You’d have to be made of stone not to feel for these students,” Education Secretary Arne Duncan said as he announced an Obama administration decision to forgive as many as 350,000 loans taken out by students of the now-defunct Corinthian Colleges. “Some of these schools have brought the ethics of payday lending into higher education.”
I do feel for any adults who took out loans to pay for college courses that they expected to help land them jobs — but didn’t. If the government forgives their debts, then they still never will get back their time or restore their hopes.
But also, I feel for taxpayers, for whom the Corinthian forgiveness tab could reach as high as $3.5 billion. David A. Bergeron of the Center for American Progress told the New York Times he expects the tab to be less than $1 billion, but I wonder whether it could grow, given the administration’s decision to expand the new debt forgiveness terms to debtors from other schools. Question: If Washington can forgive loans for bad schools, why leave out students who went to good schools?
Supporters note that the federal student loan program does turn a profit — enough to absorb the cost of forgiving Corinthian debt. Federal law affords students a shot at debt relief if their school shutters. Last week, the Obama administration expanded forgiveness eligibility to former Corinthian students who took certain programs from 2010 to 2014 and can show that their former schools defrauded them under state law. There is a fast track for those who attended a Heald College in California.
Via: American Spectator
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