President Donald Trump has written a series of executive orders following the dismantling of the Department of Education (ED). From freezing certain federal spending of the department and removing in-school DEI programs, he has taken further steps towards his goal of dissolving the department entirely.
Concerns from schools and students have risen in regard to the impact on student loans. Becky Pringle, National Education Assistant President, said she is uncertain of what dismantling the ED would entail for FAFSA, the Pell Grant and other federal aid programs but that the action would be chaotic.
Pringle uploaded her opinion on X that dismantling the ED would be directly harming students. “It will drain resources from the most vulnerable, skyrocket class sizes, make higher ed more expensive, strip special ed services and gut student civil rights protections.”
On Sept. 13, 2023, President Trump uploaded a video to social media outlining the goals of his presidency.
“One thing I’ll be doing very early in the administration is closing up the Department of Education in Washington D.C. and sending all education and education work back to the states. We want them to run the education of our children because they will do a much better job of it.” – President Donald Trump
In a more recent video uploaded to social media on Feb. 4, President Trump reiterated his goals from the 2023 video. He stated that he would sign an executive order for the full destruction of the Department of Education once the department’s secretary nominee, Linda McMahon, is confirmed.
He stated later in the video that he wants McMahon to “put herself out of a job,” considering his plans to send full educational legislation to the states.
The department supports more than 50 million students and 130,000 schools, helping aid disabled students and low income schools. Within the department, student aid is the highest funded resource as of their 2024 fiscal year.
The ED supports 30% of higher educational students through financial aid, funding and programs. Their main mission is to provide equal access to education for everyone.
If the department were to be dismantled, students and parents can expect a decreased amount of funding to schools in areas with higher concentrations of poverty and student access to aid. The federal aid would turn to block grants and be given to individual states without accountability.
Full educational resources would be returned to local and state governments. This would impose higher tax rates on parents and property owners for schools to access the funds they were previously receiving federally.
On Feb. 13, Linda McMahon said at a hearing that she aims to continue funding Pell Grants and two other programs to help low-income schools and students with disabilities, contradicting what the President stated about shutting down the entire department.
Mike Sosulski, President of Washington College in Maryland, stated that he believes these programs might get transferred to other departments, such as the Treasury, to be protected. The programs would potentially continue, though not without disruptions. The department’s closure would impact trillions of dollars in loans, grants and scholarships.
The uncertainty of future federal aid is concerning for many students.
Chase Ryan, a sophomore business major at the University of North Georgia, may not be able to afford college if his financial aid is reduced. “That would be a struggle for me, if financial aid got taken, because a lot of people depend on programs and things like that to help pay the expenses of college. It would screw over a lot of people,” he said.
If the aid programs move to a different department, students would still find themselves making payments even as those funds are being shifted and changed.
Ryan said he would be able to afford his financial aid being changed. Other students that depend more on financial relief programs may not be as privileged as him and could result in many students dropping out of college.
Although the future of Federal Aid for higher education and special education is a concern, the senior director of K-12 education policy for the Center for American Progress, Weade James, argues that the aid programs will be safe regardless of the ED’s dismantling. Considering the ED is a matter of congressional decision and spending, the idea of Federal Aid can not be dissolved with an executive order the same as the Department of Education.
