The taxpayer-as-benefactor does not approve or underwrite the student loans for risk. In finance, the benefactor (taxpayer) relies on contracts and the authority of the trustee to protect the money reserved for a specific loan use. Application of the contract’s provision and collection is the responsibility of the trustee (ED) loan holder.
The student loan crisis will not end in the near term. Many loans do not reach maturity for 20 years. No new plan from the current administration or legislation from Congress will address loans due or the wasted dollars. Society’s expected payback of funds will not happen. The measurable return from improvement in the quality of human capital, as promised, is unlikely.
ED is willingly co-opted with the university system, the energy source of the educational industrial-complex. The complex expresses shock that education can have its value monetized and made a commodity. Their goal is catering to the student, not having responsibility to the state or taxpayer. The educational industrial-complex is neither a fiduciary nor an underwriter of loans. It is free to focus on gathering more students as ATMs. Aided in part by state policies, universities accept 10 percent of every high school’s seniors.
Yes, indeed, we, the taxpayers, are on the hook for the student loans if the lefty/Marxist/socialist/communist/murderers have their way with us. The education industry (colleges, universities et al) is responsible for the loans but they are trying to put it on us. FTS!! We should not accept this responsibility, at all, it belongs to the students and schools!