"Higher education groups and Democratic lawmakers have slammed the Trump administration’s move to cut the U.S. Department of Education’s staff roughly in half, voicing concerns that the agency won’t have enough workers to carry out core functions," Higher Ed Dive reports.

... "Education Department officials said it will continue to carry out the programs required by law, including Pell Grants, student loans and competitive grantmaking. However, higher education experts voiced concerns that the terminations will undermine these very programs."

"'Claiming that eliminating half the Department won’t affect its services — without any clear plan to redistribute the workload — is, at best, naive and, at worst, deliberately misleading,' Beth Maglione, interim president and CEO of the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators, said in a Wednesday statement."

"Although the Education Department is the smallest cabinet-level federal agency, its responsibilities are vast. Its Federal Student Aid office issues billions of dollars each year in loans and Pell Grants, its Office for Civil Rights investigates complaints of discrimination, and its research divisions compile and analyze key student achievement data."

"Maglione expressed concern about how the cuts could impact the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, noting that the Education Department hasn’t made clear which units have been cut and why."

"'The Department’s work is greater than the sum of its parts, and decimating entire teams within the agency could lead to unintended but dire consequences for critical systems — like the FAFSA — that depend on the work of multiple teams,' Maglione said."

NASFAA's "Notable Headlines" section highlights media coverage of financial aid to help members stay up to date with the latest news. Articles included under the notable headlines section are not written by NASFAA, but rather by external sources. Inclusion in Today's News does not imply endorsement of the material or guarantee the accuracy of information presented.

Publication Date: 3/12/2025