Time to Make College Loans Dischargeable
This post has been revised following excellent additional information provided by Zakiya Smith of the Lumina Foundation and Rachel Fishman of the New America Foundation. Thanks! Student debt is the worst possible form of debt in one critical way: it almost never leaves you. You may be disabled, unemployed, or even dead, but you almost always still have to pay. This "non-dischargeable"status is said to exist because there is no way to repossess the assets (your education) to pay off the creditors. But that cannot be the only reason for this extreme rule. Instead, it's another example of putting bankers' needs above those of the average American. Federal student loans technically can be discharged (while private loans cannot-ever) but it's a very difficult process and almost no one does it. Among those seeking a discharge, about 40% are granted, but only 0.1% of student loan debtors filing for bankruptcy have sought to discharge their loans. Those...