2018 may be the beginning of the end of an education finance system that has resulted in overburdened students and families struggling to pay back loans that were too high at their inception relative to the reasonable income potential of the degree earned. Change won’t come overnight, but potential solutions should be put in motion this year, mainly aimed at relieving the student loan debt burden.
Originations and Issuances, by the Numbers Student loan debt rose to $1.34 trillion in Q2 2017, up from $1.31 trillion at the end of 2016, and now accounts for 10.4% of the $12.8 trillion in total household debt.
Years ago, “show me the note” contagion took hold in the subprime mortgage market. Borrowers launched widespread attacks on foreclosure actions once tales of successful early challenges were reported in the media. With the recent reports in The New York Times about National Collegiate Student Loan Trusts’ problems enforcing student loans due to incomplete documentation, the same contagion could...
Student loans carry a reputation for inevitability surpassed only by death and taxes. With good reason, too. In order to discharge a student loan in bankruptcy—the only way to shake it for good—a borrower in bankruptcy must show that being required to repay the loan would cause them “undue hardship.”
