President Donald Trump revealed on Friday that the Small Business Administration (SBA) and Health and Human Services (HHS) will take over some education programs after Trump signed an order Thursday seeking to dismantle the Education Department.
The SBA, headed by Administrator Kelly Loeffler, will now be in charge of all federal student loans while the HHS, led by Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., will oversee special needs and nutrition programs, Trump told reporters, including The Daily Wire’s White House Correspondent Mary Margaret Olohan, who was in the Oval Office.
“We have a [student loan] portfolio that’s very large. Lots of loans, tens of thousands of loans,” Trump said. “Pretty complicated deal. And that’s coming out of the Department of Education.”
NEW: POTUS says @KLoeffler will handle student loans pic.twitter.com/evfMLKI4zG
— Mary Margaret Olohan (@MaryMargOlohan) March 21, 2025
“So I think that will work out very well. Those two elements will be taken out of the Department of Education,” Trump added. “And then all we have to do is get the students to get guidance from the people that love them and cherish them, including their parents, by the way, who will be totally involved in their education along with the boards and the governors and the states. And it’s going to be a great situation.”
🚨 President Trump announces that the SBA will begin handling student loans — and that HHS will handle the special needs and nutrition programs.
"Coming out of the Department of Education immediately." pic.twitter.com/2gbz2n2Q7s
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) March 21, 2025
More than 40 million Americans have student loans through the Department of Education totaling $1.6 trillion, CNBC reported. The SBA will be taking on student loan responsibilities as it makes major cuts to its workforce. The SBA announced on Friday that it will “reduce its workforce by 43% – ending the expansive social policy agenda of the prior Administration, eliminating non-essential roles, and returning to pre-pandemic staffing levels.”
Trump’s executive order on Thursday directed Education Secretary Linda McMahon to “take all necessary steps to facilitate the closure of the Department of Education and return education authority to the States and local communities.” The order was a move to fulfill a promise Trump repeatedly made while on the campaign trail after Republican politicians and presidential candidates had suggested abolishing the Education Department for decades.
“We’re going to be returning education, very simply, back to the states where it belongs, and this is a very popular thing to do, but much more importantly, it’s a common sense thing to do, and it’s going to work. Absolutely, it’s going to work,” Trump said during the order signing ceremony.
