The question of how to "fix" student loans has been addressed at good length in the Student Debt thread.  My solution is (1) if you take out loans, you should pay them back (with certain policy-based exceptions) and (2) the interest on them, as government insured loans, should be like 1% (to cover administrative/servicing costs) and not 5x to 8x that, which is what the rates are now.  In this way, students pay for the education they received but don't get caught in a never ending debt trap when