[Vigilanteman]

They do. But I genuinely feel sorry for Lisa. People have runs of bad luck, medical problems, bad decisions which they eventually even recognize and need to get a fresh start. But Lisa can't even discharge this debt through bankruptcy because it is mostly student loans sold to her by a predatory educational establishment.

Logical Seven Point solution to the student loan crisis:

1. Write off 25%. This is a necessary concession to the debtors who, in many cases, were duped into taking out loans they couldn't afford.
   
2. Return 75% to the institutions of origin for collection.
   
3. Institutes get to keep 5% of the 75% for their trouble but must remit the 70% back to the government.
   
4. They are free to hold up transcripts, cancel degrees and employ all the other measures they did to collect against the debtors as when they were students.
   
5. If the institutions still cannot pay back the governement within the normal loan times, the government is free to attach their endowments, real estate and other assets.
   
6. Government gets completely out of the loan business and encourages the institutions to line up their own lenders. If a tiny college like Hillsdale (Michigan) can do it, then there is no reason anyone else can't do the same.

   Yes, the taxpayer takes a 30% hit up front to liquidate this crisis, but that is far better than continuing to grow this monster.

[Mathews]

I only see 6 steps... What did I miss? Oh lookee there, a squirrel.

[NEMDF]

I just cannot be in favor of “forgiving” these debts due to the stupidity of the debtors.

And this Lisa, she is likely to be on public assistance regardless of her degrees.

I struggle with seeing her as the victim.

Perhaps if students would not go to schools that they cannot reasonably afford, those schools would be forced to create more affordable programs.

Just a few thoughts.

[oh8eleven]

Yes, the taxpayer takes a 30% hit up front to liquidate this crisis
Oh, like the amnesty bill signed by Reagan that "liquidated" the illegal alien problem? And BTW, don't be so feckin' generous with MY money.
The solution to the problem is for the debtors to suck it up and pay their own bills.

[sitetest]

Dear Vigilanteman,

Since your first point suggests that you're doing this after the fact for pre-existing student debt, an insuperable problem is that you can't legally execute most of your plan, as you'd be forcing parties to accept contractual terms that they may not want to accept.

You can't force the colleges to assume debt they never signed on for in the first place.

You can't cancel degrees of folks who don't pay their debts unless that was a pre-exiting contractual term between them and the college issuing the degree.

You can't attach the assets of a college or university for failure to pay a debt to the government they never voluntarily, contractually entered into in the first place.

This is something that could possibly be legally permissible moving forward, but there's already a trillion dollars worth of student debt, and your “plan” offers nothing to ameliorate that problem.

sitetest

[cableguymn]

No..

1) Get government OUT of student loans
2) let the private sector figure it out.

There is the fix to the problem.