annual cost of attendance that is nearly $70K. The University of North Carolina has an in-state cost of attendance that is roughly 1/3 of that. If you live in NC and you can't afford Davidson and take on six figures in student debt to attend Davidson, you're making a bad life decision. Now the gov't can't intervene and stop everyone from making bad life decisions, but we shouldn't set up gov't programs that specifically facilitate that bad life decision.

If we limited borrowing to say $20 or $25K per year, Davidson would only be able to attract rich kids or kids who are eligible for significant needs based grants/scholarships. But it would pretty much wipe out the middle class's ability to attend Davidson. Now Davidson MIGHT be able to continue to operate and still attract plenty of rich and poor students and just give up on the middle class -- it's a good school that will probably always have demand, but I suspect they'd still adjust things to allow for a more diverse student population. But what about Elon or Gardner-Webb or High Point University... can those private universities survive accepting only rich kids. I suspect not and they would have to adjust their cost of attendance.

My plan would be to limit guaranteed gov't borrowing to $20K or $25K per year. Then make private loans dischargeable in bankruptcy which would pretty much prevent the private lending market from coming over the top and allowing kids to graduate with six figures in student debt.