Sallie Mae lists their loans as "student loans," which cause them to be excluded from bankrupcy charge-off just like a federal student loan. But, because they consider their loans "private," they explicitly decline from being consolidated into the Direct Loan program. This makes Sallie Mae loans impossible to be removed due to hardships put upon you by the loans, and Sallie Mae is notorious for not working with their customers towards paying off their loans without undue hardship.
Force Sallie Mae to either classify their loans as pure private loans that can be charged off during bankrupcy, or that they be considered true student loans that are able to be consolidated into federal programs. No other lending institution can do this, why should they?