What can student loan borrowers expect from President Trump?

Now that Donald Trump is our president-elect, many people are wondering what that means for student loan borrowers. In Iowa, the average borrower graduates with $30,250 in student loan debt, according to LendEDU. While only 64 percent of Iowa graduates have student debt, the state is near the forefront of the country's debt crisis with the 11th highest amount of debt per borrower.

So, will Trump's presidency spell relief for those struggling under the weight of their debt or those who will be taking out student loans in the future? Unfortunately, it's hard to say.

While Trump and his surrogates spoke about his views on student debt on the campaign trail, he didn't present a clear platform on the issue and so it's uncertain what he will do anything to address the problem or if he will do anything at all.

Let's look at some of the things that he's said that hint at what kind of policies he might enact.

Capping Payments

One of the clearest indications of what Trump might do about student debt came late in the campaign. In October, Trump spoke at an event and talked about how student loans were negatively impacting borrowers.

'Students should not be asked to pay more on their loans than they can afford and the debt should not be an albatross around their necks for the rest of their lives,” he said. 'And that's what it is.”

Trump suggested that student debt payments be capped at 12.5 percent of a borrower's income. Under the plan he laid out, borrowers would be required to make payments at that percentage for 15 years, after which their student loans would be forgiven.

This is similar to current income-based repayment programs which cap payments at 10 percent but require 20 years of payments before student loans are forgiven. While Trump's plan would require borrowers to allocate slightly more of their income toward their repayment, it would allow their loans to be forgiven five years earlier. This is expected to result in more debt being forgiven - which would be very helpful to Iowa's borrowers.

Privatizing Loans

Sam Clovis, who served as an adviser to Trump on education policy, spoke about various potential proposals that Trump was considering around student loans. One of them was designed to get the government out of the business of giving out student loans. This will likely mean a return to when banks gave out federally-backed student loans before 2010.

Returning to the days when banks issued government backed student loans could potentially add expenses to the process and could make it less likely for some low-income student to qualify for student loans.

Changes to How Lending Decisions are Made

Clovis also spoke in that interview about how Trump might want to make changes to how lending decisions are made in the future. Clovis suggested banks and colleges could work together to decide who would be able to borrow money for college. They might look at things like the college, the student's desired major, and the likelihood that the student will get a job after graduation to decide whether or not their willing to lend money to the student.

Clovis suggested that those students who are majoring in fields with good job prospects might have an easier time borrowing money in the future. Currently, all students are able to borrow federal student loans regardless of their major.

Clovis also suggested that colleges could end up taking on some responsibility for the risk in issuing student loans and that colleges might end up being held partly responsible for the student loan defaults of their graduates. This could make colleges more cautious about the types of students it lets into its school in order to reduce their future financial liability.

Cutting Tuition Costs

Trump has also spoken about how he would try to put pressure on colleges to lower their tuition. He believes that rising tuition is one of the biggest problems in the student loan crisis and that he can use the government's role in issuing or backing student loans to push colleges to be more affordable. He has also suggested that colleges that don't use their endowments to reduce the costs for students could end up losing their tax-exempt status.

He believes that these savings will be passed on to students which will reduce the need for student loans in the future and ensure that students graduate with less debt.

Wait and See

Because Trump hasn't clearly laid out a plan for what he intends to do about student loans, we will have to wait and see what path he decides to take. He will likely implement some of these ideas, but he might also come up with new plans and ideas for programs to help deal with the student loan crisis.

' Nate Matherson is a co-founder and CEO at LendEDU.com, a marketplace for student loans and the student loan refinance. LendEDU was born out of the Iowa Startup Accelerator in Cedar Rapids in 2014. Comments: nate@lendedu.com