Two Cheers For New Jersey! (Mark Schmitt & Kevin D. Williamson)

[DWAnderson]

Eliminating the ad hominems we have:

Originally Posted by Rathertired

the DeVry and University of Phoenix chains are currently ripping off poor people across America, encouraging them to take out sizable loans for often worthless degrees.

Don't forget the huge role of the federal government in enabling this.

To the extent it exists, this problem would not exist without the loans. The government has subsidized such loans (in part with guarantees) and then, to limit the cost of the program, made them non-dischargeable in bankruptcy. Kids who heavily discount the future payment obligations are left holding the bag years later.

If you eliminated the non-dischargeability in bankruptcy going forward, I think you would see this problem disappear. The government would no longer guaranty nearly so many loans (because of the high default risk). Students sacrificing their own savings would be much more discriminating about what institutions they went to. In short the phenomenon of schools created to scoop up government loans would disappear almost overnight.