College tuition should be free or dirt cheap. The students should just have to buy their books, never have to attend any classroom, read the books at home, and then show up twice a year in a classroom to take their final exams. Also, college should be 2 years at the most to obtain a bachelors degree, not 4 years. Two years is wasted taking classes that have nothing to do with your major; a waste of time and money.
That rationale for the change in bankruptcy law is oversensationalized bullshit. Always there will be isolated cases. Yet the reality is that there is a cost to the debtor in bankruptcy and adverse effects beyond bankruptcy that last years. Especially today in the age of background checks and hypercompetitiveness, a bankruptcy can limit the career prospects of certain professions, law being one of them. Would your opinion be that Lehman Brothers got bailed out? I know the example is not exactly on point because individuals, not corporations, take out or guarantee student loans. Regardless, I don't know anyone who has gone through PERSONAL bankruptcy who felt he or she got bailed out. I know one person who lost her farm and still can't get a car loan without a co-signer after more than 5 years and she also has had to disclose her bankruptcy on job applications. We sometimes joke about her situation by saying: it could have been worse, at least she didn't have any student loans! Individuals do not file for personal bankruptcy willy nilly.
I think you have something there. Maybe not take away classrooms completely because many students just cant study on their own without a teacher explaining things to them. But I do agree there should be the option to self study, then pay an exam fee like the way they do with the Series 7 tests or real estate salesman tests. When I did the series 7, I did the self study. I paid $240 for books and then I paid exam fees. If I wanted to do a live classroom, it was about another $500 for the class. But universities do not give you this option. They say "You will not get a bachelors degree(or masters, or PhD), unless you pay for the classes at our school" Some schools will let you test out of basic general ed classes, but not anything else and those classes they do let you test out of are generally ones that you passed in high school anyway. You'll still probably spend $5,000 for books (unless good ol' Sal Khan puts up videos of your classes for free), but its still better than paying $50k over 4 years and at least you can go at your own pace. For some of us, its definitely more efficient. Who wants to spend 90 minutes in a class and only learning 30 minutes worth of work because you have to wait for other people to "get the answer"? The slower learners can go to classrooms and the quicker learners study on their own. Tuition rates will go down because there is less demand, so more people can afford it on their own.
Although I didn't finish a 4 year degree I worked TWO jobs while attending college. Of course I had little to no social life, but that's just tough shit for me. You gotta play the hand you're dealt.