ABSTRACT
This chapter begins with steady development of a "user-pay" approach to funding higher education for individuals as neoliberal policy became dominant in the United States. It describes how the Bankruptcy Code protects educational lenders, making them into a form of "super-creditor" in the process of an individual case. The chapter discusses the 2005 amendments to the US Bankruptcy Code, the means test and disposable income test, and educational loan monthly payment obligations. Since the enactment of the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005, the means test and the disposable income test have limited individuals' access to a fresh start under the 1978 Bankruptcy Code. The chapter proposes an educational loan modification mediation program that could be implemented in the bankruptcy courts to address the growing educational loan debt. It concludes by linking the structure of the means test and disposable income to the neoliberal turn.
