I really like this idea from Kurt Schlichter: “student loans need to come from the school and to be dischargeable in bankruptcy”

Wordpress ^ | July 9, 2020 | Dan from Squirrel Hill

[grundle]

I really like this idea from Kurt Schlichter: “student loans need to come from the school and to be dischargeable in bankruptcy”

Kurt Schlichter just wrote this excellent column, with a whole bunch of ways to improves colleges.

Of Schlichter’s many excellent ideas, this one is my favorite. He wrote:

Third, student loans need to come from the school and to be dischargeable in bankruptcy. A school is going to be a lot less eager to say, “Sure, go ahead and major in Norwegian Feminist Dance Theory” if they are on the hook when their ardent young scholar can’t get a gig that can pay back the sticker price.

That’s brilliant – absolutely brilliant.

I hope Schlichter’s idea gets adopted as national policy.

[DoodleDawg]

Then colleges can either go out of business, or streamline themselves so tuition is more affordable, or adopt other cost saving measures.

Remove funding from public universities, as Schilchter proposes, and all public universities will go out of business. They are no longer state institutions so they no longer exist. That leaves private schools. Tax their endowments at confiscatory levels, as Schlichter proposes, and their ability to provide student aid disappears. Remove student loans and students can't afford to attend because they can't afford the tuition that the schools would have to charge. No students, no need for private universities either. Schlichter's essay was titled "This Is A Great Opportunity To Destroy Academia" and that's what he wants to do. And while I agree with his premise that many jobs don't require a college degree, others jobs like medicine and engineering and science and business do. So destroy your universities and where do you get those people from?

[aquila48]

“Why should they repay them if they can do away with them entirely through bankruptcy?”

That’s a real dumb argument Dawg.

Do you have any debt? If not you’ve repaid it. If yes, why don’t you just declare bankruptcy and see how that works out for you.

[semimojo]

I would rather a bunch of colleges go under, than have taxpayers be forced to pay it.

Do you think it's in our national interest that a lot of young people get formal education beyond high school?

[DoodleDawg]

That’s a real dumb argument Dawg.

Is it?

Do you have any debt? If not you’ve repaid it. If yes, why don’t you just declare bankruptcy and see how that works out for you.

I'm not talking about me. I didn't graduate with hundreds of thousands of dollars in tuition debt but I know some who did. So why is it so hard to believe that some of those people would take advantage of bankruptcy if they could? And again, it wouldn't take more than 10% or 15% of student loan holders to do that to kill the program entirely. If the risk is too high then why should banks make the loans?

[aquila48]

“I’m not talking about me.”

Well if that is such a great idea, why don’t you take advantage for the loans you have? Do you have a mortgage, just file bankruptcy. Or just max out several credit cards and file BK.

It’s so easy, right?

“And again, it wouldn’t take more than 10% or 15% of student loan holders to do that to kill the program entirely.”

Banks are not that stupid. They wouldn’t tolerate 1% default rates before they started tightening their underwriting standards.

[boxlunch]

This in itself is worth pushing the idea.

Also get rid of 4 year degrees for most teachers. Let them show competence ( real competence ) in their subject matter And pass a test. They don’t need to be indoctrinated in socialist thought for four years. You could get a lot more numbers of qualified elementary and middle school teachers available if they could pass tests and be quickly certified.