(NewsNation) — President-elect Donald Trump‘s second term will undoubtedly reshape the United States, with federal agencies like the Department of Education on the chopping block.
Some of the biggest changes could come for the millions of Americans with student loan debt.
Student loan cancellation was not a focus of Trump or Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaigns, despite the topic being a mainstay of President Biden’s 2020 run and presidency.
The issue came up just once in the September presidential debate when Trump hammered Harris and Biden for failing to deliver their promise of widespread forgiveness. Trump called it a “total catastrophe” that “taunted young people.”
But will Trump continue student debt relief efforts? The president-elect has never given a clear answer on his student loan forgiveness stance, but he and his allies have frequently criticized Biden’s efforts and celebrated his court losses.
Following the 2023 Supreme Court decision striking down Biden’s universal relief proposal, Trump said a debt eradication “would have been very unfair to the millions and millions of people who have paid their debt through hard work and diligence.”
Donald Trump’s proposed student debt policies
Student loan forgiveness was not a focus of the Trump campaign, and the president-elect doesn’t have any hard and fast policies outlined regarding debt relief.
However, his current education stances — including a push to eliminate the DOE — could impact how student loans are doled out and payments are collected.
The DOE administers two major programs that help low-income students enter higher education: Pell Grants and the federal student loan program.
- Pell Grants provide assistance to college students based on their family’s ability to pay. The maximum amount for a student in the 2024-25 school year is $7,395. In a typical year, Pell Grant funding totals around $30 billion.
- The federal student loan program subsidizes students by offering more generous loan terms than they would receive in the private loan market, including income-driven repayment plans, scheduled debt forgiveness, lower interest rates and deferred payments.
In abolishing the DOE, Trump said he hopes to remove “the radicals who have infiltrated the federal Department of Education, and get Congress to reaffirm the president’s ability to remove recalcitrant employees from the job.”
What does Project 2025 say about student loans?
While Trump distanced himself from The Heritage Project’s nearly 1,000-page conservative policy handbook in the months leading up to the 2024 election, the organization has expressed avid support for the GOP candidate and his positions.
Like Trump, Project 2025 calls for a DOE dismantling. The handbook also proposes ending public service loan forgiveness (PSLF) and borrower defense programs, essentially placing college loan capabilities in the hands of private lenders.
Persis Yu, deputy executive director and managing counsel at Student Borrower Protection Center, told CNBC many are concerned about “what kind of corporate interests are going to be protected over the interests of borrowers and students.”
Did Donald Trump address student loans in first administration?
During his first term, Trump attempted to slash funding for multiple education programs, including PSLF. Though the proposals didn’t pass then, the Republican Party now has full control over Congress.
Yu explained to CNBC that Trump’s first administration still found ways to block debt relief. Roughly 99% of borrowers who applied for PSLF in 2019 were rejected, leading a massive teacher union to sue then-Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos for mishandling the program and its funds.
Some are holding out hope for relief under Trump.
“President Trump, before he even ran for president in 2015, he was asking things like, ‘Why is the federal government viewing student loans as a profit center? It makes no sense.’ And he was right then. And I think that if he sticks with his gut, it will serve him well going forward,” Alan Collinge, founder of Student Loan Justice, told The Hill.
Collinge also praised Trump’s willingness to use executive orders on student loans, such as when he forgave loans for 25,000 disabled veterans. Trump also used his executive authority to pause student loans during the pandemic.
“Trump is a bold guy, and we’re counting on him being bold and honest and courageous,” he added.
What can Biden do about student debt?
As Trump prepares to return to the White House, proponents of student loan forgiveness are hoping for President Joe Biden to make good on his plans to eradicate billions in debt.
Most of Biden’s current actions on student loans are tied up in the court system or set to take effect in 2025. During his term, the sitting president forgave $175 billion for 5 million Americans across all 50 states.
“Now it’s time for him, for his legacy’s sake, if nothing else, to make good on these long-standing promises,” Collinge said.
“I think one of the easiest things Biden could do is finalize the one-time account adjustment. There’s still many borrowers that could receive a cancelation through the one-time account adjustment, and they have yet to do the last run, and that’s something that’s been ongoing for the last almost two years,” Student Debt Crisis Center President Natalia Abrams added.
NewsNation’s Ashley Soriano, The Associated Press and The Hill contributed to this report.
