Michael Schramm

USA TODAY College

Money 101 is an experimental USA TODAY College series. We’re diving into personal financial topics impacting college students and unpacking complex finance terms that young people need to know. Let us know what you think!

With indebted 2016 college graduates owing an average of $37,172 in loans, many young people are concerned about student debt.

And a Donald Trump presidency raises questions about student loans. Hillary Clinton (and Bernie Sanders) released detailed college tuition plans — aimed at lessening college costs and easing burden recent graduates face.

Contrarily, Donald Trump addresses student loans vaguely in two bullet points on his website:

Work with Congress on reforms to ensure universities are making a good faith effort to reduce the cost of college and student debt in exchange for the federal tax breaks and tax dollars.

Ensure that the opportunity to attend a two or four-year college, or to pursue a trade or a skill set through vocational and technical education, will be easier to access, pay for, and finish.

This raises some questions: does he seem to care about student debt? What, specifically, are his stances? And how do they align with Democratic and Republican perspectives?

Trump does seem to care about student debt

The good news — at least for those looking for student loan reform — is that Trump seems to care about student loans. He’s previously said that he wants to make college “very affordable” and that the system’s “not fair.”

“It’s one of the only places, frankly, where our country actually makes money, and they make a lot of money, and that should not take place,” he said in a Twitter Q&A.

He’s been talking about the topic for well over a year, at least.

Donald Trump speaks on student loans and college affordabiilty

On Oct. 13, Trump mentioned his student loan plans in a speech to college students. Under his plan, tuition repayment would be capped at 12.5%.

In other words, say you have $200,000 in student loans and earn $2,000 in monthly income. You wouldn’t have to worry about payments skyrocketing upwards of $500 under Trump’s plan. You’ll pay at most 12.5% of your income, which in this case would be $250 a month.

Note, though, that this plan raises some questions.

An income-based repayment plan already exists, called the Revised Pay As You Earn (REPAYE) Repayment Plan. Under REPAYE, everyone with direct loans — issued from the U.S. Department of Education via the federal government — is eligible to cap payments at 10% of discretionary income.

So, would Trump’s 12.5% plan apply solely towards other loans, like private loans, or would those with direct loans actually have to pay more for student debt? It’s not clear.

Plan 2: Student loan forgiveness

Trump also talked in his October speech about forgiving student loans after 15 years of payments. So, if you find yourself $30,000 in the hole after 15 years of paying off your student loans, you wouldn’t pay another cent.

Currently under the REPAYE plan, all direct loans are forgiven after 20 years.

Like with income-driven repayments, though, it’s unclear whether Trump’s 15-year plan will impact only direct loans or will also establish a forgiveness period for private loans.

It’s also unclear how this would impact current provisions forgiving student debt earlier than 15 years.

Plus, according to Federal Student Aid, teachers can have up to $17,500 of loans repaid by working in low-income schools for five consecutive years. Qualifying nonprofit, government and other public service workers can have their debt forgiven after 10 years of monthly payments as well.

Would these provisions remain intact, or would all workers now be on the 15-year timeline?

Plan 3: Cutting college costs

Trump also wants colleges to reduce their costs.

“They’re not doing the job of cost-cutting because they don’t have the incentive to cost cut,” he said in his October speech in Columbus, Ohio.

His education page says he wants to utilize tax breaks and tax dollars to incentivize colleges reducing costs.

It’s unclear how these tax cuts will work. Will they threaten to tax college endowments, as Trump references in his Columbus speech, and additionally, how would schools receive tax dollars?

What have Trump's officials said about the topic?

In May, Trump’s campaign national co-chair and policy director Sam Clovis toldInside Higher Ed that all colleges should have “skin in the game,” making them share the risk of student loans.

This means that Clovis wants colleges to be more involved in the student loan process. Specifically, he discusses how major and post-graduation earnings should impact whether students should get student loans.

It’s interesting that Clovis discusses this, but it’s not a topic Trump highlighted in his Columbus speech. And this seems to contradict Trump’s goal of providing everyone a college tuition.

Do his ideas align with the Republican Party?

They stray pretty far away from fiscal conservative ideology.

The Republican Party’s 2016 platform says little about student debt — mostly that the federal government shouldn’t be involved in student loans.

The platform does say college cost increases should require heavy consideration, similar to Trump’s stance that colleges should decrease costs.

But the official party stance doesn’t include anything about capping student loan payments or student loan forgiveness.

“What’s remarkable about Trump’s proposal is it flies in the face of the fiscal conservatism that’s supposed to define the Republican Party,” writesthe Washington Post. “[T]he party’s nominee wants to lower the period of repayment, which is sure to cost the government quite a bit of money.”

How do Trump's policies compare to Clinton's?

Similar in some ways, though Clinton advocated for more changes than Trump.

Clinton’s website says she wanted income-based repayments capped at 10%, lower than Trump’s 12.5% cap.

But she also wanted student debt forgiven after 20 years, which is longer than Trump’s 15 years.

Both candidates also wanted to cut college costs, though Clinton’s policies go further. She wanted free community college and to “ensure that students do not need to take out loans for tuition” at 4-year public colleges, while also reducing living expenses and tuition at private non-profit colleges.

Related: As college costs skyrocket, more students try crowdfunding

Her plan also included students being able to refinance loans so students currently repaying higher-interest private loans could attain lower interest.

It’s unclear whether Trump supports policies subsidizing college costs or refinancing loans.

The takeaway

It’s hard to know exactly what Trump’s exact plans are for student debt because they’re not detailed on his website. He discussed them in some detail in just one speech, and what he said isn’t identical to what his staff has said and isn’t aligned with the Republican party.

It seems that the only thing that will tell us for sure is time.

Note: USA TODAY College reached out to Donald Trump’s team for comment but has not yet received a response.

Michael Schramm is a student at University of Michigan and a USA TODAY College lead digital producer.