{"product_id":"degrees-of-inequality-suzanne-mettler-9780465044962","title":"Degrees of Inequality: How the Politics of Higher Education Sabotaged the American Dream","description":"America's higher education system is failing its students. In the space of a generation, we have gone from being the best-educated society in the world to one surpassed by eleven other nations in college graduation rates. Higher education is evolving into a caste system with separate and unequal tiers that take in students from different socio-economic backgrounds and leave them more unequal than when they first enrolled. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Until the 1970s, the United States had a proud history of promoting higher education for its citizens. The Morrill Act, the G.I. Bill and Pell Grants enabled Americans from across the income spectrum to attend college and the nation led the world in the percentage of young adults with baccalaureate degrees. Yet since 1980, progress has stalled. Young adults from low to middle income families are not much more likely to graduate from college than four decades ago. When less advantaged students do attend, they are largely sequestered into inferior and often profit-driven institutions, from which many emerge without degrees and shouldering crushing levels of debt. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e In \u003ci\u003eDegrees of Inequality\u003c\/i\u003e, acclaimed political scientist Suzanne Mettler explains why the system has gone so horribly wrong and why the American Dream is increasingly out of reach for so many. In her eye-opening account, she illuminates how political partisanship has overshadowed America s commitment to equal access to higher education. As politicians capitulate to corporate interests, owners of for-profit colleges benefit, but for far too many students, higher education leaves them with little besides crippling student loan debt. Meanwhile, the nation s public universities have shifted the burden of rising costs onto students. In an era when a college degree is more linked than ever before to individual and societal well-being, these pressures conspire to make it increasingly difficult for students to stay in school long enough to graduate. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e By abandoning their commitment to students, politicians are imperiling our highest ideals as a nation. \u003ci\u003eDegrees of Inequality\u003c\/i\u003e offers an impassioned call to reform a higher education system that has come to exacerbate, rather than mitigate, socioeconomic inequality in America.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Suzanne Mettler\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 0465044964\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780465044962\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Basic Books\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 03\/11\/2014\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 272\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Hardcover\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 1.05lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.40h x 6.20w x 1.10d\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eReview Citation(s): \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e 01\/06\/2014\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eKirkus Reviews\u003c\/i\u003e 01\/15\/2014\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eBooklist\u003c\/i\u003e 03\/01\/2014 pg. 5\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eNew York Times Book Review\u003c\/i\u003e 06\/08\/2014 pg. 28\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eNew York Times Book Review\u003c\/i\u003e 06\/15\/2014 pg. 26\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eChoice\u003c\/i\u003e 03\/01\/2015 pg. 1233\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eNew York Review of Books\u003c\/i\u003e 07\/09\/2015 pg. 38","brand":"Suzanne Mettler","offers":[{"title":"Hardcover","offer_id":44119713775871,"sku":"9780465044962","price":36.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/files\/img_0a04ae75-10df-4b08-94ff-47bd400afc02.jpg?v=1687410587","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/degrees-of-inequality-suzanne-mettler-9780465044962","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}