Just want to add- I am not anti-college loans.
I had them, spouse had them, we were a little surprised after we got married when we sat down and actually toted up the full amount. There it was- a very big number on the page, even though when you broke down grad school, undergrad, this one federally insured, this one from a commercial bank, each one looking pretty reasonable on it’s own. It was realizing that the big number you got when you added it together was now our responsibility as a married couple that was daunting.
We came up with a plan and we executed against the plan. Educational debt made our financial futures secure once we figured it out. We were both in high paying professions which would not have been possible without grad degrees, and even though we could have waited to go to grad school and found an employer to pay for some of it, I was earning so little in my job beforehand, it just made sense to borrow, get to a much higher salary quickly, and then pay it off.
But borrowing for someone else’s kid? This sounds like a nightmare because you are on the hook for the money without ANY say about how the “thrift campaign” to pay it off needs to get structured!
Your Husband sounds like a kind, generous person which is great. Explain to him how co-signing a loan for someone with bad credit is going to go down and he’ll likely get on board ASAP.