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Re:Student Debt Lawsuits Are a Lucrative Business by rayiner on Tuesday November 14, 2017 @10:25AM (#15695776)
It's hardly remarkable. Student loans are originated without regard to credit risk, at the same interest rate for all borrowers. Moreover, pretty much every student is eligible to declare bankruptcy soon (and often, long) after they graduate. Requiring loans to be freely originated on one hand, and permitting people to discharge them in bankruptcy on the other, would be completely unworkable.

As to why we require loans to be originated without regard to credit risk: if we took credit risk into account, disadvantaged groups would get student loans at drastically decreased rates. That, in turn, would undermine our bipartisan narrative that the way to overcome all the bad things America did to certain people is not to fix the resulting problems, but for everyone to get a college education.

Re:Student Debt Lawsuits Are a Lucrative Business by arkades on Tuesday November 14, 2017 @10:28AM (#15695819)
Is this same logic supposed to apply to professional school debt, which likewise can’t be discharged despite the extremely low credit risk?
Re:Student Debt Lawsuits Are a Lucrative Business by tptacek on Tuesday November 14, 2017 @01:22PM (#15697701)
Yes. If your credit risk is so low that non-dischargeability is a bad deal, presumably you can just get a private, fully dischargeable loan.

The basic structure of this argument is really straightforward: if student loans were dischargeable in bankruptcy, it would be irrational for a lot of student borrowers not to go into chapter 7 after school, when their earnings are so low that they qualify and their time horizon for major financial decisions is so far into the future that their current credit rating doesn't matter.

Re:Student Debt Lawsuits Are a Lucrative Business by kharms on Tuesday November 14, 2017 @10:44AM (#15695974)
>Student loans are originated without regard to credit risk, at the same interest rate for all borrowers.

That's not entirely true.

For undergraduate students, no more than $57,500 can be loaned from the government at a fixed 4.45% APR. This is what you're talking about.

If you need more than $57k (which you would even at most state schools) you need to get a private loan. Private loans have variable APR based on your and your cosigners credit history. Sallie Mae offers loans with an APR between 5.74 and 11.85.

Re:Student Debt Lawsuits Are a Lucrative Business by tudelo on Tuesday November 14, 2017 @12:25PM (#15697113)
A fixed rate that changes, right? None of my loans ever had the same percentage as the year before. Small point though.
Re:Student Debt Lawsuits Are a Lucrative Business by EADGBE on Tuesday November 14, 2017 @03:25PM (#15698775)
Federal are fixed, private are often variable.

Also, not sure about the 4.45%. My federal are more than that.

Re:Student Debt Lawsuits Are a Lucrative Business by tudelo on Wednesday November 15, 2017 @08:29AM (#15703561)
Hah right, a fixed loan rate which is fixed for the life of the loan. I mean that the fixed rate at which they lend changes every year :)
Re:Student Debt Lawsuits Are a Lucrative Business by tomjen3 on Tuesday November 14, 2017 @01:57PM (#15698040)
>As to why we require loans to be originated without regard to credit risk: if we took credit risk into account, disadvantaged groups would get student loans at drastically decreased rates.

Those are unlikely to be drastically decreased. What will drastically decrease is the amount of people, of any color, who can afford an art history degree. That is a good thing, especially for those who will be the first in their family who are going to college, and are therefore more likely to be swindled into one of those degrees in the first place.