The clock is ticking for Trump's Education Department
The Education Department has less than a year to implement big changes to student loans and college oversight. The man in charge of it all is adamant the agency can do it – even with half the staff.
There's no time to spare at the Education Department.
No, not because the agency is going away anytime soon – actually, its plate just got even fuller. When President Donald Trump signed his massive domestic policy bill into law on July 4, the agency's workload ballooned. Now, with its usual staff cut in half, it has less than a year to implement major reforms to college financial aid and oversight.
That process began in earnest on Aug. 7, when the department hosted a public hearing to begin implementing the White House and Congress' mandates. Facing a July 1, 2026, deadline, the agency has a long to-do list. It must create new plans for student loan repayment, revise accountability rules for universities and establish new types of Pell Grants.
And the workload keeps growing: The White House just announced plans to reform its main database for higher education information (though the data-gathering arm of the Education Department has been reduced to just a handful of people).
Despite those obstacles, leaders at the Education Department insist they can meet the deadlines. In his first interview on the job, Nicholas Kent, the top official overseeing higher education at the department, was optimistic about the agency's bandwidth.
He pointed to one provision in the law – an exclusion of family farm and small business assets from financial aid calculations – that is already being rolled out months ahead of schedule. He said that change will be included in the latest version of the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA, which will fully launch this fall.
"We are off to the races in implementing this historic legislation that's going to make higher education work better for the American people," Kent said. "We are confident that we will be able to deliver it on time, or earlier, than what is required."
Yet skeptics, including former Education Department officials, worry that the agency lacks the staffing it needs. After the department reduced its workforce by half in March, college financial aid offices have struggled to get in touch with the Federal Student Aid office. The National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators has reported widespread communication breakdowns and processing delays, leaving students without answers they need to get help paying for school.
At the Aug. 7 hearing, Melanie Storey, NASFAA's president and a former Education Department official, urged the agency's leadership to include the financial aid community as it moves forward with putting all the new changes in place.
"Ignoring the financial aid community's operational expertise," she warned, "creates a significant risk of implementation failure."
Trump administration hits 200-day mark
As the administration hits its 200-day mark, higher education reform has emerged as a centerpiece of Trump's domestic policy agenda.
After freezing billions in federal funding for academic research, the White House has pushed a growing number of universities into unprecedented agreements. Those deals have included multimillion-dollar fines, commitments to handing over data on student enrollment and promises to prohibit transgender women from playing collegiate sports.
Critics have derided those efforts as historic encroachments on academic freedom. Kent, a former for-profit college executive, instead views the recent agreements as examples of a "lot of success."
"Stay tuned," he said.
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.