Here's my perspective as a Ph.D-holding college professor in a large public university system...
Why are students going to mediocre schools paying ridiculous tuition/room/board and getting <$40k / year jobs? THIS is the major problem. Unneeded degrees in esoteric stupid subjects that pay nothing and are less than worthless OR high-cost tuition at less than desirable colleges (or even worse, a combo of both).
Couple of ways to mitigate this:
1) Go to a low-cost undergrad: My school's flat-rate tuition is $2000 for 15+ hours. Do that 9X (about what it would take to graduate 4.5 years) and your out of pocket expense is about $20k for tuition. In this market I could make $20K over 4.5 years sitting on my couch and eating Doritos all day.
and/or
2) Actually achieve something in HS so your school is paid for.
The fact that people WHO WERE NOT FORCED TO TAKE OUT A LOAN OTHER THAN BY THEIR OWN DOING want their loan paid back by me is so offensive to my senses that I'm going to stop typing now.
Good post.
Government policymakers are terrible with the concept of incentives. They seem to completely ignore that pillar of sound economics, and thus produce backwards results. Handing out loans (directly or indirectly) encourages people to pursue careers that aren't feasible. Or, just as often it seems, to pursue degrees that have no follow-on careers at all.
Now, if someone wants to major in underwater basket weaving, more power to him. I just don't want to pay for it in any shape or form.
The argument that government intervention is needed to allow poor kids to go to college is dubious. If you're smart you can get scholarships. If you are a minority there's all sorts of free money available. Beyond that, start at a community college where it is super-cheap and/or work your way through school. You should go to college if you have the intelligence and drive to do so, not because you receive misguided incentives from the government to do so. We can see the damage the government plan has caused in massive debt and years of lost productivity. (And is the federal government's involvement here even justified constitutionally? Is this an enumerated power?)
I haven't followed the political platforms that closely yet. I'm still looking for a presidential candidate to advocate for turning off the spigot of stupidity that is federal involvement in student loans? Which candidate(s) have set aside the urge to pander and actually show some applied intelligence on this subject? TIA.