The Trump Administration’s layoffs are the latest act in the government battle over the future of the federal Education Department.
Attempted changes to student loan forgiveness and repayment programs began in August 2023, when Former President Joe Biden announced The Saving on a Valuable Education(SAVE) Plan. SAVE is an income-driven repayment plan that aimed to reduce the financial burden of student loans. This plan was met with federal court-issued injunctions, leading to a suspension of several key loan forgiveness programs.
Since 2023, the future of repaying student loans has remained uncertain, and contact with the Federal Student Aid department has been nearly impossible.
President Trump has been vocal in his opposition to the Department of Education. He has also opposed Biden’s proposal for student-loan forgiveness. Throughout his campaign, Trump promised to dismantle the DOE. In a campaign speech he was met with cheers when he said “I want to close the Department of Education and move education back to the states where it belongs.”
With yesterday’s layoff of 1,300 DOE employees, the administering of student-loan forgiveness and federal aid is expected to become more chaotic. Student Borrower Protection Center Policy Director Aissa Canchola Bañez said in a statement “today’s announcement makes it crystal clear—President Trump and Secretary McMahon could not care less about making sure students, borrowers, and working families get the support and resources they need, and instead are intent on inflicting mass chaos and disruption across our education system.”
The Trump administration has already moved to block all income-driven repayment plans, and recently threatened to dismantle Public Service Loan Forgiveness.
What does this mean for students?
The DOE oversees federal aid and student loans, including crucial programs such as Pay as You Earn (PAYE) and Pell Grants. If these initial cuts foreshadow an even broader gutting of the DOE, then students can expect it to be harder to reach call centers, see even longer processing times for FAFSA, and student loan and forgiveness applications. They can also expect a widespread communication blackout within the DOE.
While current university students may not feel immediate effects, they will likely join alumni in the struggle to receive help from repayment plans or even reach the FSA call centers, such as NelNet.
If you try, you’ll be met with NelNet’s automated voicemail reminding you of long wait times and stalled programs.
“Thank you for calling. Nelnet, due to high call volumes, our current wait time to speak with an advisor is greater than 30 minutes,” the operator reads. “A federal court issued an injunction preventing the US Department of Education from implementing the saving on a valuable education save plan and parts of other income driven repayment IDR plans. As a result, the IDR and online loan consolidation applications are temporarily unavailable on studentaid.gov borrowers can still submit a paper loan consolidation application by visiting student aid.gov/save.”
As of now, the future of the DOE is not looking great. Trump insists he has plans for the future of student loan and financial aid distribution, but what those plans are is not clear.
In an oval office press conference he addressed the layoffs, with obvious uncertainty.
“We’ll see how it all works out,” he said, to end his statement.
Until Trump decides what happens next, students will be left wondering.