Allow young adults with federal student loan to work off their debt by joining the military for 4 to 6 years. Instill a work ethic, and hopefully patriotism, and most importantly allow them to take responsibility and take action for the debt they incurred.
Program already exists. Check my Veteran’s Basic Income policy
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Interesting, does that cover college debt accrued prior to service?
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I found an overview.
Yes, the military can partially pay for college debt accrued before service through specific “College Loan Repayment Programs” (LRP) offered by different branches, where eligible service members can receive a portion of their student loan repayments depending on their chosen military occupational specialty (MOS) and length of service; however, it is not a blanket coverage for all pre-service debt and specific qualifications must be met to participate
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I found provisions under military and veterans code section 890.3(a)(1), however it is a rare unicorn. This could be expanded and then shouted from the roof tops. It’s often used as a recruitment tool from what I see, and like many recruitment tools never followed through.
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The elephant in the room is that the LRP funds awarded are not only taxed but do not apply to loans taken out by a parent of a servicemember (Parent PLUS loans) when they were a dependent student. I wrote a proposal on this. This also applies to military spouses . So essentially the only way to have averted student loans through the military is if you did your service prior to or during your education, not after. Most people’s debt is ineligible for forgiveness or the principal balance is simply too high to match the principal balance due to the soaring cost of a 4 year degree, even in public universities and state schools. This is not a funding issue considering the existence of the Post 9/11 GI bill and ROTC scholarships which cover the ENTIRE cost of tuition for students (as well as some form of BAH for room + board /meals if I recall correctly). Under the GI bill, unused benefits for education can even be transferred to military spouses and children of servicemembers. Simply makes no sense from a logical standpoint that the military wants to miss out on a large demographic of potential officers to go through OCS during a recruiting crisis. Is this because of an influx of officers over enlisted? No. Because as of September 2024, even the Marine Corps only surpassed their officer recruitment goal by 12 (And enlisted recruitment by 1), as per this article.