Breaking Point

This thoughtful and provocative book highlights the problems that contribute to intolerable debt burdens and limited job prospects for too many students. Kevin Connell makes an important contribution to the debate on how we can improve our global competitiveness while satisfying the legitimate needs of students who are poorly served by today's education-financial complex. -- Thomas Stanton, fellow at the Center for Advanced Governmental Studies at Johns Hopkins University, former head of the Office of Policy Planning of the Federal Trade Commission
Kevin Connell has covered new ground and uncovered old problems in his incisive analysis of what ails higher education. This is a great read for anyone interested in the growing crisis in American universities arising out of an increasingly perverse economic environment in which schools operate. -- Richard Vedder, Ohio University
Amid our then-rising space race and international conflict with the Soviet Union, Congress passed the National Defense Education Act in 1958 to make college affordable and available. Aimed at "strengthening the economy, improving innovation, and ensuring national security," this cost-effective program helped America compete globally. It also helped millions reach the sprawling middle class and realize their life's ambition. Spurning this simple and practical objective, however, universities, college financial lenders, and an indifferent Congress have let college pricing explode in recent decades, forgetting the students they exist to serve. Breaking Point is a well-researched book which seeks to right this program's wrongs, thus ensuring that college students receive college degrees that once again help graduates achieve the American Dream. -- Curt Smith, former speechwriter to President George H. W. Bush; author of Voices of the Game; regular columnist for GateHouse Media Inc. newspapers