The student-loan industry was created to give everyone an equal shot at the American Dream. The opposite happened.

Former President Lyndon B. Johnson had a vision for America: equal access to higher education.

Known primarily for his "war on poverty," Johnson was aware of the inequities in education, and how at the time, only the wealthy were getting degrees. So he decided to build on his predecessor, Dwight Eisenhower's, work by further expanding access to student loans beyond scientists and mathematicians, hoping to give everyone who wanted to go to college the financial means to do so.

He did that by signing into law the Higher Education Act...