Educational Credit Management Corp. v. Jesperson

I concur in the court’s judgment that, applying de novo review, Jesperson is ineligible for an undue hardship discharge of his student loan debt under 11 U.S.C. § 523(a)(8). I write separately to emphasize that whether the debtor enrolled in the Income Contingent Repayment Plan (ICRP) remains merely “a factor” to consider when applying the totality-of-the-circumstances test. In the present case, even assuming that Jesperson’s decision to forgo enrolling in the ICRP was reasonable, other relevant factors, such as “Jes-person’s young age, good health, number of degrees, marketable skills, and…