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There are more than 45 million people with student loans, and many more preparing to go to college at a time when tuition costs are at record levels: the average annual cost of a private university hit almost $60,000 in 2024.

The next president will have the power to either ease this financial burden or make it worse. And while Donald Trump’s bluster on the campaign trail hasn’t brought much clarity to his policy plans, his public statements, along with the actions of his previous administration, have laid out a road map for the many ways he will attempt to reduce the financial accessibility of public services to zero. higher education for future students, while plunging those who already have student debt into a deeper financial hole.

Additionally, the program drafted by the conservative Heritage Foundation for a future Republican administration, known as the Project 2025also offers a plan. Trump has tried to distance himself from Project 2025, but because it was drafted by some of his closest allies, it is likely that, if Trump wins in November, elements of the plan will become political priorities.

Here’s what a second Trump term could mean for student debt:

Defunding and shutting down the Department of Education could decimate college affordability for low-income students: At a rally in Wisconsin last month, Donald Trump said he wanted to close the Department of Education if he returned to the Oval Office. “I’m dying to come back and do this.” he said. “We will eventually eliminate the federal Department of Education.”

Trump could not close the Department of Education alone: ​​that would require an act of Congress. But defunding the ministry would have considerable consequences for education funding. A key element: The department administers $39 billion in Pell Grants, grants awarded to students from low-income backgrounds. About half of Pell Grants go to students whose families earn less than $20,000 per year. Without the department, it is unclear who would distribute and oversee Pell Grants; If thrown into chaos, low-income students will have no choice but to take out additional student loans. Trump has shown in the past his willingness to jeopardize this crucial source of financial aid: during his presidency, he proposed reducing almost 4 billion dollars from the Pell Grants reserve fund – and redirecting half to NASA for space exploration: “So we can go back to space in a BIG WAY!” » Asset tweeted at the time.

Ending public service loan waivers: Signed by President George W. Bush in 2007, the PSLF program promises to forgive the remaining debt of public officials, from police offices and prosecutors to public defenders, who have completed 10 years of loan payments. Over the past four years, the Biden-Harris administration has provided $74 billion in student debt relief to public servants who have met PSLF payment requirements.

But when the first wave of borrowers were eligible for relief in 2017, Trump’s Department of Education rejected 99% of applicants. His administration then propose a 2021 budget that would have completely canceled the PSLF. This was not adopted, but the goal remains: the 2025 plan includes an explicit recommendation to end PSLF in the event of a Republican president.

Hindering other forms of student debt relief: In June 2023, the Supreme Court struck President Biden’s attempt to cancel up to $10,000 in student debt for low- and middle-income borrowers. Asset called the ruling is a “massive victory” that ended an “unconstitutional student loan scheme.”

Following this Supreme Court decision, the Biden-Harris administration sought to provide relief in another way: it launched the Saving on a Valuable Education (SAVE) plan, a reimbursement program based on income that would reduce required payments for many borrowers. , and cancel the rest of their debt after somewhere between 10 and 25 years, based on the initial loan balance. Within months, more than a dozen Republican-led states had sued to end the program. These proceedings are ongoing. And it’s safe to say that a Trump-Vance administration wouldn’t do much to stop them: In June, Trump called Biden’s latest student debt relief efforts “vile“, while Vance encouraged Republicans must fight student loan forgiveness “with every ounce of our power energy.” Additionally, Project 2025 suggests that a future Trump administration should end all existing income-based debt repayment plans because they are too generous.

Weakening debt relief for borrowers defrauded by for-profit schools: When Betsy DeVos was Trump’s education secretary, she rewrote an existing department rule that cancels loans for students who attended fraudulent colleges. His version reduced the amount of those loans that could be forgiven, limiting them to just three cents for every dollar spent on their degrees. Congress passed a bipartisan resolution to overthrow DeVos’ regime, but Trump I vetoed it, leaving its restrictions in place until Biden reversed them when he took office. If Trump returned to the White House, this relief to borrowers would most likely be in jeopardy.

What makes certain student loans generate more interest: In 2018, the Trump administration’s budget proposed ending subsidized Stafford loans, which bear no interest while undergraduates are in school. This change would result in thousands of dollars of additional debt for borrowers, many of whom are also from low-income families: About 70% of subsidized borrowers are also eligible for Pell Grants. In 2018, the Center for American Progress estimated that ending subsidized loans would impose additional costs on nearly 6 million students of $2.8 billion each year.