 The book is called the real college debt crisis how student borrowing threatens financial well-being and erodes the American dream The book argues that the student debt model of college finance is fundamentally broken that the debt burdens financially cripple adults in ways that prevent them from fully participating in life And that those burdens and that lack of full participation Has major consequences for us as a nation They also argue because of that that that this is not a moment for tinkering around the edges That this is a moment that lends itself towards a paradigm shift That we ought to be thinking about replacing the model of college finance that we currently utilize from from one that is debt driven To a model that relies on savings to a model that relies on asset building and to a model that relies on Really significant early investments in children's lives one of the primary purposes of education is to Create equity to be this equalizer in that effort and ability should lead to some kind of desired outcomes similar outcomes to other people Then we start thinking about how is our financial aid system? Helping that education do that we're not helping education do that right when we think about student debt is Really it comes down to access What student debt does is it creates access right what we're trying to expand our notion of what financial aid is supposed to do in the first place It also matters how it's affecting preparation for college right it matters About access but also completion in long-term financial health And if we begin to ask a different question not just whether or not the student who goes to college And gets debt is better off if we ask that is he or she able to achieve similar long-term financial outcomes as someone who didn't take out debt we start seeing slightly different Results student debt is not simply about whether people are defaulting That's not the only problem they face We can cover that up with income-based repayment plans and many other kinds of things to make sure people don't default But it's also about whether or not they can build assets over the long term And that's about economic ability the idea that someone who's just doing the only thing that they can do just to get to the starting point That we should think of them as a debtor where if you know There's a medical emergency or if they have some bad luck or something And they can't pay their loan back that we start thinking of them as a default her and and treating them the way We treat other kinds of debtors is I think Intensely problematic and and a bigger and bigger problem for more and more people four and ten Barrowers who are low income in higher education drop out with debt I mean that's a huge number and these are people who for whom Kevin's talking about that we sort of you know just sort of brand them with the sort of scarlet D debtor or default or delinquent letter and You know just sort of go after them and try to get their money back, right? That's not really the point of education or higher education And I think we should again grapple with the consequence of that rather than having a conversation about some Magic number below which debt would probably be okay. We need to instead be thinking about how do we? collectively finance and facilitate Educational attainment so that then children and families and Americans is who we're talking about our position to make good choices Where today they often have none when you really put an equity frame on it And if we think about education and it really should happen, you know, I worked hard. I did well I achieved well in school. I should be able to achieve, you know You know similar outcomes of someone who worked as hard and did as well I mean there's that sense of that, right? And if if if If student debt is is making us delay 401k delay buying a house and delay doing these other kind of things that is this fundamentally problematic Because if we don't do those things early on even though I'm I have all the same credentials as someone else My wealth trajectory later in life is going to be much different. We've come to conflate Grants and loans. They just kind of trips off our tongue grants and loans Well grants and loans are not the same thing loans are not financial aid I mean, I wish I could just say this over again student loans are not financial aid if I go to a car dealer And they say well finance the car. They're not doing me a favor You know, they're like, I mean they're doing it because it's in their interest to kind of help me buy what they're selling Loans are not financial aid