“This can only result in borrowers experiencing erratic and inconsistent management of their federal student loans,” Jessica Thompson, senior vice president of the Institute of College Access and Success, told The Associated Press. “Errors will prove costly to borrowers and ultimately, to taxpayers.”

President Donald Trump on Thursday signed an executive order to begin dismantling the US Department of Education, seeking to fulfill decades of conservative ambition to get rid of the agency, but raising new questions for the country’s millions of public schools,

On Friday, the president said he has decided the Small Business Administration will handle student loans, taking it out of the Education Department immediately. In 2024, student loan debt in the United States totaled $1.