Robert H. Scott III, Ph.D., professor in the Department of Economics, Finance, and Real Estate, Joseph N. Patten, Ph.D., and Kenneth Mitchell, Ph.D., professors in the Department of Political Science and Sociology, recently published “Bait and Switch How Student Loan Debt Stifles Social Mobility.”
Scott, Patten, and Mitchell provide a historical overview of student loans and highlight how the student loan policy has evolved over the decades from a public good to a loan-based model, creating debt for millions of student borrowers contrary to its original purpose of promoting social mobility.
Their work additionally focuses on the negative impact the student loan policy has on Black, Hispanic, and first-generation college students, while offering policy recommendations to alleviate the student loan debt crisis.
Scott is the Arthur and Dorothy Greenbaum/Robert Ferguson/NJAR Endowed Chair in Real Estate Policy at Monmouth University, and has published three books with Palgrave, 23 peer-reviewed journal articles, and more than 30 additional scholarly artifacts. His research interests include credit and debt markets, applied econometrics, financial literacy, and small business financing. Scott earned his Ph.D., in economics from the University of Missouri at Kansas City.
Patten coaches the University’s policy debate team, the Debate Hawks, teaches courses in American politics and public policy, and is a recipient of the Monmouth University Distinguished Teaching Award. He earned his Ph.D. in political science from West Virginia University. The fourth edition of his co-authored textbook, “Why Politics Matters: An Introduction to Political Science,” is scheduled to be published in April 2024.
Mitchell is a Model UN advisor and teaches courses in politics and policy of Latin American; international relations; military governments and coups; and political economy in the developing world. His publications and peer-reviewed articles appear in the Journal of Post Keynesian Economics, Monthly Review, Challenge, Bulletin of Latin American Research, The Latin Americanist, and the Journal of Oxford Development Studies. He earned his Ph.D. in politics from Oxford University.