Student Loans Will Now Be Handled By The US Treasury

Besides being anti-immigrant, anti-diversity and inherently anti-science, the Trump administration has shown time and time again that it is anti-education — because a populace that learns things leaves fewer of the “poorly educated” voter who President Donald Trump said he loves so much.

So, the federal government is still in its process of defunding the Department of Education, and, on Thursday, the administration announced plans to shift the nearly $1.7 trillion student loan portfolio to the Treasury Department, claiming its mission is to improve the efficiency of the loan system, or what it described as “overdue financial discipline.”

From the New York times.

About half of all undergraduate students receive federal aid each year, according to the Institute of Education Sciences. More than 40 million people currently have federal student loans, including 9.2 million in default and 2.4 million in late-stage delinquency, according to the Education Department.

“Treasury has the unique experience, the operational capability and the financial expertise to bring long overdue financial discipline to the program and be better stewards of taxpayer dollars,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement.

Linda McMahon, the education secretary, said that student aid would be better managed at Treasury. A fact sheet from the administration promised students would receive “the high-quality service they have come to expect under the Trump administration.”

And there it is…

The second McMahon — the education secretary who thinks Black history is DEI while being ignorant of even some of the most well-known Black history — spoke of “the high-quality service they have come to expect under the Trump administration,” you have to know we’re being sold a bill of goods.

The Trump administration doesn’t provide “high-quality” anything — certainly, not education-related.

Instead, Trump has railed about “returning education to the states,” as if it would improve the quality of education overall, which ignores the glaring fact that states and local governments already dictate the academic side of their educational systems, including the setting of curricula, teacher hiring, teacher licensing, and standardized testing. 

Under Trump’s DOE, far-right groups are overseeing programs to “educate” America with thoroughly whitewashed U.S. history propaganda disguised as “patriotic” civics lessons. HBCUs have lost millions in grant funding, and Black academic institutions and programs, in general, have been threatened. Any and every program aimed at bettering the quality of education for Black people and other marginalized groups has been derailed with anti-DEI investigations and threats to withhold federal funding. And, as far as student loans go, all the MAGA-fied DOE has done is attack loan forgiveness initiatives and garnish the wages of borrowers who struggle to pay them back, crippling their credit scores.

“In the midst of a growing affordability crisis where American families are already struggling to make ends meet, this risks driving millions of borrowers further into financial hardship,” Aissa Canchola Bañez, the policy director for Protect Borrowers, a group that targets predatory lenders, told the Times. “Instead of providing relief to the millions of defaulted borrowers who have fallen behind, the department is moving a portfolio of our most vulnerable borrowers to an agency with little to no expertise in the rights and benefits afforded to borrowers under the Higher Education Act.”

Education is being controlled by an administration that thrives on anti-intellectualism and the demonization of institutions of learning, and it shows with every new policy change.

SEE ALSO:

Student Loan Collections Make American Credit Scores Plummet

Education Department To Garnish Wages On Student Loan Debt

Trump To Garnish Defaulted Student Loan Borrowers’ Wages This Summer