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It contrasts earlier planning with today’s financial burdens and shows how students’ and parents’ strategies differ across social classes, while political discourse reshapes college’s job-preparation value.",{"@graph":14,"@context":72},[15,34,55],{"@type":16,"itemListElement":17},"BreadcrumbList",[18,23,27,31],{"item":19,"name":20,"@type":21,"position":22},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",1,{"item":24,"name":25,"@type":21,"position":26},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/","Document",2,{"item":28,"name":29,"@type":21,"position":30},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/healthcare/","Healthcare",3,{"item":32,"name":10,"@type":21,"position":33},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/indebted-no-more-paying-for-college-should-be-our-collective-responsibility/591821/",4,{"url":32,"name":10,"@type":35,"image":36,"author":41,"headline":10,"publisher":44,"fileFormat":47,"inLanguage":8,"description":12,"dateModified":48,"datePublished":49,"encodingFormat":47,"isAccessibleForFree":50,"interactionStatistic":51},"DigitalDocument",{"url":37,"@type":38,"width":39,"height":40},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/indebted-no-more-paying-for-college-should-be-our-collective-responsibility/591821.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":42,"@type":43},"Dipper","Person",{"url":19,"name":45,"@type":46},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-11-09","2026-10-15",true,{"@type":52,"interactionType":53,"userInteractionCount":33},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":54},"ViewAction",{"@type":56,"mainEntity":57},"FAQPage",[58,64,68],{"name":59,"@type":60,"acceptedAnswer":61},"What does college mean for middle-class families in the text?","Question",{"text":62,"@type":63},"College represents an achievement of generations working collectively and an expression of a family’s commitment to the future.","Answer",{"name":65,"@type":60,"acceptedAnswer":66},"How does the article describe changes in how families plan for college?",{"text":67,"@type":63},"It contrasts earlier decades—when middle-class parents and children planned differently—with today’s experiences of higher financial strain.",{"name":69,"@type":60,"acceptedAnswer":70},"How do some responses to the book question college choices in the text?",{"text":71,"@type":63},"Some argue young people should not rely on the educational system and instead choose cheaper options at lower cost or specific career-oriented pathways.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":32,"og:type":74,"og:title":10,"og:site_name":45,"og:description":12},"article",{"robots":76,"canonical":32},"index,follow",{"doc_id":78,"site_id":7},591821,1792665712,{"code":4,"msg":81,"data":82},"success",[83,87,91,95,100,105,109,114,119,122,126],{"id":22,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":84,"show_sort_weight":85,"slug":86},"Story & Novel",90,"story-novel",{"id":26,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":88,"show_sort_weight":89,"slug":90},"Literature",80,"literature",{"id":33,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":92,"show_sort_weight":93,"slug":94},"Exam",70,"exam",{"id":96,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":97,"show_sort_weight":98,"slug":99},5,"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":101,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":102,"show_sort_weight":103,"slug":104},6,"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":106,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":29,"show_sort_weight":107,"slug":108},7,40,"healthcare",{"id":110,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":111,"show_sort_weight":112,"slug":113},8,"Research & Report",30,"research-report",{"id":115,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":116,"show_sort_weight":117,"slug":118},9,"Religion & Spirituality",20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":117,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":120,"show_sort_weight":117,"slug":121},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":123,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":124,"show_sort_weight":123,"slug":125},10,"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":127,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":128,"show_sort_weight":96,"slug":129},19,"General","general",{"code":4,"msg":81,"data":131},{"doc_id":78,"user_id":132,"nickname":42,"user_avatar":133,"doc_module":4,"category_id":106,"category_name":29,"doc_title":10,"doc_description":12,"doc_content":134,"file_id":135,"file_url":136,"file_type":137,"file_size":138,"view_count":33,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":22,"is_downloadable":22,"audit_status":22,"page_count":101,"language":139,"language_code":8,"site_id":7,"html_lang":8,"table_of_contents":140,"faqs":141,"seo_title":142,"seo_description":12,"update_tm":143,"read_time":144,"preview_page_count":4},1374404997633,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_a8503ba1806abce46bf441b54a3ca4cd","Indebted No More  \nPaying for College Should Be Our Collective Responsibility  \nILLUSTRAT IONS BY CARLO GIAMBARRESI  \nBy Caitlin M. Zaloom  \nP  \nursuing a college degree—and the open future for young adults it is believed to secure—anchors what it means tobe middle class in the United States today. Acting on the conviction that the rising generation can and should do  \nbetter than their parents is a middle-class inheritance, and getting young adults to and through college is at the heart of this quest. American families hold fast to the goal of a college degree even during crises like the pandemic-induced economic crash that has consumed the United States.  \nThe families I spoke with for my book, Indebted: How Families Make College Work at Any Cost,* largely handled the load as they believed all middle-class families should: in private. Today, however, more and more American young people and their parents are  \nCaitlin M. Zaloom is a professor in the Department of Social and Cultural Analysis at New York University. As an anthropologist, she studies family, politics, and economic life. She is also a founder of the magazine Public Books and editor of the forthcoming The Long Year: A 2020 Reader. This article is excerptedfrom INDEBTED: How Families Make College Work at Any Cost by Caitlin Zaloom. Copyright © 2019 by Caitlin Zaloom. Published by Princeton University Press. Reprinted by permission.  \nspeaking out about the personal and social costs of college. After I highlighted some of the book’s key findings in a New York Times op-ed, more than 2,000 readers wrote in with their experiencesand criticisms of higher education’s financial burdens.  \nThese commentaries reinforced one of my book’s central arguments: for middle-class American families, college education is both an achievement of generations working collectively and an expression of a family’s commitment to the future. They also lent support to the fact that, in previous decades, middle-class parents and their college-going children experienced planning for college very differently from the way they do now. Across responses to the op-ed, parents stressed the contrast between their own realities as students with what they face for their children’s educations.  \nA teacher from Cleveland whose daughter attends a state university wrote in that she and her five siblings attended college without crippling debt. Her parents could offer meaningful assistance to all of them, even though their pay, as a teacher and apart-time nurse, was middling. Along with the modest wages she and her siblings earned through part-time work, they were able to make do. Today, she and her husband have continued her parents’  \n*Although Indebted was originally published in 2019, this article is adapted from the 2021 paperback edition and draws in part on its updated preface.  \n38 AMERICAN EDUCATOR | FALL 2021  \ncommitment to education. They take on just about every addi- explore and develop themselves. Although college is, of course, tional job they can—as a grader of Advanced Placement exams, also about preparing for work life, parents and students alike summer school and substitute teacher, and coach to a variety of spoke about self-cultivation as the main reason for pursuing teams—to supplement their income. But it’s not enough.“Wel- higher education. The college years are a unique time, they said, come to the middle class,” she wrote,“where you work harder, during which students have the freedom to discover interests and longer, and do more to provide less foryour children.” nurture talents; they can develop as whole people—not just as  \nIn contrast, some people have responded to Indebted by ask- budding employees—and make their own choices about their ing why young people don’t attend a cheaper four-year college futures. The college campus is also a unique place, one where outside the United States, enroll in community college to lower students can come together in pursuit of fashioning themse","cbCaipVn9aUmUO1i","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaipVn9aUmUO1i","pdf",597128,"English","# Pursuing College as Middle-Class Inheritance\n## Family responsibility and generational commitment\n# Personal and Social Costs of College\n## Reader experiences and central arguments\n# Planning for College Across Decades\n## Differing realities for parents and children\n# Debates About College Value and Funding\n## Politics, policy, and shifting educational priorities","[{\"question\":\"What does college mean for middle-class families in the text?\",\"answer\":\"College represents an achievement of generations working collectively and an expression of a family’s commitment to the future.\"},{\"question\":\"How does the article describe changes in how families plan for college?\",\"answer\":\"It contrasts earlier decades—when middle-class parents and children planned differently—with today’s experiences of higher financial strain.\"},{\"question\":\"How do some responses to the book question college choices in the text?\",\"answer\":\"Some argue young people should not rely on the educational system and instead choose cheaper options at lower cost or specific career-oriented pathways.\"}]","Indebted No More - Paying for College Should Be Our Collective Responsibility | PDF",1792073278,15]