Debt Collectors Cashing In on Student Loans Nearly one in six student borrowers who owe money on their student loans is now in default, our colleague Andrew Martin writes this week in a continuation of The New York Times series, Degrees of Debt. His piece, which details how collection agencies are hunting down defaulters, follows last month's article by Ron Lieber about the last chance that borrowers have of discharging their student loans: convincing a federal judge that there is a "certainty of hopelessness" to their financial lives. We encourage readers of The Choice to follow this series.