The text is a transcript of a segment from the show Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, where he criticizes the student debt problem in the US and the role of for-profit schools in exploiting it. He uses humor, sarcasm, and examples to illustrate how students are burdened with loans that are hard to repay and how they receive low-quality education from some schools that spend more on marketing than on teaching. He ends by urging current college students to enjoy their college years as much as possible, since they may be paying for them for the rest of their lives.
Here are the key facts extracted from the text:
1. Hundreds of thousands of students start classes at colleges and universities every week.
2. 7 out of 10 graduating students leave college with debt.
3. The total bill due for student loans in the US is over $1 trillion.
4. Student debt in the US is now bigger than debt from credit cards and auto loans.
5. Student debt is the second-largest type of debt, after mortgages.
6. Legally, student debt is non-dischargeable in bankruptcy.
7. Student debt has tripled in the past decade.
8. More than 90% of student debt is subsidized by the federal government.
9. The federal student loan program was started with good intentions, including making higher education more accessible.
10. The program was championed by President Lyndon B. Johnson, who wanted to make higher education available to all.
11. States have slashed funding for higher education by 23% in recent years.
12. Public institutions have responded by raising tuition rates, forcing students to take out larger loans.
13. For-profit schools account for nearly a third of all student loans, despite having only 13% of the country's students.
14. For-profit schools are not cheap, with tuition costs five to six times higher than community colleges and up to twice as high as four-year state universities.
15. For-profit schools spend a significant amount on marketing, with some schools spending up to 25% of their revenue on sales and marketing.
16. The faculty at for-profit schools are often underpaid, with some schools spending only 10-20% of their revenue on teachers.
17. For-profit schools have been known to use aggressive recruitment tactics, including targeting low-income youth and veterans.
18. Some for-profit schools have been accused of misleading students about job placement rates and the quality of their education.
19. The Obama Administration proposed tighter gainful employment standards for for-profit schools, but the industry spent $10 million lobbying against the regulations.
20. The for-profit school trade group, APSCU, has continued to lobby against regulations, including trying to weaken the gainful employment rules.
21. The student debt problem is not limited to for-profit schools, but is a larger issue that affects students across the country.
22. The federal government has decided that education is not important enough to pay for, leading to a reliance on student loans.