Students

Now, more than ever before, higher education is a necessary ladder for students looking to pull themselves into family-sustaining employment and financial security. Unfortunately, the ballooning cost of quality education has placed a massive $1.7 trillion debt load on the shoulders of American students. Predatory for-profit colleges and private career schools prey on vulnerable students and push them deeper into poverty by enrolling them in high-debt, low-return programs.

Know Before You Enroll

After our research report, Making the Grade, illuminated the enormous impact predatory for-profit colleges and private career schools have on low-income communities and communities-of-color in our state, we developed a multimedia consumer education campaign – Know Before You Enroll – to help prospective avoid these dangerous institutions. We have a website with toolkits for students, as well as trainings to help community members identify bad actors in the higher ed sector.

Research

In our newest report, Grading Maryland’s For-Profit Schools, we built on our past research to provide prospective students and their families with information about the quality and outcomes of Maryland for-profit and career schools, addressing the serious concerns with Maryland for-profit schools regarding high costs and low-returns, unfair and deceptive marketing that targets low-income communities of color, and low spending on student instruction.

Student Loan Servicing

For the past few years, MCRC has worked with partners to improve the student loan servicing industry in our state. Servicers, who are supposed to help borrowers affordably repay their loans, are currently driving customers deeper into debt due to perverse profit incentives. Our story banking work allows us to uplift borrowers’ voices, while pushing legislators to pass comprehensive legislation to protect students and taxpayers.

Videos

Take the Student Loan Tax Credit

The Student Loan Tax Credit is available to Maryland tax payers who have at least $20,000 in student loan debt.

Watch our Student Rights Program Manager, Dariya Brown, explain the tax credit and walk through the application. The tax credit is made available every year through the Maryland Higher Education Commission. Learn more here.