Mitch Daniels: Universities Should Be Responsible For Student Debt

Purdue University president and former governor Mitch Daniels wants public universities to be proactive in helping students pay off student debt. (photo credit: Kyle Stokes/StateImpact Indiana)

Purdue University president and former governor Mitch Daniels wants universities to share the burden of student loans.

More than half of college students in Indiana pay for their education using students loans, which on average means students graduate with a degree and almost $30,000 in debt, according to the Institute for College Access and Success.

During a panel at the Bipartisan Policy Center this week, Daniels said paying this debt should also be a university’s responsibility. The Indy Star reported on this speech and how Daniels is spearheading an effort at Purdue to help students pay off this debt:

“I think schools like ours should be at risk,” Daniels said at a forum on higher education organized by the Bipartisan Policy Center. “If we’re going to take on students who have borrowed money, there’s so little accountability in the system right now.”

[…]

Purdue has already been experimenting with a different kind of student loan: income-share agreements. Students agree to pay a percentage of their after-graduation income to an investor.

The school facilitated 160 “contracts” last year and is taking applications for the second year of funding.

Daniels said it’s too soon to say how the program is working, but Purdue has received interest from other schools interested in duplicating the idea.

Almost 70 percent of people who graduated form a public university in 2014 had student loan debt.