One of the goals of the Trump administration is to phase out the Department of Education. Their complaint is that ever since the department was created during former President Jimmy Carter's administration, the quality of American students' education has actually gone down. But now, while it is still in existence, we may get to see an upside of the Department of Education: holding those who have outstanding student loans accountable for paying them. And the best part, those student loans will not be wiped out on the backs of those who never went to college, but by the actual borrowers.
No taxpayer should have to pay for the student loan YOU signed for.
— Gunther Eagleman™ (@GuntherEagleman) April 23, 2025
Pay your debts.
Almost two million Americans with outstanding student loans may have their wages garnished this summer. But that's just the tip of the student loan iceberg. According to the credit reporting company TransUnion, there are around six million borrowers who are 90 days or more delinquent in payments now that the COVID-era pause ended. Of those six million, nearly two million may move into default by July, up from the 1.2 million estimated in early May. After 90 days, the government begins garnishing wages.
READ MORE: Education Secretary Linda McMahon: 'We Have Almost $1.7 Trillion in Student Debt'
It gets better: another one million could default on their loans by August, followed by another two million in September. Borrowers will go into default once their payments are delinquent after 270 days. The Head of Consumer Lending at TransUnion, Joshua Turnbull, says that there are several reasons borrowers may be in default, like a lack of communication with the loan servicer or financial difficulties. But whatever the reason, notices from the Department of Education began going out in May announcing they would be restarting collections on defaulted loans, with a warning that tax refunds or government benefits could begin being withheld pending any actions on the delinquent loans by borrowers.
Awww, sucks to be them!!! How did students pay their loans and have jobs while still paying their student loans in previous decades???? I worked on the weekends and paid my student loans off in just 3 or 4 years...tell them to cut off their Starbucks and they'll pay them off…
— The Big Guy get 10% (@RobGerundo) June 16, 2025
I worked on the weekends and paid my student loans off in just 3 or 4 years...tell them to cut off their Starbucks and they'll pay them off quickly!
Joe Biden jumped on student loan forgiveness early in his administration, but it became a central issue in the 2024 Presidential campaign. House Budget Committee Chair Jodey Arrington (R-TX) accused Biden in April 2024 of using student loan cancellation to buy votes. Biden ultimately canceled loans for nearly five million Americans, totaling $183.6 billion.
Student loan payments were halted during the pandemic, and in 2023, the Biden administration gave borrowers a grace period where late or missed payments would not hurt their credit score. That period ended in the fall of 2024. Newly delinquent borrowers have seen credit scores drop as much as 60 percent, but a drop in their credit score was apparently enough to scare about nine percent of them, who, by April, were up to date on payments. The Department of Education is urging all borrowers to get current in their payments or face the consequences. The grand total for this particular Biden mess, around 43 million borrowers owe more than $1.6 trillion in student loans.
The Biden plan would have unfairly shifted the burden of these student loans onto the backs of taxpayers, many of whom are middle-class and did not go to college themselves. The rest of us have paid our student loans; why should we pay for others as well? For younger student loan borrowers, it may be their first hard life lesson in reality. Pay your own bills.
The Trump Administration is officially putting an end to Joe Biden’s illegal student loan bailout attempts.
— Karoline Leavitt (@PressSec) April 22, 2025
No student loan has been referred to collections since March 2020. But starting on May 5th, @usedgov will resume involuntary collections for borrowers with defaulted… pic.twitter.com/rXiFC5WbMX
No student loan has been referred to collections since March 2020. But starting on May 5th, @usedgov will resume involuntary collections for borrowers with defaulted federal student loans.
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