NASFAA Mention: Trump Official to Campaign on Student Debt Relief

"A Trump administration official, who until last year oversaw the $1.5 trillion federal student loan portfolio, said Thursday he was stepping down to run for the U.S. Senate as a Republican. And he said his signature issue would be canceling massive amounts of student loan debt," Inside Higher Ed reports.

"A. Wayne Johnson was appointed by Education Secretary Betsy DeVos to the top job at the Office of Federal Student Aid in 2017. And since last year, he’s headed initiatives at FSA, including the creation of a mobile student aid app and an overhaul of the student loan repayment system.

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Justin Draeger, president and CEO of the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators, said Johnson has always been a big-picture thinker on student loans. But he said cited practical questions about the kind of overhaul Johnson has proposed.

Ending federal lending could mean many students lose access to higher ed, Draeger said. Johnson argued that his plan would mean students could access grants without having to prove they are low income. And it would allow students to access Pell Grants on top of the $50,000 education grant.

Draeger also questioned the idea that the entire federal loan system is broken.

'I do think there are populations in the system that are definitely in crisis and haven’t garnered enough attention,' Draeger said. 'I would take a limited amount of resources and direct them to those populations. Overhauling the entire system by getting the federal government out of student lending -- I don’t see that as necessarily a practical or viable solution.'"

NASFAA's "Notable Headlines" section highlights media coverage of financial aid to help members stay up to date with the latest news. Articles included under the notable headlines section are not written by NASFAA, but rather by external sources. Inclusion in Today's News does not imply endorsement of the material or guarantee the accuracy of information presented.

 

Publication Date: 10/25/2019

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