[PapaBear3625]

OK, here's a purely free-market solution: have government get out of the student loan business entirely, and make student loans once again be dischargable in bankruptcy.

The student loan providers would then demand the same things I talked about, as a pre-condition for granting loans to students of that institution. Colleges who had too many defaulting students would be "red-lined" from having their students be eligible for loans.

Or the college could issue student loans themselves, out of their endowments.

[Lou L]

OK, here's a purely free-market solution: have government get out of the student loan business entirely

Now you're talking...

Were the government to get out of student loans altogether, banks and other financial lenders would look much harder at potential borrowers; hopefully, the same scrutiny and concern would be shown by the borrowers (students), before taking on such loans.

Such a model would most certainly let the air from the sails of the perennial inflation we see in college costs, but I think it would achieve many of our objectives.

Of course, many would cry that poor students would now NEVER have a chance. Perhaps then, colleges could take a look at funding those students through their endowments.