President Joe Biden has made student loan forgiveness a central issue for his administration, leading efforts to cancel debt and reduce repayments for millions of borrowers. But with newly elected President Donald Trump return to the White House in January, the future of these efforts is now in question.
During the presidential debate with Vice President Kamala Harris, Trump described Biden’s efforts to forgive student borrowers as “a total catastrophe.” Although he has not explicitly discussed his plans for student loans, he is calling for abolishing the Department of Education, which manages the $1.6 trillion federal student loan portfolio.
It is unclear which agency or group would administer these loans if the Department of Education were eliminated, a move that would require congressional approval. The Trump campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Trump’s plans for student debt relief.
The stakes are high for the 46 million Americans who owe $1.7 trillion in student loans, a financial burden that about half of borrowers say has affected their life choices, delaying buying a home or starting a business. family, according to a 2021 Morning Consult survey. Mr. Biden’s term ends with two of his major relief efforts tied up in the courtsadding to the uncertainty about what Trump’s second presidency will mean for those plans.
“We know what’s in Project 2025, and we know what we saw during the first Trump administration,” said Persis Yu, managing counsel of the Student Borrower Protection Center, an advocacy group for people with student loans. “We should be very concerned about what the next administration will mean for borrowers.”
The next Trump administration is unlikely to continue the Biden administration’s efforts to fight ongoing lawsuits aimed at current student debt relief, NerdWallet credit expert Kate Wood said in an email. That could mean the end of those programs, experts say.
“Programs that the Biden administration created or expanded access to through regulatory changes can easily be rolled back,” she added.
What has Trump said about student loan relief?
During his September debate with Vice President Kamala Harris, Trump slammed the Biden administration’s efforts.
“When they said they were going to cancel the student loans, it was a total catastrophe. He went out and was rejected again by the Supreme Court,” Trump said, referring to the Supreme Court ruling. Decision from 2023 that blocked Mr. Biden’s initial student loan forgiveness program, which would have provided up to $20,000 in relief per borrower.
“So all these students were reviled by this whole idea. And how unfair that would have been. Part of the reason they lost,” he added.
What does Project 2025 say about student loans?
Project 2025 — an initiative overseen by the conservative Heritage Foundation to guide the next Republican president on an overhaul of the executive branch — calls for the elimination of the Department of Education and says student loans should be handled by the private sector. It also advocates reducing student loans.
“The new administration must end the practice of pretending the federal student loan portfolio is a campaign fund to gain political support and votes,” says Project 2025. “The new administration must end the abuses in the loan forgiveness programs of loans. Borrowers should be expected to repay their loans.”
It is unclear whether Trump agrees with these views, although he has called for an end to the Department of Education. In the midst of his campaign, Trump distanced himself from Project 2025, calling some of the proposals “terrible.”
What is the status of Biden’s student loan relief plans?
Currently, there are two student loan relief plans pending in court, both of which are being challenged by Republican-led states.
The Save on valuable trainingor SAVE, plan, is an income-driven repayment program, which ties a borrower’s monthly payment to their income, reducing their financing costs. Some lower-income borrowers in SAVE have $0 monthly payments.
However, the plan’s 8 million participants are now in limbo after court rulings prevented the Biden administration from implementing the plan. Currently, those borrowers are in be patient until Aprilmeaning their loans will essentially be put on hold while the Biden administration defends the plan in court.
Separately, a new Biden administration plan to use The Higher Education Act, which seeks to cancel some or all of the student debt of 30 million borrowers, has also hit a legal roadblock, with a court suspending that plan in October.
In the latter case, Republican states argued that Mr. Biden’s plan aimed to “illegitimately massively forgive hundreds of billions of dollars in student loans.” The Ministry of Education promised to defend both plans.
What could happen to these programs under Trump?
Bob Eitel, who served as a senior adviser to the education secretary during the first Trump administration, said he expects the president-elect to take steps to repeal the proposed loan cancellation rules.
“The Trump administration may pursue various avenues of loan relief, but it will not be the massive, blanket form of forgiveness that the current administration has pursued,” said Eitel, president and co-founder of the Defense of Freedom Institute for Policy Studies.
Some other student loan relief programs may remain, such as the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program, which would be harder to eliminate but could become less accessible, according to NerdWallet’s Wood.
That program, which was signed into law by former President George W. Bush in 2007, forgives the student debt of government employees such as teachers and police officers after 10 years of repayment. The Biden administration reworked the PSLF to make it easier for people to qualify for forgiveness after the vast majority of people who applied were rejected. told they were not eligible.
During Trump’s first term, the Department of Education was under Trump’s supervision Betsy De Voswhich promoted school choice in primary and secondary education and also called for deep cuts. She too proposed ending the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program, although she was unsuccessful.
Do Americans Support Student Loan Relief?
It’s a divisive issue among voters, with people’s opinions colored by their political leanings and whether they themselves have student debt, according to an AP-Norc poll published in June.
Only 15% of Republicans think student loan forgiveness is important, compared to 58% of Democrats. More than half of people currently paying student debt say it is an important issue, compared to a third of people who have no experience with student debt, the poll found.
Republicans have objected to Biden’s efforts because they could deprive some lenders of revenue, while some object to forgiving loans for people who have enrolled in college since a minority of Americans have college degrees.
The Biden administration is “saddled working Americans with Ivy League debt,” Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey said in a September statement.
contributed to this report.
