Shadow Student Debt
For-profit schools and predatory lenders drive students to take on risky shadow debt.
In the shadow of the student loan market sits a hidden web of credit and debt taken on by students to pay for college. These high-cost, high-risk financial products are used to prop up predatory for-profit schools across the country. Financial services firms partner with schools to drive students and families to take on billions of dollars of shadow student debt.
WHat We’re Doing
Exposing schools that partner with predatory lenders
Students go into debt through deals that blur the line between school and lender, but leave families footing the bill and struggling to access their rights. We expose these back-room deals between colleges and financial firms.
Identifying and analyzing predatory financial products
We spotlight unlawful and harmful practices by financial firms and FinTech lenders that offer students access to a dizzying array of high-cost, high risk credit products marketed as innovative ways to pay for college.
Combatting institutional debts and protecting students
We fight for students who owe debts directly to schools for unpaid bills, fines, fees, and financial aid returned to the government—debts that often accrue interest and may be serviced or collected by private firms.
By The Numbers
BILLIONS OF DOLLARS
Over the past decade, hundreds of thousands of students took on billions of dollars in shadow student debt to attend predatory for-profit schools.
$50 BILLION
Big banks made more than $50 billion in private student loans that could be wiped away in bankruptcy.
$390 MILLION in institutional debt
In California, 750,000 students in community colleges, Cal State universities, and the University of California will have incurred institutional student debts worth about $390 million in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. This is nearly 15% of all students who enrolled during this period.
In the Field
In The News
Featured Work
EXPLORE OUR OTHER WORK
PREDATORY LENDING & PRIVATE CREDIT
We believe that opportunity should not come with a lifetime of debt. We are fighting to hold private companies accountable, demanding justice for families, and rewriting the rules that shape how private credit is extended, serviced, collected, and reported across the economy.
Surveillance Credit & Big Tech
As Big Banks and Big Tech use information about families’ behavior when deciding who gets credit and how much it costs, we are sounding the alarm on how this new practice could drive families even further into debt—and who profits.
SCAM SCHOOLS
We work with state and federal policymakers to protect families from low-quality, predatory schools and online tech companies that leave students with worthless degrees and training and mountains of debt.
INSTITUTIONAL DEBT
For years, we have exposed the crisis of “institutional debts” owed directly to colleges for hidden costs, fees, and fines, and are leading statewide and federal efforts to end unjust practices like transcript withholding.
INCOME SHARE AGREEMENTS
We are fighting to hold Wall Street and Silicon Valley accountable for a years-long scheme to drive students into predatory Income Share Agreements.
BOOTCAMPS
We are fighting to hold bootcamp operators accountable for years of mismanagement and abuse.