Education officials in the Trump administration are going on the offensive over former President Joe Biden’s student loan forgiveness program, which they say will be wound down in the coming weeks while accusing the private universities of “greedy” entitlement that contributed to a broken funding model for higher education.

The change was summarized by Fox News anchor Dana Perino, who told “Fox & Friends” hosts on Tuesday that the “gravy train is over” for bloated and bureaucratic higher-ed departments dependent on the federal government providing unlimited sums to students in support of their ever-climbing annual tuition rates.

“Remember, it was Nancy Pelosi who said, ‘Wait a minute, Joe Biden doesn’t have the legal authority to do this,’” Perino told her colleagues, referencing a devastating series of legal setbacks by the former president when his executive orders were challenged in court. “They had false hopes, false promises to people.”

Continuing on, Perino said she can empathize with the plight of unaffordable student loans.

“It doesn’t mean that the system couldn’t be changed or that the interest rate can’t be lowered, but they are going to have to pay it back,” she added about the borrowers.

Linda McMahon, the U.S. Department of Education Secretary, defended the administration’s decision this week to resume student loan collections after years of indefinite pauses. The department announced Monday it would begin reaching out to 5.3 million borrowers who are already in default as a result of the delays.

Both President Biden and university administrators made “empty promises to students while pocketing their loan dollars,” McMahon wrote in an incendiary Wall Street Journal op-ed this week.

“Colleges and universities call themselves nonprofits, but for years they have profited massively off the federal subsidy of loans, hiking tuition and piling up multibillion-dollar endowments while students graduate six figures in the red,” McMahon wrote.

“A widely cited 2015 study found that for every dollar of increased federal caps on subsidized loans, colleges raised tuition by 60 cents,” she continued. “Many of the degree-granting programs that qualify for student loans are worthless on the job market, but colleges continue to accept students to these programs and encourage them to borrow to pay for them.”

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Education officials in the Trump administration are going on the offensive over former President Joe Biden’s student loan forgiveness program, which they say will be wound down in the coming weeks while accusing the private universities of “greedy” entitlement that contributed to a broken funding model for higher education.

The change was summarized by Fox News anchor Dana Perino, who told “Fox & Friends” hosts on Tuesday that the “gravy train is over” for bloated and bureaucratic higher-ed departments dependent on the federal government providing unlimited sums to students in support of their ever-climbing annual tuition rates.

“Remember, it was Nancy Pelosi who said, ‘Wait a minute, Joe Biden doesn’t have the legal authority to do this,’” Perino told her colleagues, referencing a devastating series of legal setbacks by the former president when his executive orders were challenged in court. “They had false hopes, false promises to people.”

Continuing on, Perino said she can empathize with the plight of unaffordable student loans.

“It doesn’t mean that the system couldn’t be changed or that the interest rate can’t be lowered, but they are going to have to pay it back,” she added about the borrowers.

Linda McMahon, the U.S. Department of Education Secretary, defended the administration’s decision this week to resume student loan collections after years of indefinite pauses. The department announced Monday it would begin reaching out to 5.3 million borrowers who are already in default as a result of the delays.

Both President Biden and university administrators made “empty promises to students while pocketing their loan dollars,” McMahon wrote in an incendiary Wall Street Journal op-ed this week.

“Colleges and universities call themselves nonprofits, but for years they have profited massively off the federal subsidy of loans, hiking tuition and piling up multibillion-dollar endowments while students graduate six figures in the red,” McMahon wrote.

“A widely cited 2015 study found that for every dollar of increased federal caps on subsidized loans, colleges raised tuition by 60 cents,” she continued. “Many of the degree-granting programs that qualify for student loans are worthless on the job market, but colleges continue to accept students to these programs and encourage them to borrow to pay for them.”

Student loan relief initially began under the first Trump administration as a temporary measure during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, though it has since morphed into a political hot potato that has been delicately discussed and left largely unaddressed while the outstanding balances have ballooned for most loan holders.

McMahon blasted Biden for dangling “the carrot of loan forgiveness in front of young voters” during his 2020 campaign, even though he knew he “never had the authority to forgive student loans across the board.”

As a result, the Biden administration’s delays and subterfuge have racked up a “massive debt that is now long past due.”

“I am announcing the end of this dishonest and irresponsible policy. We will conform the department’s repayment options to federal court decisions and end the Biden-era practice of zero-interest, zero-accountability forbearances that are pushing borrowers into loan delinquency and default,” she said.

“On May 5, we will begin the process of moving roughly 1.8 million borrowers into repayment plans and restart collections of loans in default. Borrowers who don’t make payments on time will see their credit scores go down, and in some cases, their wages automatically garnished.”

“Why? Not because we want to be unkind to student borrowers. Borrowing money and failing to pay it back isn’t a victimless offense. Debt doesn’t go away; it gets transferred to others. If borrowers don’t pay their debts to the government, taxpayers do,” McMahon added.