[hajile]

Student loan terms are the worst loan terms our country has had since debtors prison was taken off the table.

You have to go to college to be allowed to sweep the floors (so to speak) and because bad loans are available, college tuition grows to match the available balance.

The result is that people are forced into loans with bad terms by necessity only to find out they can't buy that house because they already have a horrible mortgage on their education.

The idea of trading the chains of bad loans now for a few votes (and only potential chains later) understandably becomes appealing.

If anything, this shows that college needs to go back to basics and become sustainable again. Capping student loans at amounts way below current market would be a good start (perhaps at what colleges cost in 1980 before super inflation happened).

[abra_kadabra]

Capping student loans would definitely be a positive first step in the process. A study conducted by the federal reserve bank of NY found that:

"We find apass-through effect on tuition of changes in subsidized loan maximums of about 60cents onthe dollar, and smaller but positive effects for unsubsidized federal loans. The subsidized loaneffect is most pronounced for more expensive degrees, those offered by private institutions, andfor two-year or vocational programs"

http://www.newyorkfed.org/research/staff_reports/sr733.pdf