59,601 especially right now, when we're already in the midst of a student debt crisis, 314 00:16:59,685 --> 00:17:01,270 really makes no sense. 315 00:17:02,104 --> 00:17:05,274 [narrator] The government has tried to regulate colleges, 316 00:17:05,357 --> 00:17:08,068 especially for-profit colleges, in other ways. 317 00:17:08,652 --> 00:17:11,989 They sent undercover agents to investigate their recruiters, 318 00:17:12,072 --> 00:17:15,159 sued a bunch of them for predatory lending, 319 00:17:15,242 --> 00:17:17,036 and created a new rule. 320 00:17:17,119 --> 00:17:19,204 [Ashley] The Gainful Employment rule simply said, 321 00:17:19,288 --> 00:17:21,206 you shouldn't be charging more 322 00:17:21,290 --> 00:17:24,668 than the graduate can expect to be able to repay back. 323 00:17:24,752 --> 00:17:25,586 That simple. 324 00:17:26,170 --> 00:17:29,715 [narrator] Eight hundred vocational programs failed to meet the standard, 325 00:17:29,798 --> 00:17:33,052 and 98% of them were at for-profits. 326 00:17:34,053 --> 00:17:38,140 Enrollment at for-profit schools, which had surged in the 2000s, 327 00:17:38,223 --> 00:17:40,642 started to suffer from all the bad publicity. 328 00:17:40,726 --> 00:17:41,935 And then… 329 00:17:42,019 --> 00:17:45,647 The previous administration weaponized the regulation against schools 330 00:17:45,731 --> 00:17:46,899 it simply didn't like. 331 00:17:46,982 --> 00:17:49,485 This administration is committed to pulling back 332 00:17:49,568 --> 00:17:51,445 the previous administration's overreach. 333 00:17:52,029 --> 00:17:54,823 [narrator] With Secretary Betsy DeVos at the helm, 334 00:17:54,907 --> 00:17:59,119 Trump's Department of Education scrapped Obama-era regulations. 335 00:17:59,203 --> 00:18:03,207 In recent years, we've seen these common-sense rules being rolled back. 336 00:18:03,874 --> 00:18:06,919 [narrator] And then the pandemic triggered a new recession… 337 00:18:07,002 --> 00:18:08,045 [droning] 338 00:18:08,712 --> 00:18:12,007 …which meant new problems for students and colleges. 339 00:18:12,883 --> 00:18:14,843 But not all colleges. 340 00:18:14,927 --> 00:18:18,597 We are seeing across-the-board losses in higher education enrollment, 341 00:18:18,680 --> 00:18:20,599 but you know the sector that's growing? 342 00:18:20,682 --> 00:18:22,309 The for-profit sector. 343 00:18:22,392 --> 00:18:23,519 [overlapping dialogue] 344 00:18:23,602 --> 00:18:25,771 [narrator] Political leaders have been arguing about 345 00:18:25,854 --> 00:18:28,065 the state of higher education for decades, 346 00:18:28,649 --> 00:18:31,318 and many of them went to college in the 1960s 347 00:18:31,401 --> 00:18:33,070 and graduated without any debt. 348 00:18:34,613 --> 00:18:36,949 But more and more people in the halls of power 349 00:18:37,032 --> 00:18:39,660 do have personal experience with student loans. 350 00:18:39,743 --> 00:18:42,913 As I am paying my student debt off, 351 00:18:42,996 --> 00:18:46,708 you know, I'm going to be sending my daughter, 352 00:18:46,792 --> 00:18:48,710 in less than a year, to college. 353 00:18:48,794 --> 00:18:51,130 When I got in the Senate, I still had student loans. 354 00:18:51,213 --> 00:18:54,216 There were months my loan payments were higher than our mortgage. 355 00:18:54,299 --> 00:18:58,345 I literally made a student loan payment 356 00:18:58,428 --> 00:19:00,973 while I was sitting here at this chair. 357 00:19:01,890 --> 00:19:05,769 [narrator] Today, about one in six American voters have student debt, 358 00:19:05,853 --> 00:19:09,356 and they're waiting to see what the people they elected will do. 359 00:19:09,439 --> 00:19:13,026 The families I've talked to, the individual borrowers 360 00:19:13,110 --> 00:19:15,946 are sitting around watching people point fingers at each other, 361 00:19:16,029 --> 00:19:17,573 and they just really want help. 362 00:19:18,365 --> 00:19:21,118 You want to really supercharge the economy? 363 00:19:21,201 --> 00:19:24,580 Give-- Give me the shot that you give GM 364 00:19:25,581 --> 00:19:28,250 and the airline industries and the one percent, 365 00:19:28,333 --> 00:19:33,463 and all the tax breaks that Amazon and all these other companies get. 366 00:19:33,547 --> 00:19:35,174 Give that to the students, 367 00:19:35,924 --> 00:19:37,843 and let's see what happens. 368 00:19:38,844 --> 00:19:41,346 [narrator] Joe Biden is now in the White House. 369 00:19:41,430 --> 00:19:44,474 Does anybody think that 12 years of education is enough 370 00:19:44,558 --> 00:19:46,643 in the 21st century to be in the middle class? 371 00:19:46,727 --> 00:19:49,313 We should be thinking about getting a college education 372 00:19:49,396 --> 00:19:51,148 in the same way that we think about 373 00:19:51,231 --> 00:19:54,026 getting a K-through-12 education. 374 00:19:54,109 --> 00:19:58,155 That's why I support debt-free and tuition-free college. 375 00:19:58,822 --> 00:20:02,034 [narrator] That idea has become increasingly mainstream. 376 00:20:02,117 --> 00:20:04,703 There are too many politicians today who support 377 00:20:04,786 --> 00:20:08,207 the truly insidious notion of government gift-giving. 378 00:20:08,290 --> 00:20:09,458 Make no mistake, 379 00:20:10,042 --> 00:20:13,045 it is a socialist takeover of higher education. 380 00:20:13,128 --> 00:20:15,464 Any time a politician  uses the word "free," 381 00:20:15,547 --> 00:20:19,635 taxpayers should, uh, immediately button their… back left pocket. 382 00:20:20,219 --> 00:20:23,555 [narrator] But one analysis found that while making public universities free 383 00:20:23,639 --> 00:20:26,934 for lower-income students would cost tens of billions of dollars, 384 00:20:27,017 --> 00:20:29,436 it would actually break even within a decade, 385 00:20:29,519 --> 00:20:32,522 thanks to the boost in tax dollars from new graduates. 386 00:20:32,606 --> 00:20:34,942 And for people who are already in debt, 387 00:20:35,025 --> 00:20:37,861 Biden says he wants to wipe out at least some of it. 388 00:20:37,945 --> 00:20:39,988 Studies have shown if you cancel student debt, 389 00:20:40,072 --> 00:20:44,826 you can put $80 to $100 billion back into the economy every year. 390 00:20:44,910 --> 00:20:46,495 You will watch the GDP rise. 391 00:20:46,578 --> 00:20:50,165 Education is for the common good. 392 00:20:50,249 --> 00:20:55,671 It is necessary in order for us not just to compete here, but to compete globally. 393 00:20:55,754 --> 00:20:59,591 Any country that out-educates us is going to out-compete us. 394 00:20:59,675 --> 00:21:02,010 [narrator] The Soviet Union may be gone, 395 00:21:02,094 --> 00:21:03,887 but there are new space races, 396 00:21:03,971 --> 00:21:06,974 and new frontiers of technology and innovation. 397 00:21:07,641 --> 00:21:10,394 [Lyndon B. Johnson] It is the obligation of your nation 398 00:21:10,477 --> 00:21:14,773 to provide every child born in these borders 399 00:21:14,856 --> 00:21:17,734 all the education that they can take, 400 00:21:17,818 --> 00:21:22,823 if we are to maintain our freedom in a highly competitive world. 401 00:21:27,911 --> 00:21:29,913 [theme music plays]