Judge lets DOGE access Education Department's student databases while lawsuit plays out

Show Caption

WASHINGTON – A federal judge on Monday denied a request from college students to prevent Elon Musk’s government efficiency team from accessing U.S. Department of Education databases, a move they said placed the confidential records of millions in jeopardy. 

U.S. District Judge Randolph Moss permitted the agency’s six-person detail from the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, to access systems with millions of students' personal and financial information while the privacy lawsuit unfolds. The Education Department had agreed to bar DOGE from the agency's databases for a week while awaiting the judge's decision.

In a 13-page order, Moss called fears that DOGE’s entry into the Education Department’s internal systems could lead to identity theft and targeted immigration enforcement “entirely conjectural.” 

The students provided “no evidence, beyond sheer speculation, that would allow the Court to infer that (the Education Department) or DOGE staffers will misuse or further disseminate this information,” the judge wrote in his order. 

The refusal is a setback for students across the country who share the concerns of the University of California Student Association, which sued the Education Department in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia earlier this month. The students alleged that DOGE – a team led by Elon Musk and tasked with rooting out government waste and fraud – would violate their privacy rights by viewing the agency’s many internal systems. Paste BN previously reported that the DOGE task force had gained access to vast databases with student information, according to an Education Department employee familiar with the matter. 

The litigation has offered a behind-the-scenes look at the DOGE team’s efforts to reform the Education Department, an agency for which Elon Musk has expressed contempt (and which President Donald Trump referred to last week as a “con job”). 

The first DOGE employee assigned to the Education Department arrived on Jan. 28, roughly a week after Trump took office, according to court documents. Thomas Flagg, the agency’s chief information officer, said in written testimony that the DOGE staffer and five others later detailed to the agency completed a background check as part of the onboarding process. 

Adam Ramada, one of the DOGE team members working with the Education Department data, affirmed in written testimony that six DOGE staffers were assigned to the agency. He said he and two other employees spend roughly 50 to 60 hours per week on the job, which he characterized as assisting the agency with auditing contracts, grants and related programs for "waste, fraud, and abuse.” 

The team has already made dramatic changes to department operations, the ripple effects of which will touch students and teachers nationwide.

Last week, the DOGE team effectively decimated the agency’s information-gathering arm, cutting roughly $1 billion in education research contracts. A few days later, DOGE said the task force had terminated 70 educator training grants related to diversity, equity and inclusion. The grants were worth $373 million, according to a post from the official DOGE account on the social media platform X.

Linda McMahon, Trump's pick to lead the Education Department, said at her confirmation hearing last week that she has not spoken to Elon Musk about DOGE's work at the department. When pressed by senators on the topic, she confirmed there are "implants" from DOGE auditing the functions of the agency she would likely manage.

In a court filing, Ramada, one of the DOGE employees, stated that a colleague of his who had access to the Education Department's internal systems had not yet completed ethics and information security training.

Zachary Schermele is an education reporter for Paste BN. You can reach him by email at zschermele@usatoday.com. Follow him on X at @ZachSchermele and Bluesky at @zachschermele.bsky.social.