The Trump administration has recently indicated its intentions to shut down the Department Of Education (DOE) through the use of an executive order. The exact details on how this could be achieved are unclear as, technically, the DOE can only be shut down through an act of Congress. However, an executive order could interfere with the functions of the DOE. An article in The Chicago Sun Times said that, with an executive order, Trump could decrease or halt spending, end some federal grants, and “gut the department of its personnel.” The article said that he would not necessarily have to abolish the department to seriously impede its processes.
The DOE is in charge of both student loans and the Federal Application for Student Aid (FAFSA). It also manages the federal student loan portfolios and Public Service Loan Forgiveness, which is a program that forgives student debt for certain qualifying people. If the DOE were to shut down, this program might no longer be available. In fact, ABC News indicated that people across the board with student loans should prepare for debt relief programs to be paused or shut down entirely.
NEIU released an email on February 5th, about the possible shutdown, addressing the potential effects for the college. First of all, if the DOE shuts down, federal law still requires financial aid programs to run and “The White House administration would need to come up with a way to carry out and oversee federal student aid programs outside of the [DOE]”, according to the email. FAFSA, the Pell Grant, and Work Study will still exist. The programs may become chaotic for a while as the government attempts to transfer their management to another department. The email says this would also apply to student loan portfolios, meaning that abolition of the DOE does not abolish student debt.
NEIU urged students to be careful about sharing their FAFSA login information and said that neither NEIU nor the Department of Education will ever ask for such information by email. Students who think they may have shared sensitive information with an untrustworthy source should change all their passwords immediately and monitor their account activity.
