Is Hillary's Personal Story About Student Loans a Fabrication?

"I know [student loan forgiveness] works because Bill and I did that. We both borrowed money when we went to law school and we paid it back as a percentage of our income, so I could go to work at the Children's Defense Fund, not some big law firm that would pay me more. I wanted to do the work I loved...I want everyone to have that chance."

Hillary Clinton tells this story to struggling students. She told it to minority students in Mississippi in November 2015, and she recently told it again to minority students in Brooklyn.

Her story makes several important points to attract young people who are flocking to Sanders.

First it offers hope that something practical can be done about crushing student loans. Wouldn't it be great if all student debt payments could be reduced to a percentage of income? She argues that is much more realistic than the Sanders free tuition plan.

Second, it suggests humble origins, and therefore combats the troublesome fact that she recently earned as much from one Wall Street speech as the average worker earns in five years. In this story, Hillary, too, had to amass debt just like other financially struggling students. And only by the good fortune of the Yale Law School debt forgiveness program was she able to work her way out of debt with little difficulty. "Everyone should have that chance."

Third, the story allows Hillary to project an image of selfless public service. The forgiveness program spared her from being forced by her loans to work at "some big law firm that would pay me more."

It's a politically potent story that fits neatly together. Too neatly, I think.

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Fact or Fiction?

To me, the odds seem high that Hillary's story is just that, an utter fabrication. In all likelihood, her family had enough income to afford Yale Law School in the early 1970s. At that time, the tuition was well in reach for an upper-middle-class family. (I know several of Hillary's law school classmates from similar backgrounds who accumulated no debt.)

But there's a bigger problem with Hillary's story: The loan forgiveness program she refers to didn't even exist in the early 1970s. Yale Law School literature is quite clear on this:

"Some students dream of jobs in smaller firms, nonprofit organizations, public interest, government service or academia. These are jobs that typically pay less than those at large firms. Yale Law School has pioneered a loan repayment assistance program to allow these students to take their dream jobs without worrying about their student loans.

Established in 1989, the Career Options Assistance Program (COAP) was one of the first loan forgiveness programs of its kind."

1989 is not 1973. Yet doesn't this description sounds similar to the story Hillary tells?