Students aren’t the only ones graduating with massive debt – parents are increasingly overburdened, too. As ProPublica’s Marian Wang and The Chronicle of Higher Education’s Beckie Supiano and Andrea Fuller explained last week, more parents are now approaching retirement saddled with debt from Parent Plus loans – a growing federal program that doesn’t verify whether applicants can afford to repay the loans.

The fact that more parents are taking on the debt burden for their children’s college education is symptomatic of the ballooning cost of higher education. And the systemic shift in financial aid brings up some important questions: Who should be responsible for ensuring families only assume loans they can afford? As college costs continue to rise, will we eventually hit a financial aid ceiling? Do families really need to pay the price for an elite, private institution?

Friday at 2 p.m. ET, join ProPublica’s Marian Wang the Chronicle of Higher Education’s Beckie Supiano and financial aid expert Mark Kantrowitz for a Google Plus hangout on these issues.

Want to join? RSVP below. All you need is a gmail address (and, of course, an active Google Plus account). We’re particularly interested in involving folks who work in financial aid at a higher education institution, as well as parents and students who want to learn more. If that’s you, RSVP!

We’ll accommodate as many guests as we can.
 

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