TY - JOUR
T1 - Promises and Profit in “Debt-Free” Higher Education
T2 - The Geographies of Income Share Agreements in the United States
AU - Rosenman, Emily
AU - Cohen, Dan
AU - Baker, Tom
AU - Arapko, Ksenia
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 by American Association of Geographers.
PY - 2022
Y1 - 2022
N2 - As student debt in the United States rose to $1.7 trillion in 2021, the value and accessibility of higher education has been a subject of fierce public debate. In this context, income share agreements (ISAs) are framed as an alternative to conventional student loans. ISAs entail investors paying a student’s tuition in exchange for a share of the student’s future income. As the use of ISAs increases, especially within U.S. vocational schools, there is evidence that ISAs have used predatory financial practices aimed at marginalized students. Motivated by the rapid growth of ISAs in the United States and the relative absence of geographic attention to them, this article discusses their nature and broader significance to geographic debates. Informed by gray literature, news articles, industry documents, and the scant academic writing on ISAs, we discuss the characteristics, histories, and geographies of ISAs before examining the roles and motivations of three involved constituencies: students, higher education institutions, and investment intermediaries. In doing so, we highlight how ISAs reorient who pays for education and when, what sort of education is paid for, and how private markets profit from higher education. We then highlight the broader significance of ISAs to geographical understandings of (1) the financialization of social reproduction, (2) geographies of education, and (3) digital capitalism. We argue that ISAs’ individuating logics and broader context of social reproductive crises are revealing of a wider trend toward private profit via predatory inclusion, accelerated by financial technologies.
AB - As student debt in the United States rose to $1.7 trillion in 2021, the value and accessibility of higher education has been a subject of fierce public debate. In this context, income share agreements (ISAs) are framed as an alternative to conventional student loans. ISAs entail investors paying a student’s tuition in exchange for a share of the student’s future income. As the use of ISAs increases, especially within U.S. vocational schools, there is evidence that ISAs have used predatory financial practices aimed at marginalized students. Motivated by the rapid growth of ISAs in the United States and the relative absence of geographic attention to them, this article discusses their nature and broader significance to geographic debates. Informed by gray literature, news articles, industry documents, and the scant academic writing on ISAs, we discuss the characteristics, histories, and geographies of ISAs before examining the roles and motivations of three involved constituencies: students, higher education institutions, and investment intermediaries. In doing so, we highlight how ISAs reorient who pays for education and when, what sort of education is paid for, and how private markets profit from higher education. We then highlight the broader significance of ISAs to geographical understandings of (1) the financialization of social reproduction, (2) geographies of education, and (3) digital capitalism. We argue that ISAs’ individuating logics and broader context of social reproductive crises are revealing of a wider trend toward private profit via predatory inclusion, accelerated by financial technologies.
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U2 - 10.1080/24694452.2022.2054769
DO - 10.1080/24694452.2022.2054769
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85131423085
SN - 2469-4452
VL - 112
SP - 2305
EP - 2323
JO - Annals of the American Association of Geographers
JF - Annals of the American Association of Geographers
IS - 8
ER -