Republicans want to curb federal student loans — and private lenders are ready to step in

The House version of the tax and spending bill would put new limits on federal student-loan borrowing. The Senate is debating its own version this month.

Published: June 7, 2025 at 8:30 a.m. ET

For the past several years, it’s been a dream in some right-leaning corners of the U.S. political sphere to privatize the student-loan system.

“Washington needs to get out of the student-loan business altogether,” Lindsey Burke, the director of the Center for Education Policy at the right-leaning Heritage Foundation, told the audience at a recent student-loan conference in Alexandria, Va. Burke is also the author of the education chapter of Project 2025, which is a blueprint for restructuring the executive branch and federal agencies that is produced by the Heritage Foundation.