The only "news article" [1] I can find that references this mentions 0.3% of student loans were discharged through bankruptcy in 1977 [2].
[1] https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/history-student-loans-bankrup...
[2] http://harvardlawreview.org/wp-content/uploads/pdfs/vol126_s...
Seems be to be some serious revisionist history going on...
It's not quite as abusive as what could have happened when student loans were dischargeable in bankruptcy- it takes 20 years and you're taxed on the forgiveness- but I thought it was quite perverse that the institution charging towering sums of money is teaching the students in blanket fashion how to avoid paying it off.
It actually says something much stronger - it says that 0.3% of the value of all federal student loans given before 1977 had been discharged through bankruptcy, not in 1977. In 1977 wouldn't make sense because the amendments making it impossible to discharge student loan debt through bankruptcy were made in 1976.
Just because it’s not a link on the internet doesn’t mean it isn’t true.
It was pretty much common knowledge when I was in school. I only knew a few pre-meds, but it certainly came up as a discussion topic more than once.
You don't have to link to a source on the internet either, citing a book or newspaper article would be sufficient.