While I don't know your situation, it's hard for me to feel sorry for someone who went to an expensive private school, lived on campus in a "country club" atmosphere, and then expects the Taxpayers to cover it.
I'm in your situation btw. I worked through undergrad and grad school and had my work pay for almost all of my school so I never had any debt. But I realize I was lucky and had a good situation lined up and not everyone has the same opportunities. Some people need more assistance than others, and I don't mind if the govt helps those folks out.
Debt, in general, must be dischargeable in bankruptcy. Otherwise the practice is equivalent to the gradual reinvention of slavery. Student loans already run afoul of this principle - let's not double down on the corruption merely to delay writing down losses that have already occurred.
Under such a system, once lenders stopped lending, college would again become available primarily to the wealthy.
From a policy standpoint, if the realities make it impractical for lenders to lend then papering over those incentives is effectively doubling down on a bad idea. Compromising in order to encourage more of something generally results in system feedback consuming the desired change, with the downsides of the compromise remaining.
Fewer college loans would mean that society would have to adapt elsewhere - the K-12 schools couldn't punt any substantive learning until "college", employers couldn't insist on pedigree degrees for every job, the value in funding state universities would be respected, etc.
As we're fast finding out, our societal addiction to credit does not help people actually afford things, but creates a de-facto-mandatory system of wealth extraction from the powerless.
In such a case, it seems worth exploring whether society overall and different segments are better or worse off with each policy.
I think that's the case we're in, and even though it would likely help me personally and help my kids, I don't want to return to a world where a pedigree degree is even more restricted to those with, well, pedigrees.
Um, you added this as an afterthought, but it's by far the biggest expense. We're talking probably around $500 per month on average (if you live with others) plus utilities, not to mention food. So you were able to save around $1000 per month living with parents - and that's a conservative estimate.
Many people aren't so fortunate.
Good for you, really, but it's hard for me to take that as genuine advice.
The govt makes a substantial amount of money from student loans as it currently is.