The Responsible Solution to the Student Debt Crisis

Townhall..com ^ | March 16, 2020 | Robert Graham

[Java4Jay]

My daughter is paying 6% interest on her grad fed student loan debt. Undergrad is subsidized and at a lower rate.

She is a future tax payer, lower the rate especially to the ones making consistent on-time payments, (earn the right for lower interest)

This would help her a lot.

[Do_Tar]

I’m gonna go with “locusts”.

[pepsionice]

Some PhD guy should do a study and lay out the idea of loaning a kid only the amount of money for his study....that his general income level will be for 10 years after graduation. Beyond that....zero loan.

If you were stupid and got a degree that will only net you $35k per year for the next decade after graduation....the total loan probably ought to max out at $25k. If that’s not enough to cover the cost....maybe you shouldn’t be in college, and some occupational deal via a community college would be in order.

[Vigilanteman]

What you describe is a dream, not a realistic solution.

A realistic solution would involve getting the federal government out of the student business completely by a combination of loan write-down and hanging the majority of the balance, 75% or so, back on the institution which originated the debt. They would have four choices as follows:

1. Collect the debt themselves, with an attachment against their endowments and real estate in the event of default. They could use tools like withholding transcripts or revoking degrees.
   
2. Organize their own group of lenders to purchase the debt and make future loans. Hillsdale is already doing this quite successfully.
   
3. License commercial banks to get back into the student loan business in exchange for purchasing some of the debt. They are already partially there with current refinancing offers.
   
4. The public solution on a state or local level. The Bank of North Dakota already provides a successful model. They limit their loan exposure by limiting lending to students making measurable progress toward graduation in marketable degrees. Tuition at state colleges and universities remains modest compared to most of the country and, as a result of these and other factors, their default rate in near 0%.

[Candor7]

What you describe is a dream>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

You mean just like the leftist dream from 1970 that has successfully turned our institutions of higher learning into leftist indoctrination centers?

I have no problem McCarthyizing our colleges and universities, cutting off all their federal funding via student loans for conduct which subverts the Constitution