Understanding the federal government’s influence on student debt - The Washington Post

As the Clinton administration and others found out when they sought to bypass corrupt middlemen by lending directly to students, the loan system proved too big to dismantle. When the middlemen overreached, the lending companies and proprietary schools could declare bankruptcy to escape some creditors, but student borrowers could not. They were stuck. That is, until very recently, when President Joe Biden announced the cancellation of millions of loans — though his latest plans have been blocked by the courts…

https://www.washingtonpost.com/books/2024/09/10/burdened-student-debt-crisis-review-liebenthal/