Andrew Yang on student debt: what the evidence says · JRE #1245
“if something devastating happens to you in any other form you can file for bankruptcy but you never escape your student loans no matter what happens to you”
What the evidence says
Yang claimed that, unlike other debts, student loans "never" escape bankruptcy no matter what happens to the borrower. Under 11 U.S.C. Section 523(a)(8), most student loans are excepted from discharge, which does make them harder to shed than ordinary unsecured debts, but the exception is not absolute: a debtor can still have the loans discharged by proving "undue hardship," a standard most courts apply through the Brunner test (inability to maintain a minimal standard of living if forced to repay, circumstances likely to persist, and a good-faith effort to repay). Discharges under this standard have historically been granted rarely, which likely reflects the real-world experience Yang was describing, but "no matter what happens to you" overstates the legal reality since discharge remains legally possible rather than categorically foreclosed.