Sen. Bernie Sanders at a rally in Washington, April 27.

Photo: Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

The solution to the student debt problem is not to forgive the six-figure debt that many elite colleges pile on their students (“The Taxpayer Con of the Century,” Review & Outlook, April 30). The solution is to prevent that level of debt from accumulating in the first place. Since government is now the largest dispenser of tuition funds, it should simply refuse to pay the high tuitions that these colleges charge. That’s what it did with Medicare. It reset reimbursements at a lower level. Hospitals had to readjust; some closed and others trimmed the fat and got by on the lower payments. Let colleges do the same.

Keith Stamler

Palos Verdes, Calif.

As the parents of three college graduates, we are morally offended by the Democrats’ proposal to eliminate college debt. My wife and I had a deal with our children: We would pay for four years of in-state tuition. If they wished to go out of state, they would own the difference in cost. If they choose to get an advanced degree, that would be their debt. They all choose to stay in state and received a great education.

My wife and I sacrificed greatly. We worked multiple jobs, cashed in savings and took loans from our life insurance to cover those costs. Now we are being asked to pay the debts of others. You can count me in on any legal action being taken to get my money back if the president signs an executive order waiving student debt.

Michael J. McGuire

Neenah, Wis.

The solution is to hold academic institutions accountable. If they want government to give my money to their students, they need to prove the value of their product. Set parameters: an 80% graduation rate in five years, and the ability to secure a job at a reasonable salary one year postgraduation. Failure results in withdrawal of federal money available to future students until parameters are met.

That would stop the schools from giving money away to students unlikely to graduate, or to those pursuing degrees unlikely to result in meaningful employment.

Bessie Montesano

Myrtle Beach, S.C.

Writing off student debt is a slippery slope to Bernie Sanders’s free college for everyone. If you write off the debt for past and present college grads, then what do you do for the future college students? Inevitably, they expect free college education and will likely have to be given it.

George Nash

Lancaster, Pa.

When a Republican Congress, led by Newt Gingrich, agreed to pass the Democrats’ student-loan program, it exempted the loans from bankruptcy protection. This was a mistake; if lenders could lose loans to bankruptcy, they would impose more rigorous requirements before lending.

Instead, we have lenders with no skin in the game and borrowers unable to discharge the loans in bankruptcy as they could with virtually any other debt. Remove the bankruptcy exemption, allow debtors relief in the conventional manner and let the student-loan market heal itself.

Robert J. Cohen

Bernalillo, N.M.