re: Erasing student debt

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I don't want my children going to college even though I did since it's no longer economically rewarding
This is dumb. Are you suggesting engineers, accountants, doctors, etc. don't get economically rewarded?

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My OP was long enough so I shortened the argument here. My oldest child is 3. So I'm projecting the trend. Same goes for doctors - I didn't want to make my post longer with all the caveats. I hope that would be implied in my argument that this can't work for every profession, but it can for most.

Right now - it's still fairly rewarding but the ROI is not what it used to be. We should all find this unacceptable how college costs skyrocketed past the inflation curve the last 20 years.

But also right now the trades to supervisor or engineer path while earning a degree online is financially superior as long as you move into the latter in a decent amount of time. Plus - it forces a kid to become an adult earlier compared to their colleagues going to adult day care at the U.

Nobody ever points out that you can't just forgive student debt if you're not going to cease loan programs.

What are we going to do? Forgive everyone's loans then allow students to issue more debt at the start of next semester? Forgive it again in 5 years and repeat for every new generation of graduates?

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Incompetence and corruption is why higher education in this country doesn't produce an ROI

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Everything has an ROI. It can vary from really good to really bad, as in a negative.

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That's a start, but what they need to get rid of are the easy student loans to people who aren't qualified to repay them. Do that and the universities will have no choice but to trim costs.

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This and this, when the govt took over the program and eased restrictions, the "fun" curriculums started and Tuition went through the stratosphere because the govt was backing them.

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People who actually paid their way through college want to know the difference between having your college paid for by taxpayers through TOPS, and having your college paid for by taxpayers through loan forgiveness.

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The latter made a promise to pay it back to the people that supplied the money. This isn't hard.

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The idea of getting a four year degree in four years while working as a waitress or a bartender and paying your own way is a thing of the past for nearly every university in the country.

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First, there are very jobs that care where your degree comes from.

Second, my daughter worked but took out a loan. Her last two semesters, I challenged her to work and build up the money and pay as she went, and she did it. Now she gets to pay the rest back because she chose the easy way.

Yes, the government and colleges are making bank, but folks don't have a gun put to their head and made to take those loans.

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Incompetence and corruption is why higher education in this country doesn't produce an ROI. That's on leadership - Democrats and our feckless GOP.

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And therein lies the biggest issue with the entire tuition issue. Too many people in Congress have their hands tied into the education business and don't want to address the root cause. Tuition rates are set at a factor to cover the costs to run a university and make a certain profit. If the State or Fed gov't cut the school's budget, they just raise tuition rates. And since student loans cannot be forgiven through bankruptcy, you don't have the same lending checks you would a traditionally loan. Therefore, Colleges have no reason to cut back on costs; especially bloated salaries & staff sizes.

Then you add the fact that every now and then you hear about a member of Congress that is some sort of professor, or has a book for sale for $400+ (that gets a new edition every few years). The most extreme example would be Warren who makes $400k to teach 1-2 classes, requires students to pay $400 for her book, and may show up a few times a year. Where is their incentive to do anything about the cost of college?

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A lot of people pay off their original loan amount half way thru their payment plans

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Maybe private loans, if they're financing for 40 years or have six figure debt. Federal loan rates are comically low, secured rate low.

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So what happens then?

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Wage garnishment, but I doubt this administration would actually do it.