Reply #11: Student loans are a huge problem.

[JDPriestly]

Many young and middle aged people when to school in the trust that they were making an investment. Many of them went back to school when they could not get jobs in fields for which they had been trained. I know a woman in her 60s who has a PhD and constantly takes courses in the hopes of proving to employers that she has the capacity and knowledge to be a valuable employee. Her many job applications are just ignored, lost in the piles of hundreds of applications by younger, less well educated applicants, many of whom were not born in this country and can barely speak American English bur who are nevertheless preferred even for government jobs because they are younger. It is disgraceful.

The worst thing about the Bankruptcy Deform Bill that was passed recently is that it broadened the definition of student loans that cannot be discharged in bankruptcy. That was a terrible, terrible injury to many innocent, well meaning, trusting Americans. Why should student loans be treated any differently from other kinds of loans that are essentially investments. When you get a loan to attend a professional school or get training, you are making a business investment. But you do not get the same kind of tax relief for your investment that you would get if you invested the same amount in a franchise for a hamburger joint. That is not fair.