Should Student Loans be Dischargeable in Bankruptcy ?

[JDPriestly]

31. Same of any loan.

From the student's point of view, a student loan should be looked at as an investment.

It really is no different from an investment in any other business. The student's business is to do well in school, finish a useful degree as soon as possible and then work hard to pay back the loan.

I'm not sure that student loans should be as easy to get as they are now, but if a student qualifies to get a loan after being vetted in the way a small business would be, then I think that student loans that cover tuition and books should be treated like business loans and not like personal loans.

Loans above the cost of tuition and books should probably not necessarily be dischargeable. Those loans are more like credit card loans.

The US needs well qualified workers, scientists, teachers, etc. We need them more than we need a lot of the businesses, say the restaurants and liquor stores, the smoke shops and race tracks.

I believe that as a national policy we should subsidize university and college education far more than we do. Also, we should encourage students who have not performed exceptionally well in high school to live at home and attend a local junior or city do their first couple of years. Students who do that generally do not have to borrow so much money. And while living the extra couple of years at home, they become much more mature, do better in school and are more responsible when they graduate.

That is what I observed with my children. One of them lived at home during most of college. The other one did not. But they both went to school close to home. Home was an anchor for them and it worked out well. Of course, other factors may have played roles.

But I do think that a student loan should be as dischargeable in bankruptcy as any other business investment loan.