Student debt, some might contend, is a purely financial matter and begins long before students ever arrive on a college campus. Responding to composition's relative disinterest, this article looks to begin the conversation regarding debt's place in the teaching of writing. Against the transactional mechanism lenders insist it to be, debt, as the author argues, is an ideological apparatus with significant bearing on the agency of subjects in contemporary global society. Broadly conceived, the author's course introduces students to the material, ideological, and rhetorical force of debt. Students can expect to leave as more skilled writers and readers and with a greater understanding of debt's operation and an informed sense of how to respond to the conditions of the institution.