A Dream Defaulted explores how the student loan crisis disproportionately affects Black borrowers and why rising student debt is both a cause and consequence of social inequality in the United States. Authors Jason N. Houle and Fenaba R. Addo offer a deft analysis of the growing financial crisis in education. Based on more than five years of ongoing qualitative and quantitative research, this incisive work illustrates how the student loan system has not benefited all students equally. Through interviews with borrowers, the authors illuminate the ways in which racial disparities compounded by centuries of institutionalized racism affect who has college access, how and why people take on debt, and who has the ability to repay student loan debt after leaving college. Recognizing that the affordability crisis cannot be solved by higher education reform alone, the authors argue that policy must extend beyond debt reduction and financial aid to address entrenched patterns of racial inequality and racial discrimination, both inside and outside institutions of higher education. "Contrary to popular opinion, the student debt crisis is not a consequence of frivolous or unwise spending decisions on the part of young people seeking undergraduate degrees.

In this important book, Houle and Addo demonstrate that structural rather than individual factors have produced the current emergency. Houle and Addo not only examine the racialized scope and impact of the student debt crisis but also provide recommendations for pathways out of the catastrophe." --William A. Darity Jr. , founding director, Samuel DuBois Cook Center on Social Equity, Duke University Jason N. Houle is an associate professor of sociology at Dartmouth College. Fenaba R. Addo is an associate professor of public policy at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.