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The Bias Inside the College Debt System

CBS MoneyWatch
In 1965, President Lyndon Johnson vowed that no student wishing to attend college would "be turned away because his family is poor."
 
Half a century later, a shift in the way college is funded and the declining fortunes of minorities and poor families since the recession have created a college-debt system that the left-leaning think tank Demos calls "deeply biased along class and racial lines."
 
Because college is increasingly financed by debt taken on by students, it's creating a system that's impacting different socio-economic communities in unique ways, Demos senior policy analyst Mark Huelsman writes in the report. Black, Latino and low-income students are not only taking on higher loan balances to finance their college educations, but they are more likely to drop out before receiving a degree, creating a worst-of-both worlds situation: student debt without a credential that will help earn higher income.
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