The New Press publishes books that promote and enrich public discussion and understanding of the issues vital to our democracy and to a more equitable world. This paperback edition published by The New Press, 2018 Requests for permission to reproduce selections from this book should be mailed to: Permissions Department, The New Press, 120 Wall Street, 31st floor, New York, NY 10005.įirst published in the United States by The New Press, New York, 2017

No part of this book may be reproduced, in any form, without written permission from the publisher. Tressie McMillan Cottom is an assistant professor of sociology at Virginia Commonwealth University whose work has been featured by NPR’s Fresh Air and Marketplace, The Daily Show, the New York Times, the Washington Post, Slate, Mother Jones, The Atlantic, Dissent, Vibe, Newsweek, and others. Now with a new foreword by Stephanie Kelton, economic advisor to Bernie Sanders's presidential campaign, this smart and essential book cuts to the very core of our nation's broken social contracts and the challenges we face in our divided, unequal society. With sharp insight and deliberate acumen, Tressie McMillan Cottom-a sociologist who was once a recruiter at two for-profit colleges-expertly parses the fraught dynamics of this big-money industry.ĭrawing on more than one hundred interviews with students, employees, executives, and activists, Lower Ed details the benefits, pitfalls, and real costs of the expansion of for-profit colleges.

Lower Ed is quickly becoming the definitive book on the fastest-growing sector of higher education at the turn of the twenty-first century: for-profit colleges.

'The best book yet on the complex lives and choices of for-profit students.'Īs featured on The Daily Show, NPR's Marketplace, and Fresh Air, the 'powerful, chilling tale' (Carol Anderson, author of White Rage) of higher education becoming an engine of social inequality <

Lower Ed by Tressie McMillan Cottom