How For-Profit Colleges Contribute to Growing Inequality

In this Oct. 6, 2011 photo, Gan Golan, of Los Angeles, dressed as the "Master of Degrees," holds a ball and chain representing his college loan debt, during Occupy DC activities in Washington.

Tressie McMillan Cottom, an assistant professor of sociology at Virginia Commonwealth University, joins us to discuss her book, Lower Ed: The Troubling Rise of For-Profit Colleges in the New Economy. Cottom examines the rapid growth of for-profit colleges -- over two million students are currently enrolled in for-profit colleges like ITT Technical Institute and DeVry. She reveals how they contribute to growing inequality and looks at the marketing strategies that these schools use to recruit students, despite the well-documented predatory practices of some and the campus closings of others.