After concerned students filed a lawsuit against the Department of Education alleging possible threats to their personal data privacy, the department moved Tuesday to keep the Trump administration’s new Department of Government Efficiency out of its systems until at least Monday.
The plaintiff, the University of California Student Association, claimed that DOGE employees illegally accessed sensitive student data submitted through the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA), which is stored in the Department of Education’s National Student Loan Database. Such “nonpublic personal information,” which includes students’ names, Social Security numbers, financial information and other personal details, is largely protected from disclosure to third parties under the Privacy Act of 1974.
“In seeking federal financial assistance to further their dreams of higher education, students are not asked to agree, and do not agree, that [the Department of Education] can share their sensitive information for purposes other than loan processing and servicing,” the lawsuit reads. “[The Department of Education] has repeatedly represented to students that information they submit in conjunction with the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) will be protected.”
Roughly 51% of Duke students receive some form of financial aid, meaning over half of the student body has likely filled out the FAFSA at least once.
Led by billionaire Elon Musk, DOGE was established by a Jan. 20 executive order that charges the agency with “modernizing federal technology and software to maximize governmental efficiency and productivity.” Department staff have since been working through the federal bureaucracy to pinpoint areas of inefficient resource allocation and cut program costs.
DOGE shared Feb. 4 that it had begun examining the Department of Education’s operations, prompting UCSA to sue the Education Department and its acting secretary, Denise Carter.
U.S. District Judge Randolph Moss approved the Education Department’s request to keep DOGE staff out of its systems until Monday and is expected to issue a follow-up ruling after that point.
DOGE has come under fire in recent weeks for possibly violating federal laws by giving staff without high-level security clearance access to classified information. On Saturday, a federal judge blocked the agency from accessing sensitive Treasury Department records — which contain citizens’ Social Security numbers and bank information — after 21 states, including North Carolina, filed a lawsuit.
Though Musk’s team will not have access to Education Department records through the end of the week, the agency announced Tuesday it had terminated 89 of the department’s contracts, as well as 29 grants related to diversity and equity training — totaling over $900 million.
Duke received $649 million from the federal government in fiscal year 2021, though The Chronicle did not find information on which funds came specifically from the Department of Education.
Many of the grants that were terminated by DOGE were in support of the Institute for Education Sciences, which is “the nation's leading source for rigorous, independent education research, evaluation and statistics.” Duke has received at least 11 grants through the institute between 2005 and 2022.
DOGE’s actions come as part of a larger push by the Trump administration to hobble the Department of Education’s operations.
The president has stated his intention to dismantle the department altogether, quipping last week that he wants his education secretary nominee Linda McMahon to “put herself out of a job.” McMahon is a former CEO of World Wrestling Entertainment, and she served as head of the U.S. Small Business Administration for two years during Trump’s first term.
The billionaire appeared before the Senate for her confirmation hearing Thursday, where she said she would preserve key initiatives like Pell Grants and the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program but suggested that some programs may be moved under the jurisdiction of other federal agencies. McMahon acknowledged that it would take an act of Congress to eliminate the Department of Education.
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Zoe Kolenovsky is a Trinity junior and news editor of The Chronicle's 120th volume.