to hate the system under which this college layout exists. But those individuals would be torn to find out that this isn’t necessarily the case. 

     Like many other things throughout history, high college costs are the result of a useless government interfering in a system that does not need it to.

     The federal government took over as the primary provider of student loans in 1965 as part of the Higher Education Act signed by Lyndon B. Johnson. This gave them the authority to place themselves right at the heart of the college admissions and payment process. The federal Pell Grant was introduced and allowed for individuals who struggled with paying for college to receive money from the federal government (but more realistically, from taxpayers) to cover some of their expenses. This was a genuine attempt by the government to help its citizens, but like all things, the government feels the need to overextend itself. As part of the Higher Education Act, the government also issued a guarantee that student loans would be provided to each and every person by banks and lenders. This was initially to provide an opportunity for students of color to receive loans since banks prior to the 1965 Act would lend based on color. For a short period of time, the system worked. Students were able to attend college and take out loans based on their financial standing, and the federal government would provide grants to students who needed an extra leg up. It wouldn’t work for long, however, because as always, all good things must come to an end. 

     In 1976, the federal government prevented student loans from being dischargeable on bankruptcies unless individuals had met a set of guidelines. This meant that from this point forward, student loans could not be listed as a debt on bankruptcy documents (dischargeable) unless the borrower 1) had entered into the repayment process more than five years ago, or 2) was able to prove that having the debt remain against them would cause undue hardship— something the federal government never bothered to properly define. The ramifications of this single action has been one of the biggest contributors to the problematic college pricing we see today.

     When a person declares bankruptcy, it is a desperate plea for their debts to be halted or removed in order for them to regain financial footing. During this process, their assets are evaluated in addition to their outstanding debts, and a decision is made on whether there is a dire need to discharge the debts that have been levied against an individual. It can often involve the liquidation of assets like bank accounts, cars, or in some extreme cases, your home, if part of your debt lies within a mortgage (Chapter 7 Bankruptcy), or a restructured payment plan where debts are required to still be paid off, but organized in a more manageable manner that allows for completion within three to five years (Chapter 13 Bankruptcy). 

     Here’s where it gets fun.

     When the federal government announced that student loans were non-dischargeable, they made it nearly impossible for hurting college students to declare student loans as a debt on bankruptcy forms, unless they had already met those qualifications mentioned earlier. For many students, this meant that they could not list student loans unless they had already been paying them for more than five years if they were unable to prove undue hardship. Imagine if the government said that you could no longer declare bankruptcy for medical bills unless you had already been paying on them for more than five years? Every hospital in the country would sprint to hike prices up, simply because they knew that those bills could not be bankrupted on for a minimum of five years unless the person in question could prove they were experiencing the aforementioned “undue hardship,” which has no official definition.

     Same applies to the cost of college.

     The government felt the need to include itself in a process that it wasn’t required to be included in, and when they did, they actively made laws and mandates that opened the door for colleges to raise their prices as much as they want. 

     In addition to non-dischargeable and hard to navigate student loans, financial aid has also been a culprit of higher college price tags. The more aid the government offers at the taxpayers’ expense, the more colleges can charge for their education. The government has quadrupled the financial aid it provides to students in the last thirty years while college tuition has tripled in the same amount of time. Colleges recognize that when they raise prices, rather than the government backing down from additional aid, they meet them at the new price and offer more money to pay for a now higher tuition. The federal government has failed to “grow a pair” and put its foot down and the only group of people paying the literal price for it is the American citizen. Inevitably, this will continue, and the government will keep ponying up to the demands of the colleges, and each and every one of us will see yet another tax raise to pay for the government’s inability to take charge.