Affordable, Attainable or Wisely Avoidable?

If the purpose of bankruptcy is to allow relief from financial burdens when lasting unforeseen hardships arise or mishaps occur what does this say about students and student loans when this basic protection is not there?

Because of their educations are students  being expected  to be clairvoyant - are they supposed to know, with 100% certainty, that things are going to work out ahead of time? Are they supposed to be able to see and avoid every conceivable pit fall that could arise? That cannot be what our government intended when it began its involvement in the student loan business or when it wrote the first bankruptcy laws - yet here we are expecting just that from our students.

Yes, student loan borrowers took a risk that the purchase they were making (in the form of education) was going to benefit them to the degree that they could achieve a better social and economic position in life. Few, if any, took loans out with the intention to defraud anyone. The problem with education, or anything investment for that matter, is that there is no guarantee of return. What is the saying in investing - past performance is no guarantee of future return?

For students to guarantee a return on their investment they would have to know so much as to be gods. For example, just on a macroeconomic scale one would have had to know that American (and now International) banks were leveraged so poorly, that CEO's, COO,s and CFO's were cooking the books, that gasoline would reach $4 a gallon, that automakers would continue selling gas hogs beyond their utility, that wars in IRAQ and Afghanistan would be so costly, that 9/11 would occur and wreak such havoc with the financial markets, that Katrina would occur, and that the wealthiest country on the planet wouldn't  be able to afford  health care for its citizens. That’s expecting a little much I think.

They would also have had to know on a personal or microeconomic level that their choice of profession would continue to be in demand, that they would remain healthy, that they could handle the full pressure of the educational albatross before them (even though they have never attempted anything so demanding before), that they wouldn't experience significant familial or personal hardships so as to not be able to continue and that they would find the support they would need to successfully graduate and find employment. And the list could go on and on.

The point here is that life happens. When one purchases an education life does not stop happening. While we might hope that students are better equipped to deal with life's ups and downs because of their educations they are not, in fact made gods, because of their educations. Students still suffer the same human frailties as everyone else.

Fortunately, some students make it through the process of schooling and the concomitant hardships of life, and go on to reap the benefits of their education. That is every students dream! And we are all happy for those that make it.

But for those that don't make it or don't make it far enough to see the full return on their investment why then should the current system expect students to be any more omniscient than the average borrower? Nobody wants businesses to fall short of the desired success but they do. Nobody wants students to fall short of their desired success but they do. Life happens, mistakes get made. Every type of borrower, be it individual, small business, or corporate giant has access to basic financial protections through bankruptcy – to protect their futures if they stumble and fall. All borrowers everywhere in the United States have these protections - EXCEPT ONE - the student loan borrower.

Did our leaders really intend there to be so much risk involved when they tried to make higher education available to just about everyone? Did they really intend for students to be buried under mountains of debt with no way out?

At this point all I can say is maybe they did. They don’t seem to be in a hurry to get students out of this terrible situation nor do they seem to care. And now – it seems a generation of Americans may actually forgo college because the price has become just too high. I guess our leaders have failed to make a college education affordable and attainable after all. From what I now gather a college education is quickly becoming avoidable,and wisely so. After all, why should someone risk their entire lives - marriage, children, home - for an education that only comes with one guarantee - you will pay your loans back - even if it kills you.