President Donald Trump is expected to sign an executive order on Friday that will alter the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program to exclude employees of nonprofits who have engaged in "improper activities."
The order will mandate the Department of Education adjust the program so that student loan forgiveness is not available to those whose work involved illegal immigration, foreign terrorist groups or other illegal activity, White House officials said. The president added from the Oval Office that the PSLF had previously included organizations that "engage in illegal, or what we would consider to be improper, activities."
The Trump administration has moved to roll back diversity, equity and inclusion programs that extend through government agencies and private sector companies and institutions doing business with the federal government.
Mike Pierce, co-founder and executive director of the Student Protection Center slammed the decision on X, posting, "This is about more than PSLF or ED policy. Anyone covering it from that angle is missing the plot. Donald Trump is weaponizing debt to police speech that does not toe the MAGA party line. Our Democracy is on fire."
The PSLF was created in 2007 during the final year of former President George W. Bush's presidency in an effort to mitigate the burden of student debt and the rising costs of college tuition. The program allows many non-for-profit and government employees to have their federal student loans canceled after 10 years of payments.
With only days left in his administration, former President Joe Biden approved student debt forgiveness for over 150,000 borrowers, bringing the total in his presidency to over 5 million users totaling $183.6 billion in loans. Critics of Biden's massive debt relief said it was merely a voting buying scheme that was "a slap in the face" to those who had paid their loans or had never gone to college.
James Morley III ✉
James Morley III is a writer with more than two decades of experience in entertainment, travel, technology, and science and nature.
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