There are currently $1.3 trillion in student debts being held by 41 million Americans (which averages to about $32,000 a piece). Under current laws, filing bankruptcy in the United States will not erase student debts. When compared to the inflation rate for college tuition amounts across the US, experts are estimating that our nationwide student loan amount should total around $2.5 million within the next decade.

 

The US Supreme Court is currently weighing whether or not they will hear a case that could potentially add student loans to the list of debts covered by the bankruptcy process.

 

Do you think student debts should be erasable through bankruptcy?

I could get on board if the amount of possible loan funds were also reduced. We're setting up a real mess if you can bankrupt student loans but the government is also on the hook for seemingly unlimited loans when they're first being taken out.

 

Government-backed student loans could probably use a sharp reduction all around, but we as a culture seem to have decided that this is what we want from our higher education system.

What valid points are there that should make student loans any different than other loans?

I could get on board if the amount of possible loan funds were also reduced. We're setting up a real mess if you can bankrupt student loans but the government is also on the hook for seemingly unlimited loans when they're first being taken out.

 

Government-backed student loans could probably use a sharp reduction all around, but we as a culture seem to have decided that this is what we want from our higher education system.

 

I agree with you and it's also worth noting these loans are complicit in the sharp increase in the cost of a college education. They're essentially a dramatic subsidy to higher education. And when the product isn't improving much commensurate to the money being injected into it, that's a problem.

 

With that said I don't know what the solution is from a policy standpoint. I think education is a necessity for a functioning society, but I also see loads of problems with how we are going about it now.

I could see a lot of people going to college with the intention of filing for bankruptcy as soon as they get out of school. Many wouldn't but many many would take that idea and run with it.

I agree with you and it's also worth noting these loans are complicit in the sharp increase in the cost of a college education. They're essentially a dramatic subsidy to higher education. And when the product isn't improving much commensurate to the money being injected into it, that's a problem.

 

With that said I don't know what the solution is from a policy standpoint. I think education is a necessity for a functioning society, but I also see loads of problems with how we are going about it now.

 

The drastic reduction in state funding of universities should have had a devastating effect on public universities. What they figured out instead was that they could get even more subsidy by simply raising tuition and having federal loan programs make up the difference.

 

Universities across the country have built more new buildings and expanded projects in the last decade than they did in the three decades prior. Not since the baby boomers started going to college did we see massive expansion of universities like this and it simply shouldn't be happening.

I agree with you and it's also worth noting these loans are complicit in the sharp increase in the cost of a college education. They're essentially a dramatic subsidy to higher education. And when the product isn't improving much commensurate to the money being injected into it, that's a problem.

 

With that said I don't know what the solution is from a policy standpoint. I think education is a necessity for a functioning society, but I also see loads of problems with how we are going about it now.

The guarantee in repayment and easy access to the student loans is another reason for the construction boom going on at colleges across the country. This construction boom is not just on campus, but off-campus housing is being built on almost every block surrounding a school.

The drastic reduction in state funding of universities should have had a devastating effect on public universities. What they figured out instead was that they could get even more subsidy by simply raising tuition and having federal loan programs make up the difference.

 

Universities across the country have built more new buildings and expanded projects in the last decade than they did in the three decades prior. Not since the baby boomers started going to college did we see massive expansion of universities like this and it simply shouldn't be happening.

 

Absolutely. And just to tack on once more, this boom in new facilities, housing, amenities, and the like are how universities are competing with one another to woo students (and their tuition money). Education is an afterthought. It's a troubling state of affairs.

If they do start allowing bankruptcy, the first thing that will happen is that they will have more strict rules to qualify. Currently, all you have to do is enroll in college....get a loan...

No.

Here is where I lose my conservative side and go with the liberals.

 

Time to let them be bankrupt and time to clean higher education up.

The student loan problem is hurting grads' credit and consequently their ability to get loans for such things as cars and houses. This has a rippling effect throughout the economy. Something has to be done. These loans are not just for your traditional 4-year colleges. Many of them are for private trade and business schools. You go there for 2 months, quit and owe $8,000 plus accruing interest.

 

I would rather see a legislative rather than judicial remedy......if that is possible in Congress.

The student loan problem is hurting grads' credit and consequently their ability to get loans for such things as cars and houses. This has a rippling effect throughout the economy. Something has to be done. These loans are not just for your traditional 4-year colleges. Many of them are for private trade and business schools. You go there for 2 months, quit and owe $8,000 plus accruing interest.

 

I would rather see a legislative rather than judicial remedy......if that is possible in Congress.

 

How is that anyone but the students fault? Why should anything be done, they took out the loan, they should pay it back.

I would rather see a legislative rather than judicial remedy......if that is possible in Congress.

 

Nope. They'd each find solutions in opposite ways and neither side would find the will or the votes to accomplish either one.

How is that anyone but the students fault? Why should anything be done, they took out the loan, they should pay it back.

 

Let's forget about past loans. Should loans taken out in 2017 be bankruptable?