William J. Bennett was Secretary of Education...

under President Ronald Reagan from 1985 through 1988.  After that he was the Director of Office of National Drug Control Policy under President George H.W. Bush.  He also co-founded K12, a for-profit education company that sells online education products to charter schools.  He resigned as that company Chairman of the Board in 2005.

Now he's written an opinion piece for CNN in which he lets us know that there is a crisis in the growing amount of past-due student loans owed to the goverment.  He points out that the government is now making 93% of all student loans issued, that the amount of loans owed is nearly $1 trillion, and is now more than either auto loan debt or credit card debt.  He further points out that the growing rate of student loans that are more than 90 days delinquent is remarkably similar to how past-due mortgage debts went 90 days delinquent just prior to the start of the sub-prime mortgage crisis.  He also notes that student loans are inherently risky, and that lenders don't pay attention to whether or not the educational goals students are borrowing money to pursue will lead to well-paying careers.  And he tells us that since student loans are almost impossible to discharge in bankruptcy, those who owe these loans will be paying money for a long time toward the interest and principal on these loans when allowing them to spend this money on other things would boost the economy greatly.

All true.

But he offers no solutions other than colleges reducing prices and providing better educations; and lenders being more restrictive in who gets money.  So what is the answer?  Do we just write-off $1 trillion in student loans, as many have advocated and just add it to our burgeoning public debt?  We're at $16.4 trillion now, what's another trillion on top of that?

No.  The answer is in a program that's going into effect on December 21st.  On that date, a new program starts that will allow student loan borrowers to pay 10% of their discretionary income and after 20 years, have their remaining balances forgiven.  It's a fair solution.  It requires at least some money to be paid back and gives borrowers a light at the end of their tunnel.  There are other programs where loans can be partially forgiven in return for public service work.

These aren't perfect solutions but they are better than just waving a magical fiscal wand and pretending we have $1 trillion lying around to solve this problem.  Now if we could balance the budget first, then we could do something like forgiving $100 billion in student loans over the next ten years.  But we aren't even in the same solar system as a balanced budget is at the moment.

Bennett is right that a crisis looms.   But the right steps are being taken toward resolving it, if people will take advantage of the available programs.