With President Donald Trump’s administration making major changes to the federal funding of education in the past weeks, the fear of change has gripped many students who rely on its services. The United States Department of Education has been the subject of ridicule, but its absence could be devastating to many programs like the Free Application for Federal Student Aid.
Trump’s policies are leading to administrative issues across the board and fear amongst the Immigrant community, especially students. This fear is leading to fewer people attending college which could worsen our current economic crisis.
FAFSA is a program by the U.S. government used to determine how eligible people are to receive financial aid. Any changes in the administration of this program can affect many students. According to a study done by The Hil in March of 2024, 17.5 million FAFSA forms are submitted annually. This means any changes to the FAFSA process may impact tens of millions of students.
We’re already seeing issues arise from the Trump Administration. According to AP News, 2,000 employees from the IT staff in the FAFSA office were laid off. The federal student loan site was down for hours on March 13 after a series of layoffs in the Department of Education that took place the previous day. This particularly affected the federal student aid office with over 300 staff members from the program having their positions terminated.
This shows a level of incompetence never seen before in an administration. We’re witnessing what can only be described as a damaging level of idiocy where federal employees are being laid off in the name of spending cuts, and for that, thousands of people may lose their opportunity to become successful in America.
According to an article by CalMatters, the number of FAFSA forms has decreased by 25% in Feb 2025. That’s roughly 48,000 students not applying.
This trend is even higher amongst students with undocumented parents, at 44%. While Trump has not announced any plans to target people using the student aid registry, the fear exists.
The Director of the California Student Aid Commission, Daisy Gonzales, made her thoughts clear in an interview with CalMatters.
“We’re losing another generation of students who should be enrolling, who should be succeeding,” Gonzales said, “The number one question that they would ask me is, ‘Is it safe for me to apply, and what are my options?’”
The Trump administration is making students feel unsafe about applying for aid. This could be disastrous for anyone attempting to better themselves through education. We could see thousands of people never go into college or go into debt over undocumented status.
The fewer people we see going into college will likely lead to an effect similar to brain drain. Without well-educated professionals, entire sections of the economy could see shortages, worsening our current economic downturn.
Trump’s Deputy Under Secretary for the Department of Education, James Bergeron announced many changes for the FAFSA form.
“The Trump Administration will correct the failures of the last Administration and ensure students and families can easily access the FAFSA form in a timely manner.” Bergeron said, “Resolving ongoing problems with… reflecting biological reality by referencing sex identifiers.”
This updated form no longer has the option to select gender and replaced it with sex. The non-binary and prefer not to answer options have been removed. This purely transphobic decision was made unnecessarily and has made more work for an already understaffed office.
While other welcome changes were made to the form, making it easier for students to fill out, these may be incompatible with Trump’s plans to further defund the Department of Education. Without this department, the issues with the FAFSA site will only worsen and we’ll likely see more students not receive their needed support.
