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Trump Administration Considers Moving Student Loans from Education Department to Treasury - The New York Times

posted onMay 26, 2017
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Article snippet: The Trump administration is considering moving responsibility for overseeing more than $1 trillion in student debt from the Treasury Department, a switch that would radically change the system that helps 43 million students finance higher education. The potential change surfaced in a scathing resignation memo sent late Tuesday night by James Runcie, the head of the Education Department’s federal student aid program. Mr. Runcie, an Obama-era holdover, was appointed in 2011 and reappointed in 2015. He cut short his term, which was slated to run until 2020, after clashing with the Trump administration and Betsy DeVos, the education secretary, over this proposal and other issues. Elizabeth Hill, a spokeswoman for the Education Department, declined to comment on his departure or on talks with Treasury. “The secretary is looking forward to identifying a qualified candidate to lead and restore trust in F.S.A.,” Ms. Hill said, referring to federal student aid. A shift in handling federal student aid is being weighed as the Trump administration and Ms. DeVos consider overhauling the Department of Education. Mr. Trump’s proposed budget for 2018 slashes funding for the department by nearly 50 percent. Moving one of its core functions to Treasury would significantly diminish the agency’s power. It could also alter the mission of the student loan program. “The reason the federal student aid programs live within the Education Department is because that’s the agency that has as... Link to the full article to read more

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