• @[email protected]
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      543 months ago

      Nah. They just want to cut funding, not cut it completely. They need the dumb kids to grow up to be dumb workers and dumb voters. And to keep their own children in private schools to continue to rule over the poors.

      • Icalasari
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        323 months ago

        Ah, but cutting it completely means they could potentially go back to child labour, and they’ve already been trying to set the ground work for it

      • @[email protected]
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        You must live in a state where charter schools aren’t part of normal political discourse. It is happening, and it is what they’re striving for. They want the private schools, yes, but the mostly want unregulated for-profit religious charter schools where there is no oversight in what kids are taught (or if they’re taught)

  • ObjectivityIncarnate
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    How Did This Happen?

    College loans are not dischargeable in bankruptcy. Simple as that.

    With lenders knowing that the government will make sure they get paid, they’re happy to loan out any amount of money to anyone regardless of credit worthiness, because they take on literally zero risk.

    Then colleges realize the same, and jack up their prices in turn. The feedback loop brings us to where we are today. There is no market (or other) force putting any downward pressure on tuition costs, at all. This is the inevitable result.

      • @[email protected]
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        273 months ago

        Yes Biden is basically running on the idea of solving a lot of the problems he created. He spent most of his life in government. Those of us who are informed came to terms with that in 2020

          • bean
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            53 months ago

            None of us can see the future. Doing something in 2005 maybe made some sense at the time. Now he can see the chain from there to now and realizes it wasn’t good or needs fixing. It’s better than ignoring it.

            • @[email protected]
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              Plenty of people knew what he did was armful read the article I posted. He was getting paid by the banks and credit lenders at the time. Super ethical dude.

              This isn’t the first time. He’s just as responsible for the rise in incarceration. He tried to vote in a constitutional amendment to make sure states could overturn Roe v Wade. He was pro capital punishment until like five years ago. He did so much horrible shit over the years it’s hard to keep up.

              But now it’s trust me bro, just vote for me one more time and I’ll undo all the horrible shit I did

        • @[email protected]
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          73 months ago

          Not so much “came to terms” with it as much as “this dumb motherfucker is the only way we escape Trump. I hate him and his policies but I’ll vote for him I fucking guess.” Just like where we are now, but now many are even more pissed because it was already supposed to be just one term of a lesser evil before we’d have new options. Now goal posts are being moved and we all have to do it AGAIN for an asshole like Joe Biden who does not deserve it.

          Why can’t these old fuckers just die already?

            • @[email protected]
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              43 months ago

              Seems that way. It’s been pretty much how the DNC has operated for the last 20, so why would they change what’s been working for them?

              • @[email protected]
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                43 months ago

                Considering the staggering losses of state seats during that time, I’m not sure it has been working for them particularly well.

                They’ve sure done a lot of fundraising in that time though!

            • @[email protected]
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              23 months ago

              Bold to assume we won’t go extinct before the time needed to hold 20 more of these elections.

    • @[email protected]
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      83 months ago

      Yes this is generally true but I don’t feel like it’s fair to the colleges/universities who work to keep tuition and tuition increases in check. There are lots of decent public universities that have more reasonable tuition. The public university in my smallish city is about 10k a year for in-state. Not necessarily saying that’s ideal for everyone or cheap but it’s a far cry from these places pushing it to 40, 60, 100+k a year.

      • @[email protected]
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        83 months ago

        Also important to point out that we slashed Public Funding of these universities and that’s why the prices are going up in large part

        • @[email protected]
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          273 months ago

          He never thought he was horrible, so instead celebrate he was confused and horrified at the end :D

          Honestly I can’t think of a single other person who I heard about their dementia and thought ‘good’

    • ObjectivityIncarnate
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      Not that simple. This got started before he took office, and it culminated long after he was out of office. Way more than one person is to blame.

      https://www.tateesq.com/learn/student-loan-bankruptcy-law-history

      Student loans first became nondischargeable in bankruptcy in 1976 due to an amendment in the Higher Education Act. Section 439A of this act made student loan debt non-dischargeable until five years after the start of the repayment period, except in cases of undue hardship. Over time, laws were tweaked and widened to reinforce this limitation.

      • @[email protected]
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        153 months ago

        This got started when he went after Berkeley as the candidate for governor of California, then became worse when he was governor, then other governors copied his playbook, then laws were enacted to roll it nationwide, then got worse when he became president. Prior to Reagan becoming governor of California all state universities were free for residents in California. Reagan hated this because it led to poor minorities being able to get an education, and he hated nothing more than he hated poor minorities.

    • originalucifer
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      543 months ago

      this is a gross reality no one wants to admit… that the highest paid government officials in some states are coaches for state schools.

      we prioritize sports and ‘revenue’ over education ever time. humans suck

    • @[email protected]OPM
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      73 months ago

      Eh, that’s only an issue in D1 schools. Many elite universities don’t have that issue and they are still insanely expensive.

    • Aniki 🌱🌿
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      63 months ago

      In B4 TiCkEt SaLeS… as if the university couldn’t use that money for literally anything else.

  • @[email protected]
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    393 months ago

    I have accomplished very little in my life.

    I have pissed off innumerable people, been ostracized, ghosted, fired, disowned, discarded, and deserved all of it.

    I have never lived up to my potential. I’ve got less than zero ambition.

    I have been a historically awful husband and/or boyfriend.

    But I accomplished one thing:

    I got my daughter through college with no debt.

    While she did the work to get admitted and slog through the classes and deal with the remote classroom bullshit of the COVID era, I’m proud that I was able to pull my shit together just long enough to keep writing those godforsaken checks so she will never know the struggle of being shackled to a lifetime of crippling debt.

    I did one good thing in this lifetime, and because it gave her opportunity, it was all worth it.

  • @[email protected]
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    Because there is no cap on student loans for the most part. Kids who just finished high school are sold on the concept of these loans without knowing what they are really getting into.

    If a guy can’t legally buy a beer, then they should not legally be allowed to sign up for 6 figure loans either

    • @[email protected]
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      73 months ago

      Seems like an easy “hey you predators took advantage of me while I was young and naive” case.

      And then watch all the self serving reasons why we allow this just catch on fire.

      • @[email protected]
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        23 months ago

        You think that hasn’t happened already, like nobody has ever had that thought?

        That’s what the entire student loan forgiveness from Biden was about, trying to eliminate people’s payments towards predatory student loans.

  • @[email protected]
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    213 months ago

    There’s literally no market incentives for it to be otherwise. Look at the factors.

    50+ years of institutions and borrowers alike trained to believe that education debt is “good debt” that won’t hurt them.

    “Club ed” arms race of expensive non-education-related amenities, targeting students. Essentially it is marketing costs passed on to the student/borrower.

    Heavy subsidization of student loans by state and federal governments.

    Laws to make student loans not discharged in bankruptcy.

    Constant implication that growing amounts of student debts can or should be “forgiven” by federal programs.

    If you are the lending institution or the college, literally all of those factors only incentivize charging more.

    Driving prices down would require meaningful competition or a feasible alternative. I have encouraged hiring managers to look at alternative credentialing and training for this reason. No bachelors degree is worth going $200k+ in debt for.

    • @[email protected]
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      123 months ago

      Regarding your last point, I was an IT manager for a decade and hired many people. I saw no difference in the skill set between a community college grad with an Associate’s and a grad with a Bachelor’s from a prestigious university. The vast majority of skills simply don’t translate from university to real life, so I don’t understand why we still hold them so highly in IT. I can’t speak to other fields, though.

      • @[email protected]
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        63 months ago

        I very intentionally received only an associate’s degree with the plan being to immediately get a job and start learning from there. It’s worked great. Except that was 20 years ago and now many jobs “require” a bachelor’s or otherwise have the nerve to say that 4 years of on the job experience is the same as 1 year of college.

        In my experience, I’ve seen the same thing. The university time kick starts things. But university lessons are so different than real on the job work.

    • @[email protected]
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      33 months ago

      Or regulation.

      Driving prices down would require meaningful competition, or a feasible alternative, or regulation.

      (Feasible alternatives do exist, eg trades, but are not treated as viable alternatives by society)

      • @[email protected]
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        13 months ago

        Some states are ditching the bar exam for attorneys. You can become a lawyer by getting experience as a paralegal. It shouldn’t be much different for other professionals.

      • @[email protected]
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        AFAIK there is no school paying a living wage (based on MIT living wage calculator) to all their grad student yet, at least not in most major cities.

        The grad workers union of JHU has just won a wage that is somewhat close to living wage, but not there yet.

          • @[email protected]
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            The problem is that most grad students are not taking classes after the first two years, and focus solely on research. Many with masters will finish with classes even sooner.

            Then it doesn’t make sense to factor in the tuition for most PhD.

            Plus, I am referring to living wages calculated without factoring in any educational cost or child care cost. If they are included, the living wage will be much higher.

  • @[email protected]
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    193 months ago

    It all started when they outlawed bankruptcy discharging student loans. Cry and cry over “Lawyers will graduate from college then immediately declare bankruptcy on $5000 loans!”. Then, when they captured the students in inescapable debt, convinced everyone that college was the answer, and then Sallie May being put in charge of defaulted loans… being paid to collect… Federally guaranteed money… It’s like getting paid to get paid, perfect racket!

      • @[email protected]
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        183 months ago

        $74K while they’re paying off student loans isn’t anything close to rich. Why are taxpayers who didn’t go to college footing the bill, is someone failing to make corporations and billionaires pay their fair share?

        • ObjectivityIncarnate
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          13 months ago

          $74K while they’re paying off student loans isn’t anything close to rich.

          It is compared to those not in college, and even moreso as time goes on–college grads make a million more over their lives than others.

          Why are taxpayers who didn’t go to college footing the bill, is someone failing to make corporations and billionaires pay their fair share?

          There’s no provision preventing the ~85% of the population who never went to college from having to pay, is there? No one’s handing only the even richer minority a bill for it.

          Just like how income tax was first proposed as something only the rich would pay, but in reality the middle class pays the majority of it, this is no different.

          • @[email protected]
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            83 months ago

            This is such an idiotic take. It’s clear that you just want to rile people up with fear-driven rhetoric. “They’re stealing from you!” That kind of thing works with your you and your pals but not on people who understand the division in the class war waged against us doesn’t start at $74k while under a mountain of debt.

            I have to pay taxes which go to government services I don’t always use. Welcome to society. That’s how it works.

            By the way, could you link me to where you were screeching and whining about PPP loan forgiveness? I have a theory to test.

            • ObjectivityIncarnate
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              This is such an idiotic take.

              It’s not a “take”, it’s a fact.

              If you seriously think that NONE of the taxpayer money being used to forgive student loans is coming from the 85% of the non-college taxpaying population, and ALL of it is being paid for by the ultra-wealthy/billionaires, you’re just delusional.

              I have to pay taxes which go to government services I don’t always use. Welcome to society. That’s how it works.

              So first it’s adamantly denying that the non-college majority will be paying forgiven college students’ loans, and now it’s “actually, it’s good that they do”, lol.

              Student loan forgiveness is regressive, period. It’s a wealth transfer from poorer to richer.

              By the way, could you link me to where you were screeching and whining

              Really pathetic attempt to devalue my factual statements. Ideologue tactics 101.

              about PPP loan forgiveness?

              All voluntary loans should be paid back by the borrower, and no taxpayer-funded forgiveness should exist. If anything, perhaps bring the loan to 0% interest, though that’s arguably still unfair to the lender.

              I bet you really thought that was a gotcha, huh? I’m not one of your stupid stereotype boogeymen, stop pretending you know me.

              • @[email protected]
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                23 months ago

                We do know you. You are a clown pretending that student loan forgiveness is transferring wealth from the poor to the wealthy. You want to ensure education remains unavailable for poor people so the only opportunities they have are trades.

                You want to pretend that paying taxes into the government means they’re funding these directly. Delusional. You cannot even read.

                I wish they still taught basic civics in schools. Then people wouldn’t have to explain the basics to you.

                No, I don’t want you pretending you’re against PPP forgiveness now, I want to see where you are grumpy enough about it at the time to complain about it. It’s easy for fellows like you to be consistent for a few hours at a time.

                • ObjectivityIncarnate
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                  pretending that student loan forgiveness is transferring wealth from the poor to the wealthy.

                  Just because it’s not the poorEST to the wealthiEST doesn’t mean it’s not regressive.

                  It is–the recipients of the monetary handout are receiving it primarily from those who are poorer than them on average. The majority of people whose tax money will be paying this forgiveness, already have less wealth than those getting it.

                  These are objective facts.

                  Excluding the value of education from a calculation of net worth while including debt used to finance that education is like measuring a homeowner’s wealth by subtracting their mortgage but ignoring the value of the home itself. You’d find that homeowners were poorer than renters, and that people living in mansions were the poorest members of society.

                  That’s clearly wrong, yet advocates for debt forgiveness make the same mistake, arguing that recent college graduates with student debt have negative wealth and are thus worse off than otherwise similar Americans who have not gone to college. Consider that the median doctor graduating from medical school in 2017 or 2018 owed $171,000 in student debt, according to the College Scorecard, the median MBA owed $46,000, the median borrower with a BA in business $25,000, and the median AA degree holder in business $18,000. The implied conclusion is that doctors are the worst-off individuals, those with the two-year AA degrees are doing far better, and richest of all are those who never went to college.

                  You want to pretend that paying taxes into the government means they’re funding these directly.

                  The government does not spend its tax revenue depending on which class of people paid those particular dollars of tax. There is zero reason to think the distribution will be any different than anything else.

                  If the top 1% pays 45%, the middle class pays 40%, and the lower class 15% (random numbers, not themselves relevant to the point), then every single thing the government pays for, with tax money, is 45% funded by the 1%, 40% funded by the middle class, and 15% funded by the lower class.

                  Unless some provision is added that there will be a tax hike ONLY on those with more wealth than the recipients of the handout, that is the case.

                  And people who pay taxes and never went to college should absolutely NOT be on the hook for a penny of richER people’s loans.

                  No, I don’t want you pretending you’re against PPP forgiveness now

                  This is getting sad now. Constantly saying I’m “pretending” to have certain values like you know fucking anything, lmao. It must be a simple life indeed to never have to take on the mental burden of assessing people as individuals instead of members of your pre-built stereotype-driven collectives.

    • Dizzy Devil Ducky
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      My money is on government bailouts that are never gonna be payed back for the people running the institutions (not the teachers or any of the staff that actualy do things).

      • @[email protected]
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        93 months ago

        I am going to riot if there is another bailout, I am so sick of that shit. The government should be buying these distressed properties at fire sale prices, firing management for running it into the ground, and fining the boards for running it into the ground.

    • @[email protected]
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      53 months ago

      And back then y’all could just move like 40 miles and become a whole other ass person. Now you’re tracked literally around the entire globe forever.

  • @[email protected]
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    I came up with a plan to lower college tuition years ago while tripping. It starts with the decriminalization of all drugs. And to prevent gangs and what not from profiting colleges will get the exclusive privilege of making and selling all drugs. Drug proceeds would be split between lowering tuition, setting up more college ran centers, and rehabilitation of drug users outside the colleges programs. With a small percentage allowed for the college to profit.

    For the program itself, i would have the colleges set up drug manufacturing classes which should benefit students in other chemist and medical fields so it should draw in quite a few people. With the drugs made they then would be sold by college ran businesses whicj could also employ students to have on the job experience and to keep more money in the colleges sphere of influence.

    At these centers where drugs are sold, there will also be areas for people to partake in the more dangerous drugs, which should be inheritly safer now that its not being tainted with other nonsense. There would be medical students watching and taking care of their patients making another facet of experience that will help in future jobs.

    With all this taking place in the college system, and with plenty of opportunities to view patients, it should be easy to spot people who are in a real bad place that would benefit from health and life counseling. So for the people in need of help, counselors will approach giving an offer to participate in a program to train psychology students that comes with a heavy discount for their drugs while in the program.

    My whole idea had several beneficial aspects for all of the country.

    Lower colleges tuition

    Raising the educational level of general poplus

    Lower drug dependencies rates

    Lower crime rates

    Getting people help who need it

    Reduction of drug over doses

    Less burdens on are justice system clogged up with drug related crimes

    Hampering outside nations who push dirty cheap drugs into our country

    Extra tax money

    Etc

    Idk if anyone has any comments on my wistful thinking, but im open to revisions of my plan.

    TLDR: Decrimnalize drugs and make collegese create dispense and sell said drugs to fund the well being of our society.

    • @[email protected]
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      273 months ago

      This is a very American answer. The easy and best solution is to tax the ultra rich and provide college to all Americans.

    • @[email protected]
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      Jesus fucking christ this is the stupidest shit with the purest potential. I’ve never loved and hated anything so equally. I’m left completely indifferent.

    • @[email protected]
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      This is legalizing drugs with extra steps. Tax the shops and manufacturers, direct that money split into social programs, safe centers staffed by professionals and school funds.

  • BombOmOm
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    113 months ago

    People are willing to pay it, therefore they will charge it.

    We badly need people in the skilled trades. The jobs pay well, are in high demand, and don’t require you go go into massive college debt.

    • Aniki 🌱🌿
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      153 months ago

      They also are not hiring, or require someone to help you get through the door, just like everything else these days. Telling people to do trade work is incredibly tone-deaf.

      • @[email protected]
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        133 months ago

        Not to mention, most trades are “Dirty”. Thanks, but no thanks, id rather work in a clean office with nice clean AC, minimal bugs and where the sun stays TF outta my face.

        On the flip side, there’s also people who see working 8 hours/day inside at a desk as a death sentence.

        So saying “Just do a trade” isn’t just tone deaf, it’s as tone deaf as “Just go-to college”

        The real answer is everyone should be able to take the education path best suited for them and their career choices

      • @[email protected]
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        53 months ago

        Which trades are you referring to?

        I live close by to a community college that allows basically anyone to fairly quickly (1-2 yrs) get into a trade. I know several people who did. It’s not “easy” in the sense that yeah, you’re still learning a whole fucking skillset and trying to land your first adult job, but it’s definitely… extremely doable…?

        • BombOmOm
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          Exactly. Presenting people with real solutions to their problems is important and getting into a well paying trade job is a solution the average worker can achieve if they so choose.

          • @[email protected]
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            23 months ago

            Yep. Trades, nursing (and related fields, lab-related medical jobs), hell, even skilled manufacturers are great paths to go into. They’re not glitzy, and you still have to like… do work. But that’s just part of living in society. Someone’s gotta clean the toilets, someone’s gotta fix the power lines.

      • @[email protected]
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        53 months ago

        I teach electrical and we take 40 a year in my county, just electrical. We have plumbing and pipefitting and HVAC programs as well. The union program is down the road.

        You just have to look for the programs, generally through a local community college. I’d gladly teach the respondent above you.

    • @[email protected]
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      53 months ago

      Uneducated people are willing to pay that much. It should be considered predatory lending to sign up a 19 year old for $100k of debt

    • @[email protected]
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      43 months ago

      The government also made huge student loans widely available. So government tried to narrow the wealth gap. In response, colleges just raised their prices, and students were forced to take out bigger and bigger loans.

      • BombOmOm
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        Yep. You hand out tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars to people who haven’t yet had to balance a bank account and it’s going to get spent en-mass. Why go to a trade school or a community college when you can go to [insert most expensive school that accepted you]?

        A potential solution here is to cap the maximum amount of loan that is immune to bankruptcy discharge. This will have the effect of depressing the total amount of loans an average student has access to and force colleges to follow suit if they want to see continued enrollment.

        • @[email protected]
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          33 months ago

          I agree in principle, but I think that would do the opposite in practice. It would just elevate those whose families have the means to go above the maximum loan amount. So if tuition is X, they would still reach saturation if they charged X + $10k, or whatever. So the less fortunate wouldn’t have the opportunity to get a good education again, the bar would just be higher.

          What they really need to do is either nationalize college education (extremely controversial), or put requirements on maximum tuition as a prereq to the loan. I.E., a school is disqualified from federal loans entirely unless tuition is under X, even if the maximum loan is X - 10k