To get a student loan at Broward College, one of Florida’s largest community colleges, you first have to sit through a two-hour financial lesson with Kent Dunston.
It’s a little like Scared Straight, the 1978 documentary designed to keep kids from ending up in prison.
Dunston’s lesson, though, is about scaring students into making good financial choices. Nationwide, student loans total more than $1.2 trillion. And schools now face punishment — even closure — by the federal government if the rate is too high.
You’re not going to borrow more than the amount of money you need to attend, Dunston tells the students. “You’ll be offered more. You don’t need it.”