USU faces uncertainty amid Department of Education changes

As the United States Department of Education faces layoffs and President Donald Trump’s latest initiatives to dismantle the federal agency, students, staff and educators at Utah State University are left to speculate the future of DOE functions on college campuses.

While Trump’s recent executive order to abolish DOE and “move education into the states” must receive a pass from Congress to officially go into effect, roughly 50% of the workforce has already been fired, and the department’s core functions are said to be potentially redistributed under different government agencies if abolished.

DOE is given roughly 4% of the annual federal budget to carry out its core functions. These functions include overseeing student financial aid and student loans, enforcing civil rights laws and equal access to education and funding research and data collection in American schools and institutions.

“Currently, Utah State University has more than $75 million in funding coming from the Department of Education with anticipated amounts to go up to 123 million based on our current awards,” said Lisa Berreau, USU Office of Research vice president.

According to Craig Whyte, executive director for USU Student Financial Support, the finance office hopes to offer students a website including information about DOE impacts on financial aid in the future.

“As it currently stands, federal student aid programs are still available to students,” Whyte wrote in an email to The Utah Statesman. “So we continue to encourage students to submit their 2025-2026 FAFSA, as well as any applications available within the USU Scholarship Portal.”

Funding from DOE is used to provide students with financial aid as well as to reinvest back into research and development grants, along with covering other institutional costs. Without a specific agency trained to handle these responsibilities in schools, the speed and efficiency at which federal funds are distributed is expected to suffer.

According to Berreau, USU’s anticipated $48 million budget increase could be impacted or delayed by recent DOE restructurings.

“If we take it to the federal level, I would say yes, I am deeply concerned that the amount of funding is going to be reduced overall,” Berreau said.

A decrease in federal funding for public schools could have complex implications on students’ abilities to apply for and receive financial aid from Pell Grants, federal student loans, work-study programs and FAFSA scholarships.

The U.S. secretary of education Linda McMahon has stressed financial aid money will not be affected by plans to downsize the DOE, but key staff members lost to the layoffs and possible dismantling of the department could have butterfly effects on the speed and quality of student funding down the line.

Due to the uncertainty surrounding the future of federal funding for schools, USU’s finance office is still in the early days of determining exactly what these changes mean for student aid programs.

A decrease in federal funding could also lead to greater competition for remaining funding sources in the future.

“When one prepares a grant proposal for submission to the federal government, this is not something you do on a weekend or even in a week,” Berreau said. “The loss of funding and having to work even more on getting funding by, for example, submitting more applications is very time consuming and very hard work.”

According to Berreau, greater competition for funding resources could result in greater competition among students for research opportunities.

“We want to be a campus that has as many opportunities as possible for students to participate in research, and we understand the importance research can play in helping a student learn their craft,” Berreau said. “These kinds of reductions in funding are going to reduce opportunities. It’s almost guaranteed to happen.”

DOE is also responsible for enforcing discrimination laws like Title IX and Title VI in education, and these enforcements are suspected to weaken without direct federal government oversight.

While the Office of Equity did not respond to the Statesman’s request for a comment, as it stands, all discrimination laws are still enforced on USU campuses.

In response to these potential challenges, the Office of Research has been keeping students up to date on DOE changes through their website while also speaking with local state officials about their concerns.

“We are trying to make sure our elected representatives understand the impacts,” Berreau said. “We’re putting together information about what we’re seeing in regard to a reduction in available funding — for example, how that will affect our faculty and students.”

To stay up to date on the latest DOE news impacting USU campus, students and staff can visit research.usu.edu/government-updates.