You can also see that as meaning the odds are 100% that it'll need a public bail-out - it'll just be a budget transfer to or writeoff for the DoE instead of a bail-out of private sector lenders. Depends how you define 'bail out' :)

That said I'm not sure how a loan writeoff is more expensive than just paying the fees outright. Presumably public subsidy is always going to be more expensive than a student loan system.