Several months ago I bemoaned the push by the local newspapers and college(s) to get people, especially unemployed people, into training and remedial education certification and degree programs where there are no jobs – no improvement in the standard of living – on the other side of completion, and it appears more to be a push by the schools themselves to increase revenue through increased student loans…

Every year, at least two million students enroll in private, for-profit colleges belonging to huge publicly traded corporations. The majority leave with nothing to show for their efforts except piles of debt they can’t pay off — debt that often carries predatory terms, like 20 percent interest.

Learn more about how these corporate giants, aided by the federal government, are getting rich by preying on working-class people trying to better their lives in “The Subprime Student Loan Racket” by Stephen Burd, in the new issue of the Washington Monthly.