Repay as You Earn: The Flawed Government Program to Help Students have Public Service Careers

Abstract

There has long been speculation that excessive debt could influence major and career choices (e.g., Karmer & VanDusen, 1986; Newman, 1985). While research [End Page 476] does not yet confirm a relationship between debt and major choice (St. John, 1994), there is reason to be concerned about whether excessive debt influences the career choices made after college. Students who end up in career fields that are unrelated to the college majors are more likely to default (Flint, 1997). With the growing level of student debt, the role of debt burden should be of concern to faculty across the disciplines because repayment can be problematic, even in elite professions. Phillip Schrag's Repay As You Earn provides a sound review of recent federal efforts to ease repayment burden for students choosing public service careers. It also provides a case study documenting the reasons why a low percentage of law school graduates have not chosen this alternative repayment scheme.