By Elizabeth White
News Editor
(TEANECK) – President Trump’s stance on higher education may come as a good surprise to American college students, although Trump had less to say about college education when compared to Hillary Clinton.
Most of his website is dedicated to k-12 education but he did have some proposals that might excite America’s youth.
Trump is planning on making changes to the way students pay for college, according to Time.
One of their aims is privatization, which would remove the federal government from making student loans, according to Sam Clovis, the national co-chair and policy director of Trump’s campaign. Instead, other lenders, banks and credit unions would be in charge of loaning to students.
Trump supporters have also called for colleges to bear more of the financial risks that come with student loans.
Trump talked about redoing the loan repayment process in a speech in October.
Trump said “you graduate from college and you’re starting out with like an anchor around your neck. No good,” according to Time.
He proposed that college graduates would pay 12.5 percent of their income for 15 years, with any remaining debt forgiven. The Obama administration made loan repayment plans that were 10 percent of income and forgiveness after 20 years.
Trump also mentioned in his speech last October that he might want to get rid of Public Service Loan Forgiveness, which “forgives the debt of government and nonprofit workers after just 10 years of payments,” according to Time.
College tuition costs were also mentioned by Trump in his speech. He said that he would encourage colleges to cut tuition costs.
Trump claimed that he would scale down federal regulations on colleges. This, in turn, would save them money. As they wouldn’t have to spend as much on compliance, those savings could be passed on to their students.
“We have a lot of power over the colleges, and they’re not doing the job of cost-cutting because they don’t have the incentive to cut,” he said.
Trump also said that colleges that don’t make degrees more affordable could face penalties “including possibly losing tax-exempt status for large endowments.”
Trump also promised to get rid of the Department of Education, a common Republican campaign line.
Experts conclude that this idea is troublesome and far fetched, as some of Trump’s other policies need oversight from some sort of government agency.
Only time will tell the full extent of Trump’s influence on college education.
