Paying Back Your Country through Income-Contingent Student Loans

Governmental subsidies to higher education raise issues of fairness between families and between generations. The partial conversion of the federal guaranteed student loan program into a program of direct governmental lending permits a graduate to pay back the loan with a modest percentage of future income. This Article notes that this income-contingent repayment option provides most graduates with the only insurance they need against a poor job market. Thus, the author argues that this legislation needlessly retains existing federal subsidies, which could be more effectively targeted to the needy.