Summary Of John Oliver Student Debt

A Never Ending Sea of Debt In “Student Debt” on HBO’s Last Week Tonight, John Oliver discusses how awful student debt has become for college students nationwide. In a humorous way, Oliver’s segment on the student loan crisis in America reveals the truth about many for-profit schools, as well as their substantial costs, how they manage their money, and their recruitment processes. Stating some of the leading causes of debt in America, like credit card debt and auto loans, Oliver argues that student loans are a “special kind of debt” that reached over $1 Trillion as of 2012 (1). Oliver supports his claim by pointing out that student loans are inescapable and are the most collectable type of debt; resulting in garnished wages, being non

The reasons for this inflation in student loans, Oliver explains, are due to several factors. First, states have dramatically cut funding for education which has led to the rise of tuition at colleges. Since college has become more expensive, students are forced to take out more loans, which results in more bills (3). Second, Oliver states that many for-profit colleges charge their students five to six times the cost of community college and twice the cost of a four year state university. He further states that the reason why these colleges charge so much more has nothing to do with the quality of their education, instead the money is being spent on unimportant things like advertising. The only thing these predatory for-profit schools provide are “a first-class education in the depths of human depravity (4).” Oliver concludes his video by mentioning the fact that incoming freshman will probably be paying off their education for the rest of their lives so they better enjoy the next four years to the maximum, no matter

Oliver makes it obvious in his video that he believes student debt has been dramatically increasing for the past decade due to for-profit schools. I, too, believe that these types of colleges account for a large portion of this debt. For example, I think that for-profit schools have become a business rather than a place dedicated to education because, as Oliver mentions, recruiters from these schools are taught to use “pain points” on newcomers with low income. I believe that the reason they use this technique is to sell people on a for-profit school, resulting in these schools using their income on advertisement rather than the quality of their education (4). Although for-profit schools play a large role in this special type of debt, I agree with Oliver that public colleges and state universities are another leading cause of student debt. Due to the fact that state funding for public colleges and state universities have remained below historic levels since the Great Recession of 2008, states have been forced to raise tuition and reduce academic opportunities as well as student services. The only way most college students can keep up with this continuing rise of tution in schools is to take out more student loans which is causing