Fail State

For most Americans today, college is the only path to a middle-class life, but it's increasingly out of reach. Certain people in the higher education industry are happy to take advantage of this fact. In this documentary exposé, Fail State reveals the dark story behind the rise of predatory for-profit colleges and why our higher education system, once the envy of the world, is leaving millions of Americans in financial ruin. This film follows various lower-income students who found themselves taken in by these for-profit schools and the hard truths they learned when they did not deliver. (Austin Film Festival)