Here's how they do student loans in the UK

[1932]

The government runs it, so there's no profit for banks built into the system.

You take out a loan to pay for your education.

You only pay it back if you make above the median income.

You can only pay up to 10% of your income.

You have your whole life to pay it back.

If you never pay it back, that's OK.

The burden is on the government and society to provide an economy in which a college degree at least earns you above the median income.

This was something the Labor government instituted recently.

The US needs something like this.

[nascar55]

1. Never happen

A lot of money in it for the big lenders, they would never allow it. You do know they owen congress.

[terisan]

2. We may be on the verge of some big changes in US. The horrible Bush legacy may

create some opportunity. I think things can get much better ....or much worse, but won't stay the same.

[1932]

3. I'd like to know how they got this done in the UK.

[vino]

4. Before student loans came in

a university education was free to the student at the time. It was paid for out of general taxation (so the repayment of costs was indirect), also a small payment for living expenses was available on a means tested basis. So the position was achieved by removing benefits rather than adding them.

[1932]

5. Also, in the UK, colleges were underfunded and the best professors were leaving

for Harvard and University of Texas.

So this gets money into the university system so that it can compete with the rest of the world, and it's basically through a subsidy that the government and a well-educated, reasonably compensated future populace pays for. It's an excellent system.

I understand that the UK was starting with a culture that expects the government to subsidize education. However, the financial services industry is still a very power political force in the UK and that the Blair government kept their hands out of the educational loan system is remarkable.

[muriel_volestrangler]

7. The Student Loan Company was set up by the Tory government

in 1989/90 under Thatcher: http://www.slc.co.uk/about%20us/remit/index.html

Under the Tories, the government-owned company provided loans for student living expenses. Labour introduced the tuition fees for university - first a flat-rate £1,000 per year, and then the (theoretically variable, but almost always at the maximum £3,000) 'top-up' fees. They set up the loans to go through the same company as the Tories had used. It would have been unthinkable for Labour to privatise a government company the Conservatives had set up.

The repayment threshold is a bit below median income too - £15,000 when the 2006 median wage was £19,496.

On edit: £19,496 is the median salary for all jobs. For full time jobs, it's £23,580 (.xls file).

[stirlingsliver]

6. A College Degree SHOULD Entitle You

A college degree should entitle you to a job that pays you above the median income.

It is outrageous that people with college degrees do not get paid enough money to pay back their student loans.