It's gotten progressively tougher since the '70s, starting with med/law school debt. > Before the mid-1970s, debtors were able to get rid of student loans in b

It's gotten progressively tougher since the '70s, starting with med/law school debt. > Before the mid-1970s, debtors were able to get rid of student loans in bankruptcy court just as they could credit card debt or auto loans. But after scattered reports of new doctors and lawyers filing for bankruptcy and wiping away their student debt, resentful members of Congress changed the law in 1976. > In an effort to protect the taxpayer money that is on the line every time a student or parent signs for a new federal loan, Congress toughened the law again in 1990 and again in 1998. In 2005, for-profit companies that lend money to students persuaded Congress to extend the same rules to their private loans. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/01/business/shedding-student-loans-in-bankruptcy-is-an-uphill-battle.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0 http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/01/business/shedding-student-...