Every student's loans to these slimy operators should be simply struck off with no penalty.
Disclaimer: attended ITT and paid off the fed loan. Still paying on a parent plus that I doubt would qualify for forgiveness.
These are almost all going to be, by definition, disadvantaged people who have been lied to and defrauded. Yes, they 'chose' to do this, but the staggering amount of misleading advertising (and the worst kinds of sleazy-salesman lies & emotional manipulation of the vulnerable) leaves plenty of doubt as to how much of a choice they had.
I see very little difference between helping these people and helping storm victims. Nearly all for-profit education (that made a profit, anyway) is an ugly disaster and should never have been allowed to go on so long. The government actually did something right here for once.
Two, this is not a matter of poor life decisions, this is a matter of fraud.
Three, even if people are impoverished by stupidity, you're either gonna pick up the tab to some extent or literally watch them die of destitution on the street. It appals me sometimes how often America treats this like it was a choice.
The whole "small government" thing has just been people blowing off their responsibilities.
You have a fallacy in your premise, however. Government is not synonymous with society.