If the Trump administration get its way, it will cost more for some low-income students to borrow for college, graduate students will spend a longer time repaying their debts and public servants will lose out on loan forgiveness.

That’s based on the budget proposal the White House released Tuesday, which includes major changes to the federal student loan program as well as cuts to some initiatives that make college more affordable, particularly for low-income students. The proposals, which contribute to a $9.2 billion cut to the Department’s budget, are part of a broader budget strategy aimed at cutting costs.

“By refocusing the Department’s funding priorities on supporting students, we can usher in a new era of creativity and ingenuity and lay a new foundation for American greatness,” Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos said in a statement.

Though all of the changes are only proposals that Congress would need to approve, the wish list is the first major signal of how the administration is approaching college costs and student debt. And according to critics, at least, it’s not with students in mind.

“The entire budget seems to be looking for excuses to cut regardless of rationale or harm done,” said Ben Miller, the senior director of postsecondary education at the Center for American Progress, a left-leaning think tank. “This isn’t about reforms or improvements it’s about taking money away from students to fund tax cuts for millionaires, a border wall and all other kinds of nonsense.”

Subsidized loan program slashed

The budget proposes to eliminate a program that subsidizes borrowing for low-income students by having the government pay the interest on their loans while they’re in school, for the first six months after they leave as well the first time they use what’s known as a deferment to postpone payments on their loans. Borrowers with subsidized Stafford loans can also have the interest covered during the first three years of an income-driven repayment program — a payment plan that allows a borrower to pay off his or her debt according to his or her income — if their payments aren’t covering the interest already.

“It’s a huge benefit, especially to low-income borrowers who are trying to keep their loan debt to a minimum,” Persis Yu, the director of the Student Loan Borrower Assistance Project at the National Consumer Law Center said of the subsidized Stafford loan program. “It’s a really important piece of financial aid and it’s really unfortunate to see them try to strip it away from borrowers and students.”

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Changes to repayment programs

In a nod to campaign speeches from then-candidate Trump, the budget also pitches changes to the various programs borrowers use to repay their federal student loans. Right now, all federal student loan borrowers have the opportunity to pay back their loans according to their income, through a suite of payment plans, which critics from all sides have derided for causing confusion.

The most generous of these repayment programs allows borrowers to make monthly payments of 10% of their discretionary income for 20 years and then have the remainder of their debts forgiven. The White House proposal aims to streamline these plans, but at a major cost for graduate students and a cost to some undergraduates, depending on their situation. If the Trump administration’s budget becomes law, undergraduate borrowers would make monthly payments of 12.5% of their income for 15 years and graduate students would pay back 12.5% of their income for 30 years.

Creating more stringent repayment requirements for graduate students is likely an aim to address concerns that many, particularly conservative, experts have voiced about the way graduate students finance their education. Right now, graduate students can borrow up to the cost of their program and if they repay their loans for a maximum of 25 years they can have the remainder forgiven.

The lack of borrowing limits on the front end combined with unlimited forgiveness on the back end creates an incentive for graduate schools to raise prices and for students to minimize the impact of price when making a choice about going to graduate school, critics say. This proposal could address that challenge by slowing increases in price for graduate degrees and enrollment in graduate schools, said Alexander Holt, an independent higher education consultant. Holt argues that by splitting the income-driven repayment program essentially into two — one for undergraduate borrowers and one for graduate borrowers — the proposal takes benefits away from borrowers with graduate degrees, who are more likely to successfully repay their debts, and puts that savings towards helping borrowers who may be struggling more with their loans.

The Trump administration “basically made it so that if you took out money to go to graduate school, you’re going to have to pay it back,” Holt said. “Go out and poll the population and see how many people are opposed to that.”

Miller said he gets policymakers’ interest in changing the way we pay for graduate school, particularly given that “graduate students are not the most sympathetic case out there.” But better ways to address the problem, he says, include limiting borrowing for certain types of graduate programs — say a typical master’s degree that doesn’t cost as much as a medical degree — or holding schools accountable for charging students high prices and delivering poor outcomes.

“If the problem is ultimately with the pricing of graduate programs, we should enact policy that gets at the pricing of graduate programs, not things that make it more difficult on the back end for students,” he said.

Public Service Loan Forgiveness eliminated

The budget also confirms the worst fears of many teachers, social workers, public defenders and borrower advocates by proposing to eliminate the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program (PSLF). The program, signed into law in 2007 by president George W. Bush allows federal student loan borrowers working for the government or in nonprofits to have their debts forgiven after 10 years of repayment.

The goal of the program is to encourage student loan borrowers to enter fields that may be important to society but don’t necessarily pay a salary that makes student loans manageable. So far about 500,000 borrowers are on track to receive forgiveness under the program they will be grandfathered in, officials said on a conference call with reporters. All of the proposed changes to the student loan program would only apply to loans originated on or after July 1, 2018, except for those that borrowers are using to finish up their current degree.

Work-study funding slashed

In addition to the proposed overhaul of the student loan program, the White House budget also recommends cuts to programs that help students afford school while in college, including federal work-study. It does incorporate a proposal with bipartisan support that would allow students to use the Pell grant — the money the government provides to low-income students to attend college — year-round instead of just for two semesters. But that one proposal isn’t enough to satisfy critics.

“It doesn’t do anything to address the root problems of college affordability and of rising student debt,” said Mark Huelsman, a senior policy analyst at Demos, a left-leaning think tank. Those include state disinvestment in higher education, a trend that the federal government could help reverse, according to Huelsman, by using federal money to encourage states to up their investment in their public colleges.

Despite borrower advocates’ concerns about the proposals, it’s still unclear whether they’ll become reality. A president’s budget functions essentially as a wish list and Congress has to approve the proposals for them to become law. Miller speculates that subsidized student loans and PSLF will be politically difficult for members of congress to support eliminating. Still, if Congress ends up using budget reconciliation, a process that allows for faster consideration of certain tax and spending bills, it could be harder for lawmakers to defend those programs, he said.

Advocates and student loan borrowers are hoping to convince lawmakers to stop the proposed changes. Since details of the Education Department’s budget were published by the Washington Post last week, more than 40,000 people have sent emails to their members of congress opposing the proposals, according to Student Debt Crisis, a student loan advocacy group that organized the email campaign.

“They’re freaked out,” said Natalia Abrams, the executive director of the organization. She’s encouraging borrowers and advocates to stay vigilant. “Don’t be complacent, even if you think that this seems too much.”