Even as total outstanding student debt rises to $1 trillion, lawmakers have yet to allow loans to be discharged in bankruptcy.
Without an escape clause, these loans can strangle a person.
Take 36-year-old Nick Keith, who remains $142,000 eight years after graduating from culinary school. He’s featured in a new film, DEFAULT: The Student Loan Documentary, in which several college graduates expose the pitfalls of the private student loan industry.