Reform student loans for college or tech school—
First, offer lower interest rates to students with high GPAs and or SAT/ACT scores. They’re a more trustworthy borrower if they’ve shown they actually have the grades/scores to succeed.
Second, students that barely passed high school and/or have low SAT/ACT scores shouldn’t be eligible for federal student loans—to loan them money with a poor record is arguably stupid at best and predatory at worst. Those folks can join the military and get a GI bill after they figured out self discipline—everyone will be better off.
Third, there should be some consideration as to what is being majored in and the earning potential of that degree—to provide a $100,000 loan for a interpretative dance degree… or to allow an 18 year old to take out $150,000 for a degree to teach elementary is predatory and drives up tuition prices making it all even possible—dry up the honey pot of endless money and maybe these universities will quit installing lazy rivers at the rec center and start expanding programs that lead to high paying careers.
Fourth, careers that we need more of should have lower interest rates — i.e. it should be easier and cheaper to get into tech school to be a welder than college to be an engineer—we need both, but we need more welders than engineers.
Fifth, incentivize early pay off with discounts for hitting certain payoff milestones early.
Finally, don’t allow student load debt to be exempt from bankruptcy and magically all the above ideas would quickly be implemented…