The Cost of Opportunity: Student Debt and Social Mobility

The entire complex of market metaphors--commodity, investment, consumer-push higher education into the realm of consumer regulation, rather than a policy framework that places knowledge, learning, and widespread social mobility at the center. Higher education plays a much more complex role in our society than just the straightforward investment in individual human capital. In this context, the author will explore how the "education is a commodity" metaphor operates not just in rhetoric but in law. To so do, she will present three examples of how the language of the market shapes the legal and policy structures underlying higher education financing in ways that increase debt, reduce social mobility, and degrade higher education itself.