Nearly 70 years after the federal government first began offering loans to college students, student debt has reached crisis levels in America. How did this happen? How did a limited program of aid become a boon to banks and a $1.6 trillion boondoggle for the federal government? More urgently, what lies ahead for students and borrowers? This session will explain how the student debt crisis came to be and why it remains so difficult to address; examine the current administration’s policy blueprint; and outline an alternate vision for reforming higher-education finance.