中文摘要
在大学和研究生教育回报处于历史高位之际，为何仍有如此多的学生在偿还学生贷款上举步维艰？学生债务总量的攀升以及当今学生贷款借款人所面临的困境，可以追溯到联邦政策的变化——这些政策旨在扩大联邦资助与教育机会的获取渠道，却也增加了在较高风险情形下的入学与借款。自20世纪90年代末起，政策制定者放宽了原本限制教育机构招收依赖资助学生的监管规定。这使得相对弱势学生的入学人数上升，但他们主要就读于办学绩效不佳、价值较低的机构；这些机构的学生系统性地未能完成学位、偿还贷款困难、违约率居高不下，并在就业市场上陷入困境。随着这些新增借款人同样遭遇不佳结果，其贷款不断累积，贷款表现持续恶化，联邦项目的财务状况也随之恶化。这场危机表明，教育机构在高等教育获取机会与学生结果方面发挥着重要作用；同时也说明，当不同机构和项目之间的结果、以及学生偿还能力存在如此显著的异质性时，依靠广泛可得的贷款来补贴教育投资将面临重重困难。
Abstract
At a time when the returns to college and graduate school are at historic highs, why do so many students struggle with their student loans? The increase in aggregate student debt and the struggles of today’s student loan borrowers can be traced to changes in federal policies intended to broaden access to federal aid and educational opportunities, and which increased enrollment and borrowing in higher-risk circumstances. Starting in the late 1990s, policymakers weakened regulations that had constrained institutions from enrolling aid-dependent students. This led to rising enrollment of relatively disadvantaged students, but primarily at poor-performing, low-value institutions whose students systematically failed to complete a degree, struggled to repay their loans, defaulted at high rates, and foundered in the job market. As these new borrowers experienced similarly poor outcomes, their loans piled up, loan performance deteriorated, and with it the finances of the federal program. The crisis illustrates the important role that educational institutions play in access to postsecondary education and student outcomes, and difficulty of using broadly-available loans to subsidize investments in education when there is so much heterogeneity in outcomes across institutions and programs and in the ability to repay of students.