I'd be more than ok with these loans having the interest rate dropped to 0, and any money paid to interest gets retroactively applied to the principle, and then going forward, any government backed loans carry 0% interest. If a flat fee of 100-500 per term that you apply for Fin Aid is needed to handle admin fees, that would be built into the loan.
OR
Continue the way it is, but if a student claims bankruptcy while carrying a student loan, the government gets it's money back from said school's endowment.
I think there are tons of options out there, besides just waving a magic wand to remove debt, that weren't even discussed.