ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on neoliberalism and African American student loan debt for several reasons. These reasons are: African Americans are more likely to be unemployed or underemployed than Asians, Hispanics and Whites, and African Americans are targeted by for-profit postsecondary learning institutions and are more likely to incur higher student loans from these institutions than other races. It also includes African Americans leave both for-profit and traditional colleges and universities with student loan debt and without a degree than other races. African Americans, Hispanics, and other racial and economic minority groups have viewed a college degree as a ladder for upward socioeconomic mobility and an opportunity for achieving the American Dream. Over the past two decades, for-profit postsecondary learning institutions have rapidly increased in number. In 2014, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel introduced the Star Chicago Scholarship, which pays for tuition, fees, and books at any City College of Chicago.
