Trailer: EDUCAUTION (Student Loan Debt Crisis)

I received this trailer in my email account from Robert Applebaum, executive director and co-founder of StudentDebtCrisis.org. The producers of this documentary are University of Southern California graduate students pursuing an independent thesis on the economic issues surrounding the American higher education system. You can find more information about this project on the Facebook page.



Synopsis: EDUCAUTION is a journey documentary film created by graduate students who are concerned about the future of the American Higher Education System. By focusing on the economic issues surrounding the higher education system, the film examines the increasing concerns of many Americans regarding the continuing decrease in the quality, value, and financial return of higher education in the market place. Through interviewing fellow Americans with real stories from diverse backgrounds, the filmmakers' goal has been to examine the current system, offer hope, and propose solutions towards preserving the American Higher Education System - a system that has been the main force behind much of the Modern World's achievements and advances. 

Here is another video documentary, Scholarship, about the growing student debt crisis by three journalism students--Alex Lancial, Tara Molina, and Jake Stein--at Arizona State University's Walter Cronkite School of Journalism.



Synopsis: The 26-minute production examines the student debt crisis in the United States and delves into issues local to Arizona. Illustrated through the voices of student debtors as well as university and government policymakers, "Scholarslip" explores five critical issues: increasing costs of tuition; deteriorating quality of higher education; diminishing value of a college degree in the job market; student dependence on state and federal financial assistance; and the effects on personal lives and aspirations. Lancial, Molina and Stein entered and documented the lives of three university students, each experiencing different personal and financial struggles yet sharing a common desire to pursue a college degree. Also featured are testimonies from John Kavanaugh, a representative in the Arizona legislature; Kent Hopkins, the Vice Provost of Enrollment at Arizona State University; and Natalia Abrams, a co-founder of Student Debt Crisis and Occupy Colleges. "Scholarslip" presents a generation under siege, challenging a seemingly out-of-control system that is sending millions into interminable debt.