US President Donald Trump talks to journalists while in flight on Air Force One, on the way to Joint Base Andrews on April 6, 2025.
Mandel and | AFP | Getty images
Trump administration recently announced It would start a revision process Federal student loan system of $ 1.6 billion.
Potential changes may have an impact on how millions of borrowers repay their debtand who qualifies for the forgiveness of loans.
“Not only will this development of the rules serve as an opportunity to identify and reduce unnecessary administrative formalities, but it will allow the main stakeholders to offer suggestions to rationalize and improve the federal student aid programs,” said the acting subsecretary of education James Bergeron in a statement on April 3.
About 42 million Americans Organize federal student loans.
Here are three changes likely to get out of the reforms, according to experts.
1. The backup plan will not survive
Former President Joe Biden deployed the summer 2023 backup plan, describing it as “the most affordable student loan plan of all time”. About 8 million borrowers have registered in the new reimbursement, or IDR, the Biden administration said in 2024.
The plan has been in limbo since last year and in February, an American court of appeal blocked TO SAFEGUARD. The 8th Circuit Court of Appeal side With the seven states led by the seven Republicans who filed a complaint against Save, arguing that Biden tried to find a means of forgiveness for students' debt after the Supreme Court canceled its radical loan cancellation plan in June 2023.
Save came with two key provisions that the targeted legal challenges: he had monthly payments lower than any other federal repayment of loans to students, and this has led to a faster debt for those who have small balances.
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It is unlikely that the Trump administration will continue to defend the plan before the courts or revise it in its regulations, according to experts.
“It is difficult to see a scenario where the safeguard will survive,” said Scott Buchanan, executive director of the Student Loan Service Alliance, a sales group for the federal student loan services.
For the moment, many borrowers who have registered in Save remain in an abstention without interest. This reprieve will probably end, forcing people to move on to another plan.
2. End to the forgiveness of the loan in other plans
The Trump administration recently revised some of the other reimbursement plans focused on the American Ministry of Education for federal student loan borrowers, claiming that the modifications were necessary to comply with the recent court of the court concerning SAVE.
Historically, at least, IDR plans limit the monthly payments of borrowers to an action of their discretionary income and cancel any remaining debt after a certain period, generally 20 or 25 years.
IDR plans are now open: reimbursement based on income, payment of your winner and reimbursement of income, according to a recent education department press release.
Following the revisions of the Trump administration, two of these plans – pay and ICR – no longer end in automatic forgiveness of the loan after 20 or 25 years, said Buchanan, noting that the courts have questioned the legality of this relief with Save.
The Trump administration, thanks to its changes to the student loans system, is likely to make at least some of these permanent temporary changes, said higher education expert Mark Kantrowitz.
However, if a borrower registered with ICR or pay goes to IBR, their previous payments made in the other plans will count for the forgiveness of the loan under the IBR, as long as they respect the plan Other requirementsSaid Kantrowitz. Some borrowers can choose to take this strategy if they have a lower monthly bill under the ICR or pay only on IBR.
3. Eligibility narrowed for PSLF
President Donald Trump signed a decree in March which aims to limit eligibility for popular Public Service Pardon Pardon Program.
The PSLF, which President George W. Bush signed in 2007 in 2007, allows many non -profit employees and the government to cancel their federal student loans after 10 years of payments.
According to Trump executive decreeBorrowers employed by organizations working on “illegal immigration, human smuggling, children's trafficking, the damage to public goods and the disturbance of public order” will not be eligible for the forgiveness of the public loan “.
For the moment, the language of the president's order was quite vague. Many details have also not been given in the last announcement on the reform of the student loan system, which said that the Trump administration was looking for means to do so “improve“PSLF.
Consequently, it is not clear what organizations will no longer be considered as an eligible employer under the PSLF, experts said.
However, during his first months in power, Trump's executive orders targeted immigrants, transgender and non -binary peopleAnd those who work to increase diversity in the private and public sector. Many non -profit organizations work in these spaces, providing legal support or doing advocacy and education work.
PSLF changes cannot be retroactive, according to consumer defenders. This means that if you are currently working for or working before for an organization that the Trump administration later excludes from the program, you will always get credit for this time, at least until the modifications come into force.
