They were made to people going to beauty school, dubious vocational schools, diploma mills and places that are outright frauds - they get you the loan and you split the money with them and never actually attend school at all.
Abuse of the student loan programs is massive and any who took them never had any intention of paying them back int he first place.
Not true. I took out student loans for my undergraduate and paid them back. We have new student loans for my children and we intend to pay them back. The difference is, this time, the debt is astronomical, and job prospects are very weak, even for good, practical degrees, like accounting and computer science. It's a very bad situation, and if you think there are no good, honest student loan borrowers who might be severely tempted by an offer of forgiveness, you would be sadly mistaken.
Plus there are these fly by night schools that you see on TV with claims that you can get a good job real fast.