$40 billion in unpaid debt is certainly not making any money for the TAXPAYERS.
Maybe we should go back to the Flying Scholarships where you had to have made a personal investment into your future career in aviation by getting your PPL before applying for a scholarship.
At least it showed that an applicant had some commitment.
Two problems with the scholarship scheme when I applied back in 1961 was that you could only obtain it if you were seeking an Airline career rather than one in GA and therefor you also needed a pass in at least one ATPL subject if not all.
We will never have a viable GA industry if everyone goes through the ranks ever upward to the airline industry where the folk end up with lots of Auto-pilot time and few take offs and landings they become so deskilled that many are hopeless when it comes to hands on either back in GA or in an emergency situation in an airliner.
Some, at least, still get back to stick and rudder at the same time as maintaining their highly paid job by buying a lighty of buying hours in one. If I wore a hat I would take it off to these latter.
Scholarships or the like need to be made available to those who are genuinely seeking a career in aviation be it GA or Airline. I chose GA and spent all my working life in Single Pilot operations or instructing