Spiraling student loan debt that sometimes is never repaid leaves taxpayers on the hook for defaulted federal education loans. The article presents several good ideas that apply to all schools, not just law schools, including more transparency about the financial success of graduates over the long term (and thus the worth of the degree), a partial tuition rebate for quitting school at the end of the first year, and the most intriguing one to me:
Oblige law schools to lend money directly to students - so that defaults hurt the school's bottom line rather than taxpayers'.
This assumes that the schools would wave the debt in the case of students' bankruptcy, which would only happen if the school was confident that the majority of students would not default. This would provide incentive for the school to produce better-educated students to ensure fewer defaults. Schools that did not wave the debt would be sending a distinct signal to interested students.