In a speech in Columbus, Ohio, last month, Mr. Trump called college debt an “albatross” around people’s necks, and suggested a way out. Students would pay 12.5 percent of their income each year for 15 years. After that, their loans could be forgiven.
But there is already a similar program, currently requiring payment of 10 percent of income over 20 years. Jason D. Delisle, also of the conservative-leaning American Enterprise Institute, said Mr. Trump’s repayment plan would cost the government more and would give a huge break to students with higher student debt, usually those with advanced degrees.
There has been some thought that Mr. Trump plans to turn student lending over to private banks and take the government out of the equation. But there is no evidence that Mr. Trump has endorsed that idea.
Both liberal and conservative experts said the proposal would be dead on arrival on Capitol Hill anyway. “It would cost taxpayers tens of billions of dollars,” said Rohit Chopra, a former adviser to Education Secretary John B. King Jr. as well as Hillary Clinton’s defunct transition team. The president of the American Association of Public and Land-grant Universities, Peter McPherson, who was a deputy Treasury secretary during the Reagan administration, also called the proposal “politically untenable” because of its cost.
But there is already a similar program, currently requiring payment of 10 percent of income over 20 years. Jason D. Delisle, also of the conservative-leaning American Enterprise Institute, said Mr. Trump’s repayment plan would cost the government more and would give a huge break to students with higher student debt, usually those with advanced degrees.
There has been some thought that Mr. Trump plans to turn student lending over to private banks and take the government out of the equation. But there is no evidence that Mr. Trump has endorsed that idea.
Both liberal and conservative experts said the proposal would be dead on arrival on Capitol Hill anyway. “It would cost taxpayers tens of billions of dollars,” said Rohit Chopra, a former adviser to Education Secretary John B. King Jr. as well as Hillary Clinton’s defunct transition team. The president of the American Association of Public and Land-grant Universities, Peter McPherson, who was a deputy Treasury secretary during the Reagan administration, also called the proposal “politically untenable” because of its cost.
