Donald Trump blamed federal student loans for rising college costs Tuesday, promising to unveil a policy proposal to address the problem of mounting student debt later in his campaign for the presidency.
Calling in to Fox News Tuesday morning, the Republican presidential nominee fielded a viewer question about the problem of high student loan debt. Trump responded that he would be unveiling a plan for aiding student borrowers in early September.
He then argued that the availability of federal student loans has allowed colleges to raise tuitions without suffering consequences, passing the burden of the higher costs on to students in the form of greater debt.
“The students are like conduits to get money from the government,” Trump explained that students borrow money from the government, and then pay it to the schools in the form of tuition.
As a result, he said, “the colleges don’t care what their costs are,” and tuitions have gone up “rampantly.”
Researchers have found some evidence that the availability of federal student loans can generate higher tuitions, although it remains a debated hypothesis.
Hillary Clinton has already proposed a raft of policies aimed at further subsidizing federal student loans, including allowing borrowers to lower the interest rates they pay on their debts and suspending payments for new entrepreneurs. Clinton has also proposed subsidizing public schools so that students don’t have to take on debt to attend them, and so middle-income families don’t have to pay tuition.
Student loan burdens have received increased attention as aggregate U.S. student debt has soared past $1.2 trillion. Trump, however, said Tuesday that the biggest problem facing borrowers involves finding jobs.
Trump has said that a federal program would be needed to make college affordable for low-income students.
