What would be the financial ramifications to allowing students to?
I have to admit Im coming around to supporting bankruptcy as a means of discharging student loan debt. But there is an aspect to this no one is discussing. The government will loan money to anybody, without regard to the likely outcome. If a dozen high school graduates go off to college: Five will drop out. (The bad news is that 50% of them are making no payments on their loans at all. The good news is their average loan balance is a lot lower than that of a graduate.) Three will graduate, but end up underemployed, making that average $300 payment really burdensome. Only four will graduate and get a real job. The future growth of the student loan debt crisis could be significantly reduced if the government would put some restrictions on how this money gets doled out. Notes Mark Kantrowitz has a really good post on this subject elsewhere on Quora. There is a Center for American Progress study that shows 30% of college graduates with debt are making no payments.