[oldprogrammer2]

If one student chooses to get their degree from a state school at a cost of $10k/year, and another student chooses to go to a private school at $50k/year, why should taxpayers reward the second student, for making a poor financial choice, with 5x the funds?

If there’s going to be student loan debt forgiveness, at least max it out at that person’s average in-state public tuition rate.

When students and universities are both just spending other people’s money, there’s no thought toward financial viability, and the prices will only keep escalating.

[eesmith]

You need to wind the clock back. Why did the loan agency authorize granting such a risky loan?

It's not only the student who made the poor financial choice. The government chose to back that loan, and the government chose to make it harder to discharge that debt, and the government chose to provide loans to students attending for-profit colleges, which have a higher rate of student defaults.

[klodolph]

I don’t see why things should be equal.

The school system doesn’t spend an equal amount of money on each student in the first place. Students with special needs get more—that includes both students with learning disabilities and students who are gifted.

The students who have learning disabilities aren’t “rewarded” with extra per-student spending. Neither are the gifted students. It’s not a reward.

[oldprogrammer2]

Determining need in the context of disability isn't the same argument, though. That's a cost specific to the individual.

I'm all for public/state schools providing even more assistance to those in need, but I couldn't be more opposed to private institutions being free to charge $500k/year or $1mil/year, and then we as taxpayers just pay it because someone decided they liked the dorm rooms better. That doesn't make sense at all.

[klodolph]

Well, one of the reasons why institutions are free to charge so much in the first place is because student loans are so hard to get discharged. Normal loans get discharged in bankruptcy. Student loans don’t.