Overview

the problem
industry characteristics
borrower debt load
dereliction of duties
harmful industry practices

The fundamental problem underlying our student loan crisis involves the ability of student loan lenders, guarantors, servicers, and the U.S. Department of Education to engage in formal and informal agency and industry practices that favor the interests of the private student loan industry and harm individual student loan borrowers. Aspects of this problem include characteristics of the student loan industry regarding its size and focus on maximizing profits, the individual and aggregate debt load shouldered by student loan borrowers, the apparent dereliction of duties owed to student borrowers by the federal government, and the nature and extent of the particular student loan industry practices harmful to student borrowers.

The problem is complex and intractable, and has evolved through decades of Congressional and Departmental amendment, modification, neglect, and judicial interpretation. The entrenched nature of the problem does not lend itself to a simple solution.