Student loans to go to Treasury Department as Trump continues to dismantle Education Department
The Associated Press14 hrs
US Education Department Begins Moving Student Loans to Treasury
Is moving student loans to Treasury a long-overdue fix or just reshuffling deck chairs on an administration-made disaster?
Above: U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Education Secretary Linda McMahon at the White House on July 31, 2025. Image credit: Eric Lee/Bloomberg/Getty Images
The Spin
Pro-Trump narrative
Moving student loans to Treasury is a long-overdue fix for a $1.7 trillion portfolio that the Education Department badly mismanaged for decades. Treasury's financial expertise and serious approach to collections will finally bring discipline to a program that lost nearly $200 billion more than projected. Shutting down the Education Department becomes far more achievable once its biggest financial responsibility moves where it actually belongs.
Anti-Trump narrative
The Trump administration's student loan policies triggered a delinquency crisis unlike anything seen before, with one in four borrowers now behind on payments. Blocking access to income-driven repayment plans and gutting Education Department staffing left millions of borrowers with nowhere to turn, cratering credit scores by 100 points on average. Handing this wreckage to Treasury doesn't fix the damage — it just reshuffles the deck chairs on a disaster of the administration's own making.
Metaculus Prediction
Public Figures
Establishment split
CRITICAL
PRO
© 2026 Improve the News Foundation. All rights reserved.Version 6.18.0
© 2026 Improve the News Foundation.
All rights reserved.
Version 6.18.0