04/15/2025

Federal Staffing Cuts Create Glitches, Delays for College Financial Aid Systems

Cracks are starting to appear in the federal financial aid apparatus post-DOGE

The Department of Education’s financial aid apparatus is cracking after the Trump administration imposed sweeping staff cuts, with some fearing that further deterioration could make it harder for students to secure the money they need to attend college.

After the cuts were implemented a month ago, calls have started to go unanswered, as have some emails and the systems that disburse student loans and grants are plagued with outages that are taking longer than usual to fix. College and university aid officers are reporting disruptions that are slowing down their ability to calculate financial aid offers and get timely answers about everything from adding academic programs to remaining eligible to receive federal aid.

Technical glitches are not unusual for the various platforms the government uses to manage federal financial aid dollars, but the frequency and duration are concerning, said Charles Mayfield, director of financial assistance at Northwest Missouri State University.

Please select this link to read the complete article from The Washington Post.