Conversations That Matter: Claudia Dreifus and Zac Bissonnette

The comments from insiders and higher education policy wonks increase each day on Education Matters. Several authors have also been in touch with me to share their thoughts on issues about student loan debt and higher education. Most notably, I've had some great exchanges with Claudia Dreifus and Zac Bissonnette.

Ms. Dreifus and her husband, Andrew Hacker, have a forthcoming book entitled, Higher Education? How Colleges Are Wasting Our Money, And Failing Our Kids, And What We Can Do About It. There's already a lot of buzz and positive reviews about this new book. It is a pleasure and an honor to be in touch with Ms. Dreifus, and I want to publicly thank her husband and her for listing Education Matters on their website. As many of you are aware, I am in the midst of writing my own book about the student lending crisis (the working title is The New Indentured Educated Class: How Higher Education Has Impoverished The Best And The Brightest, And What We Can Do About It).  I look forward to receiving feedback from Mr. Hacker and Ms. Dreifus on that book, too.

As I said, I have also been in touch with Zac Bissonnette.Mr. Bissonnette is a frequent contributor to DailyFinance.com and the HuffingtonPost. We have had some lively discussions about the student lending crisis. It is so refreshing to find a person like him, as we agree on so many issues surrounding the student lending industry and how education is financed in the U.S. He, too, has a forthcoming book, which is also getting quite a bit of attention (it was just mentioned by Suzie Orman on a recent show), called Debt-Free U: How I Paid for an Outstanding College Education Without Loans, Scholarships, or Mooching off My Parents.