What cuts at the Department of Education mean for student loans

As both a consumer protection attorney and parent, I'm worried about these cuts.

As if sending a child to college isn’t expensive or scary enough, Trump’s dismantling of the Department of Education threatens new challenges.

This is the season of admission letters and decisions among families about how to pay for college. Many households are counting on federal student aid, including Pell Grants, work-study eligibility, and federal loans, to fund college. The gateway to getting federal aid is the FAFSA form, administered by the Department of Education.

I hustled to fill out my son’s form for his sophomore year of college—and successfully nagged (I mean, “reminded”) him to complete his part. I highly recommend others do the same. Given Trump’s cuts and attacks, this isn’t the year to procrastinate until the last minute!

A new report shows that the Federal Student Aid workforce is half the size it was when Trump took office. A former financial aid official warned, “I expect we will see issues wherein these complex, intertwined technology systems cannot be adequately managed . . . This puts critical functions, like the FAFSA, aid disbursement, and loan repayment at risk.”

It’s likely these Trump cuts will cause delays and headaches for families and for colleges.

But as a consumer protection attorney, I know the harm won’t end there. If students are unable to get federally backed loans, scammers and bad actors will look to take advantage of desperate students. For-profit companies could pop up offering to “help” students get financial aid, a process that should be free and easy.

Reporting also shows that people whose job it was to hold student loan servicers accountable no longer work at FSA. This means even folks who are many years out of college could run into errors or overcharges when repaying loans. Even worse, we could see a future subprime student lending crisis if federal aid is eliminated.

This is yet another issue voters should get loud about. This should not be a Republican or Democrat issue. Every elected official should want talented and motivated students to have access to federal loans and grants. Higher education isn’t for everyone, but there is no doubt that our economy needs more engineers, health care workers, scientists, teachers, and other careers that require college.

—Katie Porter