Got a college loan you can’t pay because you can’t find a good enough job? Your beef should be with the college that you paid for your education, not the taxpayer.

In 2014 the Obama administration clamped down on for-profit colleges. The Department of Education said too many students were leaving the institutions with inadequate training and too much debt, making loan repayment difficult or impossible.

According to a recent letter to the editor, many college graduates still have the same problem with too much debt. However, the conclusion that taxpayers should provide loan relief in this situation does nothing to cure the root issue.

Schools need to be held to the same standard as every other service provider. If they sell students an education that does not deliver employment sufficient to pay back the loan then the school needs to be held accountable for that, up to and including a full refund. Might this adversely affect some school’s finances? Yes, the ones that are producing graduates who cannot pay back their loans.

Colleges must be fully vested in the outcome of the education service they provide. Having taxpayers forgive college loans only encourages colleges to continue to charge more each year and sell education services that may not deliver good-paying employment because they have no financial responsibility for the results, and they can pawn any losses off on blameless taxpayers who had nothing to do with creating the problem in the first place.

William A. Henning

Highlands Ranch