Looks like the government is making it easier to borrow equity from your house to pay down student loans.
http://www.housingwire.com/articles/39944-sources-say-fannie-mae-close-to-releasing-new-student-loan-debt-solutions
Fannie Mae will soon announce policy changes to address the exploding volume of student debt, according to sources close to the matter. In November, Fannie Mae announced a new loan option through SoFi — a lender that offers both student loans and mortgages — that allows homeowners to refinance their mortgage at a lower rate and pay down the balance of an existing student loan.
The solution is part of Fannie’s effort to make homeownership affordable to the millions of Americans who now owe more than $1.4 trillion in student debt. This debt precludes many potential homeowners, particularly Millennials, from qualifying for a mortgage. Because student loans typically carry a much higher rate than mortgages, borrowers who pay off student loans by adding to their mortgage debt could still come out far ahead.
Fannie Mae is government sponsored, but is not “the government” (and if possible, they are even more disorganized than most government agencies). Sofi is a private lender. If you refi your government loans, you lose the protections those loans have like the ability to have IBR or debt forgiveness for public service jobs.