Even during the campaign trail, President Donald Trump already said that one of the changes he will make in education is the student loan repayment scheme. Indeed, some recently obtained documents revealed that the changes will greatly impact college students and graduates.
Trump's proposed student loan repayment scheme is income-based where students have to pay their loans a little higher but will have a shorter time toward loan forgiveness.
Specifically, the new scheme has a cap repayment of 12.5 percent of the borrower's income with a loan forgiveness for the balance after 15 years. That sounds promising - at least for those with an undergraduate degree because the current student loan repayment is capped at 10 percent of the borrower's income with a loan forgiveness after 20 years.
However, those who have graduate degrees are not as happy as those with undergraduate degrees and all for a good reason. Those with graduates degrees have the same cap repayment of 12.5 percent but with a loan forgiveness after 30 years. Compare that to the present repayment scheme where those with advanced degrees only have a 10 percent cap repayment but a loan forgiveness after 25 years. In short, they will have to pay a bigger amount for a much longer period of time.
Aside from this, the Trump administration also wants to eliminate the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program which wipes out federal student debt after the borrower made consistent payments for 10 years. According to Sam Clovis, the policy director and national co-chair of Trump's campaign, it should be market-driven where banks, instead of the federal government, make the loan decisions for students.
No one knows for sure how the borrowers will be affected if the proposed elimination pushes through. To date, there are more than 552,000 people who are receiving the benefit. Andy Josuweit, CEO of Student Loan Hero, said that doing so would make it more difficult for students to secure a loan.
