Hundreds of shootings within the federal government’s student aid division have sparked concerns among workers and student loan advocates warning that the student loan system is at risk.
Linda McMahon, a wrestling billionaire and now serving as education secretary, presented cleaning as an efficient drive. However, employees within the U.S. Department of Education have warned that they will set the stage for widespread fraud and abuse.
“They’ve removed all the quality checkers. It’s only a matter of time (before) they’re going to fail the entire system,” said one senior official who escaped the cut. They demanded that they remain anonymous in fear of retaliation.
“If this was the bank and they fired all the quality assurance teams, their regulators would have shut them down,” the official said. “That’s the opposite of safety.”
Federal Student Aid, a unit within the education sector, oversees 1.6 tons of student loans. At least 300 employees were fired last week.
Following the firing, Trump signed an executive order on Thursday, directing McMahon to begin demolition of the Department of Education in an obvious attempt to avoid the need to obtain Congressional approval to formally close the federal department.
The free application on the Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) website has also experienced hours of suspension. Authorities denied that it was related to the cut.
The official argued that Blitz is likely to bring more issues, including longer wait times before contacting a loan service provider and more errors. “As an organization, we were already doing much more work than our staff provided. We need another ten times more for a bank of our size,” they said.
Officials say the Trump administration is also “liing” about how Cut was targeted. “They said they removed the underperformance, but they didn’t do any of those ratings.”
In a statement to the Guardian, the Ministry of Education argued that no employees are engaged in FAFSA or student loan services that were affected by the cuts last week.
“The department will provide quality customer service to borrowers,” the spokesperson said. They pointed out a press release on the fire. It said the faculty will continue to offer “all statutory programs” within the institutional scope, including student loans.
Student financial aid managers, policy experts and trade unions are skeptical.
Dismissed Federal Student Aid employees explained that their department will work with academic and state agencies to ensure recertification of compliance, process applications and institutions seeking federal funds.
“We were already in a terrible understaffing, and without our office, these schools would be caught up in the frontier,” they said. “It’s daunting. Everything we do is under the law.”
They explained that school eligibility and monitoring groups handled reconfigurations, initial applications, updates, mergers, ownership changes, program reviews and cash monitoring.
“What Linda McMahon did gives 5,000 agencies a green light to cause taxpayer fraud and abuse of federal financial aid to be sacrificed in large quantities to taxpayers, and being funded by taxpayers.
“The gatekeepers are gone,” the source added. “The state agency is currently in a hurry to see how it needs to move forward.”
The mass shootings warned supporters for student borrowers.
“These civil servants worked to ensure that students and families would pay for the university and to protect them from predatory for-profit organizations.
The Institute for Access and Success to University is “particularly concerned” about how cuts threaten college students and student loan borrowers, its president, Sameer Gadcurry said. “The core functions of the department can experience disruptions and breakdowns, and students have a hard time getting or renewing financial aid or campus-based aid.
“On the other hand, student loan borrowers have a hard time accessing the benefits that current law offers, and they cannot be confident they will get reliable and accurate advice on repayment of their student loans.”
Earlier this week, the American Federation of Teachers filed a lawsuit against the Department of Education over a move that affects millions of borrowers: suspension and review of applications for all income-driven repayment plans.
Administrators are suspicious of the Trump administration’s claim that the education sector continues to provide all statutory programs, as the education department has argued. “This is hard for anyone to believe,” wrote Thomas McWorther, dean of Student Financial Services at Northeastern University, on LinkedIn.
“That means there is no oversight, and approval will never occur, or there will be no enforced compliance with statutory regulations,” he added. “And students will be affected by these changes.”
