Proposed bill to allow student loan debt to be wiped out via bankruptcy

I was just reading that Dick Durbin was proposing a bill for student loan debt to wiped out via bankruptcy just like any other form of debt. Here is a caption from the beginning of the article:

The Student Borrower Bankruptcy Relief Act of 2019 would allow the loans to be treated like nearly all other forms of consumer debt.

About time! Hopefully this passes.

2 Likes

I knew someone who was contemplating leaving the country permanently because of student loans and having no options to deal with it (they had already gone into bankruptcy). Don’t know if they went through it it, but it was a baffling situation to me. They did not want to leave, were able to make good money, but felt forced to do so.

I don’t think allowing via bankruptcy is the answer instead need to make interest rates more affordable and delay repaying the student loans until you earn above a certain amount.

2 Likes

I’m not a fan of Dick Durbin but I would applaud him if this gets through.

Yeah I don’t know, the whole problem has bigger underlying issues. The person I knew just made the now common mistake of going to an out of state school she thought was cool, with no true career plan, and not understanding the consequences of debt of that magnitude.

I’d be for this. While it could be used inappropriately, the thing is bankruptcy isnt something that is just easy to do, and you take a hit for 10 years.

It becomes darn hard to make major purchases like vehicles a home, etc with one on your report.

3 Likes

This is a good first step… but they are solving a step 8 symptom and not the step 1 symptom.

Cost of college needs to be addressed first. Followed by student loan terms.

1 Like

I agree.

Career training, vocational school and trades need to be promoted/taught instead of this mindless conveyor belt to 4 years with far less attention to those not on that path.

3 Likes

Trades absolutely need to be taught. Starting in HS. Removing those classes and guilting students into college, even if they aren’t ready or able, started us down the path we are on today.

1 Like

I had some great electives for trades, and full on facilities in my middle and high school, but I distinctly remember them being taught as like “this is what you do if you don’t go to school”, or as if it was a basic DIY skills course.

That is just wrong, so much wasted potential. And now many of those “half baked” programs do not even exist.

It’s backwards. The focus should be on the educational system that gouges students with crushing debt.

It seems to me that I read about a country where you just pay ten percent of whatever you make until it’s paid back, whether you make a little or a lot. Maybe it was the Dutch I’m not sure, but it sounded interesting.

The loan system is part of the ridiculous escalation in costs…

2 Likes

I didn’t say that the gouging done by colleges was the only problem. There are others as well. But it is a huge problem that needs to be addressed. The biggest single issue is the absurd tuitions and fees that the colleges stick the students with. It’s obscene. Most politicians don’t even want to talk about it.

1 Like

Ridiculous requirements thanks to lazy HR screeners should also be addressed. There is no reason a filing clerk who occasionally answers the phone should need a two year degree in order to do that job.

1 Like

I support it. Non-dischargeable debt is a creaure of state intervention.

There has been a brainwashing in our country over the past few decades regarding college and higher education. Higher education and college are viewed in such a sacrosanct way by so many that we tend to develop a image of a person by where they went to college. In other words there is this that going to “X” college makes one “better” than someone else. That’s why these famous, wealthy people felt so strongly about having their children go to “X” college.

Here is a link to another article on this:

This was something I was not aware of. Why was this changed in 1998?

Durbin pointed to the history of the bankruptcy code, noting that before 1976, federal and private student loan debt were fully dischargeable, meaning they could be wiped out under a bankruptcy discharge. Credit card debt and medical debt, for example, can both be discharged through the bankruptcy process, while child support payments, alimony, overdue taxes and criminal fines cannot.

By 1998, federal student loans were made nondischargeable in bankruptcy, and in 2005, private student loans were included nondischargeable. “As a result, student borrowers who find themselves unable to repay their loans are now saddled with this debt for life,” Durbin said.

Because the system feeds it. Forgiveness of student loan debt will raise tuition, not lower it.