President Trump’s Fiscal Year 2018 budget proposes eliminating the major student loan forgiveness program designed to help government and nonprofit employees, including lawyers, with their student debt. At this writing, it appears that Trump would only end the program for new borrowers after July 2018. Attorneys who have already incurred education debt would be unaffected.
The Department of Education’s Public Service Loan Forgiveness program (PSLF), https://studentaid.ed.gov/sa/repay-loans/forgiveness-cancellation/public-service excuses borrowers’ loan balances after they work for either government or a nonprofit for 10 years.
The program is pretty popular with Congress with the exception of the Republican deficit hawks.
If this passes, aspiring law students would likely be less inclined toward a career in public service or with a nonprofit organization.
In addition to terminating PSLF, the Trump budget proposal would end subsidized loans for low-income students and make students pay more of the earnings each year under a revised income-based repayment plan.
Now it will be up to Congress as to how much of this will actually appear in the Fiscal Year 2018 budget.