Nearly one in five adult Americans carry student loan debt; Surprisingly, though, the debt holders aren’t always students themselves. In Indebted, New York University professor Caitlin Zaloom traces how the pressure of rising college costs has transformed family life, forcing many parents and grandparents into debt. Due to the predatory practices of what Zaloom calls the “student finance complex,” middle-class parents are faced with an impossible choice: funding their child’s education, or funding their own futures. As the need to reevaluate the value of higher education intensifies, Zaloom’s conversation with WBEZ’s Jerome McDonnell will provide shocking yet crucial information on the failings of the college-financing industry, and offer ideas to fix the system.

Preorder your copy of Indebted: How Families Make College Work at Any Cost through the CHF box office and save 20%.

This program is presented in partnership with the International House Global Voices Program.

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