[phyzix5761]

Because its usually tax payer money that is used to fund these loans. If people started declaring bankruptcy tax payers would mandate that federal student loans stop existing as a matter of principle. People hold the value that its good to help students as long as they pay back at least what was given to them (adjusted for inflation).

[conductr]

We could also just decide to provide people higher level of education as a right. And, put some Medicare level pricing in place for colleges and universities to get cost in check.

I personally would want to see it with greater student participation/testing. The US education has been watered down to be so easy specifically because failing reduces LTV of a student. They want to just crank out degrees to as many people as they can. I personally think we need to figure out the healthy balance of education we need, because college for all isn’t it. Then just pay for them to learn at a high expectation level. Private schools will still exist to pump out full price degrees and that’s fine too.

[phyzix5761]

I agree. College is not for everyone. Also, we already have an option for those of us who want to provide higher education for people who can't afford it: charities. The advantage of giving my money to a charity instead of the government is that if the organization mismanages the funds it takes me 2 minutes to switch my monthly donation to a different organization. If government mismanages funds it takes between 2-6 years for an election cycle, and even then my candidate may not win or take my needs as a priority.

[conductr]

Charity is fine, but the scale I’m talking about usually makes sense as a social program that we all participate in and that’s usually where governments come into the picture

[labcomputer]

Well, yes, and I agree, but that means colleges would need to do some considerable belt tightening. There’s plenty of fat to trim, mostly as a result of the last quarter century of student loan policy.

[conductr]

Yes, they can’t be expected to do so voluntarily though so I think the economic pressure to force them to decide how to prioritize their spending is a good thing