Student-Debt Debate Is Stoked by Caveats About Data

By Jonah Newman. A debate is raging about whether rising student-loan debt constitutes an existential crisis in American higher education or the natural outcome of more Americans’ pursuing a college degree. That debate was stoked this week by the release of Andrew Rossi’s new documentary film, Ivory Tower, and a report, by Beth Akers and Matthew M. Chingos of the Brookings Institution, that made waves on the Internet after David Leonhardt wrote about it in The New York Times on Tuesday. More...