Breaking News: Student Loan Relief...

for students from bankrupt West Kentucky School of Law.  Hopefully, more schools will go bankrupt, and this trend will continue:

Student Loan Xpress, Inc. (SLX) has reached an agreement with the Commonwealth of Kentucky that will result in an estimated $3.6 million reduction in the loan obligations for students who attended a now bankrupt West Kentucky law school.

The lender, SLX, engaged in bad behavior:

...the lender charged fees when it said it would not and required loan repayment when students were entitled to deferments because they were still in school. "There was an overall pattern of abuse by the lender that ignored federal and state consumer protection requirements and put students in a financial bind before they even started their careers.

and now they will pay, by reducing each student's tuition by an average of $25K:

Students' loan indebtedness will not include any amounts for tuition and school fees for credits that were not transferred to another school; interest on the loans will be based on the reduced loan amounts and any capitalized interest will be removed from their loan accounts; and late fees for delinquent payments and certain loan fees will also be removed from borrowers' accounts.

Each student's debt load will be reduced in light of the credits that they were unable to transfer to other schools.  Frankly, what schools will they be permitted to transfer to?  This school sought accreditation and was never successful.  I guess that means they were never able to secure a fax machine.  Why would the ABA accredit a school like that?
SLX's dealing in other schools are under investigation.  It might be worth following if they are your lender.
I anticipate that more law schools will close down in the future and this type of scenario will play out more than a few times.  Here's to foolish optimism.

Is It Wrong That I'm a Bit Jealous of Dr. Chang's Son?

So your mom gets arrested for grand larceny and forgery, but at least your law school education is paid for.  That's looking at the bright side of things for Dr. Cecilia Chang's family.  Oh yah, mom's case can be the first pro bono case that the son takes on. He can afford to do it with no debt.

Apparently, she was a fundraiser for St. John's University who would travel the world in pursuit of dollar bills.  She managed to secure a donation for this very Catholic School from the very Muslim Prince Alwaleed bin Talal Al Saud of Saudi Arabia.  From that, she pocketed $250,000 which she used to pay for her son's law school education, casino trips, Victoria's secret and shopping sprees.  In actuality, she probably only spent $50,000 on her and the remainder on her son.  But she's going to the big house for it anyway.  Go Mom!  Where can I sign up for that job?

For Your Listening Pleasure: Student Loan Debt Surpasses Credit Card Debt.

Thanks, BIDER Tipster!
I always thought a Pell Grant was a joke... even when I went to college. 

$848,028,384,295: Student Loan Debt Clock

Mark Kantrowitz of Fin.aid has set up a clock, much like the U.S. Debt Clock near Times Square in Manhattan, measuring the amount of private and public student loans piling on the back of young Americans.

This clever feature "takes into account both new loans being made and old loans being paid off, which decrease the total amount of debt outstanding. The reason the clock grows by a couple thousand dollars per second is simple: Current students are borrowing money much faster than former students are paying it back."
Scary, right?  I'm hoping that the digital nonsensical clock on the side of the former Virgin Megastore in Manhattan can be used to publicly display the Student Loan Clock.  Since Virgin closed, I'm sure it's available.

Look!  It's perfect!  And it has space for growth.  After all, "in 2010, Kantrowitz estimates that the government will make about $100 billion in federal loans -- and receive just $22 billion in principal payments, leading to a net increase of $78 billion per year. That doesn't even include private loans."
So, it will need to be a big clock, a really big clock.

Thanks for the tip, friend!