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Originally Posted by AGDee
That said, I do think teachers who are paid less than $60K or so should get reduced student loans, even on sliding scales for working in various difficult geographic areas. Nurses too, and probably some other "critical need" type jobs. With the shortage of general practice physicians, they should probably qualify too.
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I think things are going that way, at least to a certain degree. From the emails that go out over my law school's listserve, it appears that the new federal loan consolidation programs have an option where you can base your repayment on your income. Now, I don't know whether that significantly drops the starting payments, and I'm guessing you get hit hard on the back end, but it's an option. Plus, there are the loan forgiveness options for teachers and lawyers; I'm not sure which other professions have that sort of program.
I'm not sure how far to stretch the programs though. How do you decide which professions should qualify? Of course, I'm speaking as someone who is going into a profession that has some loan forgiveness, and as someone who was able to us a minimal amount of student loans (through merit and need based scholarships/grants and full-time work proceeds) through undergrad and law school, so take my opinion for what it's worth.