Alan Michael Collinge is a student debt activist and founder of StudentLoanJustice.org.
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From hopeful beginnings to a broken system, student loans reveal how policy choices turned higher learning into a lifelong financial trap.
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Alan Michael Collinge is the founder of StudentLoanJustice.org, the first grassroots organization in the United States to advocate for student loan borrowers. Since founding StudentLoanJustice.Org in 2005, Collinge has been featured on 60 Minutes, and in print media including Fortune Magazine, San Francisco Chronicle, Boston Phoenix, Village Voice, Inside Higher Ed, and others. He has published editorials in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and The Hill, among others.
Collinge served as an associate scientist of aeronautics at the California Institute of Technology, and also was regional project director for a government loan program administered by the U.S. Department of Transportation. He holds BS, MS, and Eng. degrees in aerospace engineering from the University of Southern California.
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What to Expect With Student Loans This Year
Medium | January | 2025
Alan Collinge offers predictions and advice for college students considering taking out student loans, informed by more than two decades of studying the field. His prognostication for 2025 is particularly dire.
Medium | October | 2024
Collinge writes about the insidious phenomenon of supposedly grassroots actors pretending to act on behalf of borrowers but actually acting in the interests of corporations and lenders.
Co-authors: Peter J. Reilly | Forbes | July | 2013
Peter Reilly and Alan Collinge discuss the issue of applying fair value accounting to federal student loan programs
Co-authors: Jonathan D. Glater | New York Times | August | 2008
Glater profiles Alan Collinge, an activist against predatory student loan sharks.
Publications by this author
The Most Oppressive Debt in U.S. History—And How We Can Fight Back
Beacon Press | February | 2009
Alan Collinge reveals the harmful and unfair practices of the student loan industry, something he never planned to get involved in. Initially, like many other people, Collinge expected to graduate from college, pay off his loans, and move on. But, despite working hard, he fell behind on payments and found himself trapped in a complicated and stressful student loan system. Today, students face much larger debts than before. The average undergraduate borrower leaves school owing over $20,000, and graduate students often graduate with about $42,000 in loans. Over the past two decades, college costs have increased much faster than inflation, with much of this cost being transferred to student debt.
The book exposes how the $85 billion student loan industry is built on exploiting borrowers. He explains how federal laws passed in the mid-1990s removed consumer protections from student loans, allowing companies to charge excessive penalties and use harsh methods to collect debts. The book also traces the history of student loans, the rise of companies like Sallie Mae, and how universities have profited at the expense of students.
Collinge shares true stories of people whose lives have been ruined by these predatory practices. With nearly 5 million loans in default, the crisis is getting worse. Collinge calls for the return of protections for borrowers and other reforms to fix this growing problem.Media by this author
Interview | December | 2022
Collinge talks about the Democratic Partyʼs failure to pass bankruptcy legislation, which he describes as a historical betrayal.
Interview | February | 2022
Collinge discusses the mediaʼs portrayal of student loan debt and student loan borrowers, especially the obfuscation of facts around this issue, and the sections of society particularly affected by this epic crisis.
Interview | May | 2021
Collinge makes a presentation about the broken student loan system to the Connecticut Green Party.
Cancel Student Loans and Antitrust Can Save Section 230 With Alan Collinge & Elliot Harmon - MR Live
Interview | December | 2020
Sam Seder talks to Alan Collinge about the case for cancelling student loans.
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