WorkingNation spent four years in Indianapolis researching, reporting, and interviewing people about the city's changing middle class. The result of that work is "The Middle: Indianapolis."

On this episode of All In, WorkingNation's Melissa Panzer and Joan Lynch reflect on some of the stories to emerge about middle-class Hoosiers and the workplace trends affecting their lives. Donte Sims, a former Carrier worker, joins the conversation to tell his story of going back to school to follow his passion for engineering technology. 

Photo: Brian Munoz

Kendrick Harrison, a disabled Army veteran, had dreams of earning a college degree after leaving the service. But when the for-profit Argosy University shut down in March 2019, he and hundreds of students were left empty handed. Even worse, no one from the government or his university seemed interested in helping him navigate the fallout of the sudden closure of the college. 

When Argosy shut down, Harrison was three months shy of getting his degree. Argosy's closure meant an end to the loan money that paid for the family’s expenses. Harrison couldn’t pay rent, and he and his family faced being homeless.

As the need for a college credential in the labor market grows, so, too, has the price of earning one and the debt that increasingly comes with it. It’s not surprising then that the value of higher education is often reduced to dollars and cents or that people are questioning whether it’s worth the cost.

Yet, the full value of higher education can’t be measured in financial outcomes alone. It must also take into account the advancement of social justice, argue Kayla Elliot and Tiffany Jones in this essay.