Thanks GOP. Parent's Of Deceased Children Inherit Their Student Loan Debt.

[Igel]

7. They're not.

But I guess the idea is that parents should be able to get loans for their kids by assuming responsibility for payments if their kids default.

Then they should be able to say, "I was tricked! I'm too stupid to read what I wrote! Please don't assume I'm responsible."

What's said is the cynical attempt to make exceptional, heart-wrenching instances--"Parents lost their child, now they're also on the hook for $30k in debt"--into a sort of general case. Then it's okay to overlook the vast majority of cases in which the kids are irresponsible (upbringing?) or don't have jobs (bad major? no acceptable job? or just bad economy?) to say the parents are allowed to be irresponsible.

When I was establishing a credit rating a friend co-signed for a loan. Turns out he was in no real position to help out--his hours were cut a few weeks later. Every month, a couple of days before my payment was due, he made sure I'd paid. He wasn't about to let his own shaky credit rating go belly-up because I screwed up.