In times of economic downturn, educational prestige is directly correlated to financial resiliency. Indoctrinated with the belief that virtually all highly-coveted jobs require postsecondary education, many ambitious yet financially disadvantaged young people in the twenty-first century face no alternative than to rely on student loans to fund educational pursuits. While traditional federal and private loans may offer students the opportunity to enter the middle class, the debt incurred from these loans will likely follow them throughout the better part of their lives.
This Note argues that human capital contracts (HCC) investees’ financial obligations to their investors should be dischargeable in bankruptcy similar to student loan debt dischargeability; however, HCC bankruptcy treatment should also protect investors by subjecting dischargeability to an undue hardship threshold.