Why Americans Will Get Less Help Paying for College

As the cost of higher education has soared in recent decades, universities have attracted more scrutiny about the value of a four-year degree. Now, the Trump administration is taking those questions to the next level with a set of policies that scales back the federal government’s student loan program. Ron Lieber, who writes about personal finance for The New York Times, explains what the new changes are, and how they might reshape higher education in America. Guest: Ron Lieber (https://www.nytimes.com/by/ron-lieber) , the Your Money (https://www.nytimes.com/column/your-m...) columnist for The New York Times, writes about everything from retirement savings and college tuition to credit reports and taxes. Background reading:  • Parents and graduate students have new loan limits (https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/12/yo...) . Who will fill the gap? • What the new loan caps will mean (https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/15/up...) for grad students this fall. Photo: Rachel Woolf for The New York Times For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily (http://nytimes.com/thedaily?smid=pc-t...) . Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.  Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts (http://nytimes.com/podcasts) or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-acce.... For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.