Leave it to the Trump administration to come up with yet another way to enforce — and I mean enforce — its political ideology on students. It's bad enough — well, worse than bad enough — that they are trying to police our classrooms; their next move is to redefine what "public service" means for purposes of loan forgiveness.

The Public Service Loan Forgiveness program, passed under former President George W. Bush in 2007, was intended to encourage students laden with debt to still choose a lower-paying job in the public sector over a higher-paying one in the private sector because of the promise of loan forgiveness down the road. The way it works is you pay off your loan monthly for ten years, and then the balance of the loan gets canceled. More than a million students who work in government and the public sector have gotten relief under the program.

On Thursday, the Trump administration released a new "rule" — actually 185 pages of regulations — about just what employers would qualify for the program. Under the new rule, the Secretary of Education Linda McMahon, who proposed the rule, would have the right to disqualify employers who engage in activities the department deems to have a "substantial illegal purpose."

Do you work with illegal immigrants?

Do you work with transgender youth, on civil rights, civil liberties, or healthcare issues?

Do you engage in public protests that close highways without permission?

These are the examples that come from news reports of the new rule.

Rep. Bobby Scott, the ranking Democrat on the House Education Committee, told The Washington Post that the new rule could impact organizations that serve marginalized communities, such as those advocating for civil rights or immigrant and refugee families amid ICE raids, and health providers that serve LGBTQ+ youth.

"This rule follows the Trump administration's disturbing pattern of making repayment less affordable and taking money out of the pockets of hardworking families, all while attempting to police political speech," Scott said.

Speaking for the administration, the Undersecretary of Education Nicholas Kent said in a statement: "The Public Service Loan Forgiveness program was meant to support Americans who dedicate their careers to public service — not to subsidize organizations that violate the law, whether by harboring illegal immigrants or performing prohibited medical procedures that attempt to transition children away from their biological sex."

Scoring political points on the backs of the most vulnerable. Defending immigrants without papers is not and cannot be illegal, try as Secretary McMahon might, and surely will, argue to the contrary. Ask anyone who's applied for loan forgiveness whether it's a simple thing, and they'll point to the complicated process. The new "rule" makes it even more complicated. It will surely be challenged in court before it takes effect — which is why it is seemingly tailored to illegal activity — once it is implemented, which is no solace to students who have to bet a chunk of their futures on which way the wind is blowing. Which, after all, is the whole point.

The new rule, and the way it is being explained and defended, highlight yet again the extraordinary embrace of the anti-trans label by this administration. Some 3% of teens self-identify as trans or non-binary according to a recent CDC survey, but very few even have the option of gender affirming care. On the same day the Education Department was out selling its new rule, NPR learned that HHS is working up two new rules of its own: one that would bar Medicaid and CHIP reimbursement for medical care provided to transgender patients younger than age 18 or 19, respectively; and an additional rule that would block all Medicaid and Medicare funding for any services at hospitals that provide pediatric gender-affirming care. According to NPR, both proponents and opponents of the new rules agree that, especially at the broadest, they would make access to pediatric gender-affirming care across the country "extremely difficult, if not impossible."

It was an effective 30-second ad in the campaign. But is this the stuff of a legacy?

To find out more about Susan Estrich and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

Photo credit: Scott Graham at Unsplash