When teens and young adults with disabilities in California鈥檚 Poway Unified School District heard about a new opportunity to get extra help planning for life after high school, nearly every eligible student signed up.

The program, known as , aimed to fill a major gap in education research about what kinds of support give students nearing graduation the best shot at living independently, finding work, or continuing their studies.

Students with disabilities finish college at much lower rates than their non-disabled peers, and often struggle to tap into state employment programs for adults with disabilities, said Stacey McCrath-Smith, a director of special education at Poway Unified, which had 135 students participating in the program. So the extra help, which included learning how to track goals on a tool designed for high schoolers with disabilities, was much needed.

Charting My Path launched earlier this school year in Poway Unified and 12 other school districts. The salaries of 61 school staff nationwide, and the training they received to work with nearly 1,100 high schoolers with disabilities for a year and a half, was paid for by the U.S. Department of Education.

Jessie Damroth鈥檚 17-year-old son Logan, who has autism, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and other medical needs, had attended classes and met with his mentor through the program at Newton Public Schools in Massachusetts for a month. For the first time, he was talking excitedly about career options in science and what he might study at college.

鈥淗e was starting to talk about what his path would look like,鈥� Damroth said. 鈥淚t was exciting to hear him get really excited about these opportunities. 鈥� He needed that extra support to really reinforce that he could do this.鈥�

Then the Trump administration pulled the plug.

Charting My Path was among more than 200 Education Department contracts and grants terminated over the last two weeks by the Trump administration鈥檚 U.S. DOGE Service. DOGE has slashed spending it deemed to be wasteful, fraudulent, or in service of that . But in several instances, the decision to cancel contracts affected more than researchers analyzing data in their offices 鈥� it affected students.

Many projects, like Charting My Path, involved training teachers in new methods, testing learning materials in actual classrooms, and helping school systems use data more effectively.

鈥淪tudents were going to learn really how to set goals and track progress themselves, rather than having it be done for them,鈥� McCrath-Smith said. 鈥淭hat is the skill that they will need post-high school when there鈥檚 not a teacher around.鈥�

All of that work was abruptly halted 鈥� in some cases with nearly finished results that now cannot be distributed.

Every administration is entitled to set its own priorities, and contracts can be canceled or changed, said Steven Fleischman, an education consultant who for many years ran one of the regional research programs that was terminated. He compared it to a homeowner deciding they no longer want a deck as part of their remodel.

But the current approach reminds him more of construction projects started and then abandoned during the Great Recession, in some cases leaving giant holes that sat for years.

鈥淵ou can walk around and say, 鈥極h, that was a building we never finished because the funds got cut off,鈥欌�� he said.

DOGE drives cuts to education research contracts, grants

The Education Department has been a prime target of DOGE, the chaotic cost-cutting initiative led by billionaire Elon Musk, now a senior adviser to Trump.

So far, , many of which were under the purview of the Institute of Education Sciences, the ostensibly independent research arm of the Education Department. The administration said those cuts, which included multi-year contracts, totaled $881 million. In recent years, the federal government has spent just over $800 million on the entire IES budget.

DOGE has also that conduct research for states and local schools and shuttered four equity assistance centers that help with teacher training. The Trump administration also and that often work to improve instruction for struggling students.

. The Trump administration said the terminated Education Department contracts and grants were worth $2 billion. But some were near completion with most of the money already spent.

An NPR analysis of all of DOGE鈥檚 reported savings 鈥� though the Education Department is a top contributor.

On Friday, a federal judge issued an injunction that that might violate the anti-DEIA executive order. It鈥檚 not clear whether the injunction would prevent more contracts from being canceled 鈥渇or convenience.鈥�

Mark Schneider, the recent past IES director, . But even many conservative critics have expressed alarm at how wide-ranging and indiscriminate the cuts have been. Congress mandated many of the terminated programs, which also indirectly support state and privately funded research.

The canceled projects include contracts that support maintenance of the Common Core of Data, a major database used by policymakers, researchers, and journalists, as well as work that supports updates to the What Works Clearinghouse, a huge repository of evidence-based practices available to educators for free.

And after promising not to make any cuts to the National Assessment of Educational Progress, known as the nation鈥檚 report card, the department canceled an upcoming test for 17-year-olds that helps researchers understand long-term trends. On Monday, Peggy Carr, the head of the National Center for Education Statistics, which oversees NAEP, was .

The Education Department did not respond to questions about who decided which programs to cut and what criteria were used. Nor did the department respond to a specific question about why Charting My Path was eliminated. DOGE records estimate the administration saved $22 million by terminating the program early, less than half the $54 million in the original contract.

The decision has caused .

In Utah, the Canyons School District is trying to reassign the school counselor and three teachers whose salaries were covered by the Charting My Path contract.

The district, which had 88 high schoolers participating in the program, is hoping to keep using the curriculum to boost its usual services, said Kirsten Stewart, a district spokesperson.

Officials in Poway Unified, too, hope schools can use the curriculum and tools to keep up a version of the program. But that will take time and work because the program鈥檚 four teachers had to be reassigned to other jobs.

鈥淭hey dedicated that time and got really important training,鈥� McCrath-Smith said. 鈥淲e don鈥檛 want to see that squandered.鈥�

For Damroth, the loss of parent support meetings through Charting My Path was especially devastating. Logan has a rare genetic mutation that causes him to fall asleep easily during the day, so Damroth wanted help navigating which colleges might be able to offer extra scheduling support.

鈥淚 have a million questions about this. Instead of just hearing 鈥業 don鈥檛 know鈥� I was really looking forward to working with Joe and the program,鈥� she said, referring to Logan鈥檚 former mentor. 鈥淚t鈥檚 just heartbreaking. I feel like this wasn鈥檛 well thought out. 鈥� My child wants to do things in life, but he needs to be given the tools to achieve those goals and those dreams that he has.鈥�

DOGE cuts labs that helped 鈥楳ississippi Miracle鈥� in reading

The dramatic improvement in reading proficiency that Carey Wright oversaw as state superintendent in one the nation鈥檚 poorest states became known as the 鈥淢ississippi Miracle.鈥�

Regional Educational Laboratory Southeast, based out of the Florida Center for Reading Research at Florida State University, was a key partner in that work, Wright said.

When Wright wondered if state-funded instructional coaches were really making a difference, REL Southeast dispatched a team to observe, videotape, and analyze the instruction delivered by hundreds of elementary teachers across the state. Researchers reported that teachers鈥� instructional practices aligned well with the science of reading and that teachers themselves said they felt far more knowledgeable about teaching reading.

鈥淭hat solidified for me that the money that we were putting into professional learning was working,鈥� Wright said.

The study, she noted, arose from a casual conversation with researchers at REL Southeast: 鈥淭hat鈥檚 the kind of give and take that the RELs had with the states.鈥�

Wright, now Maryland state superintendent, said she was looking forward to partnering with REL Mid-Atlantic on a math initiative and on an overhaul of the school accountability system.

But this month, termination letters went out to the universities and research organizations that run the 10 Regional Educational Laboratories, which were established by Congress in 1965 to serve states and school districts. The letters said the contracts were being terminated 鈥渇or convenience.鈥�

The press release that went to news organizations cited 鈥渨asteful and ideologically driven spending鈥� and named a single project in Ohio that involved equity audits as a part of an effort to reduce suspensions. involve reading, math, career connections, and teacher retention.

Jannelle Kubinec, CEO of WestEd, an education research organization that held the contracts for REL West and REL Northwest, said she never received a complaint or a request to review the contracts before receiving termination letters. Her team had to abruptly cancel meetings to go over results with school districts. In other cases, reports are nearly finished but cannot be distributed because they haven鈥檛 gone through the review process.

REL West was also working with the Utah State Board of Education to figure out if the legislature鈥檚 investment in programs to keep early career teachers from leaving the classroom was making a difference, among several other projects.

鈥淭his is good work and we are trying to think through our options,鈥� she said. 鈥淏ut the cancellation does limit our ability to finish the work.鈥�

Given enough time, Utah should be able to find a staffer to analyze the data collected by REL West, said Sharon Turner, a spokesperson for the Utah State Board of Education. But the findings are much less likely to be shared with other states.

The most recent contracts started in 2022 and were set to run through 2027.

The Trump administration said it planned to enter into new contracts for the RELs to satisfy 鈥渟tatutory requirements鈥� and better serve schools and states, though it鈥檚 unclear what that will entail.

鈥淭he states drive the research agendas of the RELs,鈥� said Sara Schapiro, the executive director of the Alliance for Learning Innovation, a coalition that advocates for more effective education research. If the federal government dictates what RELs can do, 鈥渋t runs counter to the whole argument that they want the states to be leading the way on education.鈥�

Some terminated federal education research was nearly complete

Some research efforts were nearly complete when they got shut down, raising questions about how efficient these cuts were.

The American Institutes for Research, for example, was almost done evaluating the impact of the , which aims to improve literacy instruction through investments like new curriculum and teacher training.

AIR鈥檚 research spanned 114 elementary schools across 11 states and involved more than 23,000 third, fourth, and fifth graders and their nearly 900 reading teachers.

Researchers had collected and analyzed a massive trove of data from the randomized trial and presented their findings to federal education officials just three days before the study was terminated.

鈥淚t was a very exciting meeting,鈥� said Mike Garet, a vice president and institute fellow at AIR who oversaw the study. 鈥淧eople were very enthusiastic about the report.鈥�

Another AIR study that was nearing completion among first and second graders. It鈥檚 a strategy that helps schools identify and provide support to struggling readers, with the most intensive help going to kids with the highest needs. It鈥檚 widely used by schools, but its effectiveness hasn鈥檛 been tested on a larger scale.

The research took place in 106 schools and involved over 1,200 educators and 5,700 children who started first grade in 2021 and 2022. Much of the funding for the study went toward paying for teacher training and coaching to roll out the program over three years. All of the data was collected and nearly done being analyzed when DOGE made its cuts.

Garet doesn鈥檛 think he and his team should simply walk away from unfinished work.

鈥淚f we can鈥檛 report results, that would violate our covenant with the districts, the teachers, the parents, and the students who devoted a lot of time in the hope of generating knowledge about what works,鈥� Garet said. 鈥淣ow that we have the data and have the results, I think we鈥檙e duty-bound to report them.鈥�

This story was originally published by Chalkbeat. Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news site covering educational change in public schools. Sign up for their newsletters at .

Washington, D.C.

On Monday, a federal district court judge in Maryland granted a barring the Department of Education and the Office of Personnel Management from disclosing personally identifiable information to Elon Musk鈥檚 Department of Government Efficiency.

The American Federation of Teachers, the nation鈥檚 second-largest teachers union, filed a federal lawsuit with a coalition of labor unions Feb. 12 alleging that the department illegally gave DOGE access to millions of private and sensitive records.

The court ruled that the AFT would likely succeed in its lawsuit and agreed that the two agencies 鈥渓ikely violated the Privacy Act by disclosing their personal information to DOGE affiliates without their consent.鈥� The restraining order will expire March 10. 

鈥淭his is a significant decision that puts a firewall between actors whom we believe lack the legitimacy and authority to access Americans鈥� personal data and are using it inappropriately, without any safeguards,鈥� union President Randi Weingarten said in a press release.

In other action, the union announced on Feb. 19 that as part of a recently launched campaign called . 

The National Education Association, the nation’s largest teachers union, organized a rally outside the U.S. Capitol on Feb. 12 to protest the nomination of Linda McMahon as secretary of education.

In response to administration efforts to downsize federal agencies, the American Federation of Government Employees filed a lawsuit to stop a resignation program that prompted thousands of workers to leave their jobs. The nation鈥檚 largest federal employee union 鈥� which represents U.S. Department of Education staff 鈥� argued that the program was unlawful, .

California

Members of unions in 32 California school districts have banded together to negotiate a shared set of contract demands: improved wages and benefits, smaller class sizes, fully staffed schools and more resources for students.

The locals united as part of the California Teachers Association’s , which launched Feb. 4. The districts employ a total of 77,000 educators and teach 1 million students, and include some of the largest in the state: Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco, Oakland and Sacramento. 

Many of the unions鈥� contracts are set to expire this summer. California Teachers Association President David Goldberg said in a Feb. 4 webinar that the campaign is intended to build pressure statewide, .

At one charter school in the San Fernando Valley, teachers staged a four-day after working without a contract since July 1. Educators at El Camino Real Charter High School, who are represented by United Teachers Los Angeles, walked out from Feb. 10 to 14 before reaching an agreement that includes a 19% salary increase over three years, .

The nation’s first charter school strike occurred in 2018, a four-day work stoppage at Acero, one of Chicago鈥檚 largest charter school networks. The vast majority of charter schools are not unionized.

Idaho

A bill that would ban taxpayer funds from going toward teachers union operations advanced out of committee to the full House on Feb. 12. The bill鈥檚 sponsor, state Rep. Judy Boyle, said is intended to cut down on what she called 鈥渦nder-the-table鈥� dealings between school districts and unions, according to the .

HB98 would apply only to teachers unions, not to other public-sector unions that represent occupations like first responders, according to the Idaho Education Association. It would require teachers to use personal leave to do union work, eliminate payroll deductions for dues and ban distribution of union materials on school property. Violators could be fined up to $2,500.

鈥淭his wasn鈥檛 the outcome we wanted, but we鈥檙e not done fighting this bad bill yet,鈥� Chris Parri, the union’s political director, said . 鈥淲e鈥檒l need all hands on deck to kill it for good in the [state] Senate when the time comes.鈥� 

Illinois

The Chicago Teachers Union rejected a recommendation Feb. 4 from a neutral arbitrator that negotiators return to the bargaining table and reach agreement with Chicago Public Schools on a that includes higher pay for veteran teachers and more librarians. In a letter to the district, the union that the mediator 鈥渞ightly notes that [Chicago Public Schools] consistently signs 鈥� labor contracts despite claiming it lacks the funds to afford them.鈥�

Once the recommendation is rejected, the union has to wait 30 days before it can give the district a 10-day strike notice. The Chicago Teachers Union went on strike during contract negotiations for seven days in 2012, one day in 2016 and 11 days in 2019.

Massachusetts

Lawmakers questioned the state鈥檚 largest teachers union at a special hearing Feb. 10 over learning materials that some members believe were antisemitic. 

The Massachusetts Teachers Association, which represents more than 117,000 educators, was about the Israel-Hamas conflict. President Max Page said that the documents were created by request from the union’s board and published in a members-only area of the union website.

Examples included a poster on the Israel-Hamas war reading, 鈥渨hat was taken by force can only be returned by force鈥� and a book about a Palestinian girl who says, 鈥渁 group of bullies called Zionists wanted our land so they stole it by force and hurt many people,鈥� according to .

鈥淭he notion that our union is trying to 鈥榠ndoctrinate鈥� our young people is simply not true, and accusations to that effect have led to death threats to me and my staff, and to other attacks on our union,鈥� Page said. 鈥淧osting resources does not imply agreement with each and every document. Nor would we ever expect that our members would look at these resources with an uncritical eye.鈥�

An by the Israeli-American Civic Action Network that asks lawmakers and state agencies to halt collaboration with the union on legislation has received more than 17,000 signatures.

Utah

One of the first bills Gov. Spencer Cox signed into law this year bars teachers unions from bargaining collectively and conducting operations on school property.

The governor on Feb. 14, marking the end of a weeks-long debate about how public-sector unions should operate. Lawmakers who favored the bill said it will ensure transparency in unions and protect taxpayer resources, but educators said it will only make a job that鈥檚 already full of challenges more difficult.

While it doesn鈥檛 prevent employees from joining a union, the law prohibits public agencies 鈥� which employ teachers, firefighters, police officers and county workers, among others 鈥� from 鈥渞ecognizing a labor organization as a bargaining agent鈥� and 鈥渆ntering into collective bargaining contracts.鈥� 

The Utah Education Association said HB267 will also weaken advocacy because it cuts off access to schools by barring unions from using public property for free. Some opponents of the bill charged it was created to retaliate against the Utah Education Association, which is The association is the state鈥檚 largest teachers union, with 18,000 members.

Many voters cheer these efforts, frustrated with a system they see as prioritizing elite interests over their problems. The IES chaos energized Trump supporters and horrified the education research community. But few addressed the most important question: What now?

Like many government activities, the value of education research isn鈥檛 always immediately obvious. But just because something is obscure, that doesn鈥檛 mean it鈥檚 irrelevant. In fact, a strong case can be made that the nation underinvests in education research. IES鈥檚 budget of $793 million is a fraction of the more than $900 billion spent annually by federal, state and local governments on just K-12 public schools. That鈥檚 a staggeringly lower percentage for R&D than most industries 鈥� certainly less than what Elon Musk鈥檚 companies spend. 

Federal investment in education research focuses on closing the gap between the aspirations of public schools and real-world outcomes. Daniel Patrick Moynihan, chief architect of the first federal modern education research agency, envisioned it as a way to develop 鈥渢he art and science of education鈥� to achieve true equality of opportunity. An essential mission 鈥� but the U.S. is failing to deliver on it.

鈥淪hoddy work on trivial topics,鈥� research warped by political priorities and bloated bureaucracies draining limited resources. That鈥檚 not Elon Musk and DOGE talking, that鈥檚 Chester E. Finn Jr., a key architect of federal education research-turned-critic pleading for reform in 2000.

Just two weeks ago, the Nation鈥檚 Report Card, produced by IES, showed the largest achievement gaps between the lowest- and highest-achieving students ever recorded. A decade of decline, coupled with disastrous pandemic responses, set achievement for struggling students back to 1990s level. International assessments reveal the U.S. as a global outlier, with a growing share of adults assessed at the lowest levels of literacy.

This is not inevitable. For decades, America made steady gains in educational achievement. States are recovering from the pandemic in differentiated ways. Overall, however, achievement stagnated in the years leading up to COVID, and the nation has clearly failed to recover from the pandemic learning loss, despite significant federal spending on schools. This makes government investments in education research instrumental to understanding America鈥檚 slow, halting progress toward making good on the promise of public education, and the cliff it’s gone off the past few years. 

The 鈥渟cience of reading鈥� movement illustrates the power of research and the shortcomings of the existing federal approach. Journalist Emily Hanford鈥檚 reporting on reading instruction did more to change classroom practices than the entire What Works Clearinghouse 鈥� a federally funded, bureaucratic mechanism for reviewing evidence. 

IES’s mission, to 鈥減rovide national leadership in expanding fundamental knowledge and understanding of education from early childhood through postsecondary study 鈥� to provide parents, educators, students, researchers, policymakers and the general public with reliable information about 鈥� the condition and progress of education in the United States鈥� remains essential. Yet IES is not meeting these goals.

The answer is not to jettison the federal role in education research. On the contrary, the nation needs more of it, and better. The lack of outrage from people working in schools about the DOGE cuts is a silence worth listening to.

Here are five ideas for a more strategic, agile, relevant and impact-driven IES:

Confront the Political and Structural Barriers to Implementation 

Developing effective strategies is not enough 鈥� the real challenge is getting educators to use them at scale in a decentralized system where states, districts and schools operate independently. Testing and innovation must have buy-in from those in the field so they are more strongly linked to adoption.

Political pressures, bureaucratic inertia and rigid regulations often prevent research-backed solutions from taking hold. IES should prioritize research that not only evaluates effectiveness, but also identifies the policy, governance and systemic barriers that block effective implementation. The agency prioritizes rigorous experimental studies, which is good, but other methods are also needed to answer questions about implementation. And this work must be better disseminated and applied, not just passed around among researchers.

Be a More Active Arbiter of ‘What Works’

Every year, school districts spend billions on curriculum, technology and instructional interventions, often with little regard for evidence. IES should evolve beyond the passive and hard-to-interpret What Works Clearinghouse and become an active information and standards-setting body. That could mean:

• Continuing, even expanding, essential data that inform parents and policymakers, like the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) and the , the Department of Education’s primary database on K-12 schools and districts.
  
• Issuing A-F ratings for educational interventions, modeled after the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force in health care.
  
• Convening expert panels, like the National Reading Panel, to resolve key education debates and provide clear, evidence-based guidance.
  
• Tracking successes and failures, publishing reports on which states and districts effectively use research-based strategies.

Tackle Hard Questions Without Fear

For too long, education research has avoided politically sensitive but critical questions. IES should lead on issues such as:

• Why is early reading proficiency still tied so strongly to family income?
  
• How does the teacher pay structure discourage ambitious, high-achieving individuals from entering or staying in the profession?
  
• What outdated regulations and funding mechanisms are stifling school innovation?

IES must be willing to confront uncomfortable truths 鈥� and ensure its research drives real policy action.

Better Data and Utilization of Existing Field Capacity. 

The Common Core of Data, along with other information IES collects, represents some of the most used evidence in education research. Yet there are also glaring holes in what IES collects and, therefore, what researchers can explore. Very little is known, for instance, systemically about what teacher candidates learn when they are preparing to teach. Nor is there good, comprehensive national information about how much teachers earn or even what compensation is based on. 

IES can collect some data, but it must ask hard questions about whether this or other data collections should be done in house. Over time, IES has held onto functions that nonprofit organizations like RAND and the Advanced Education Research & Development Fund have proven they can do as well, or better. It can take years for IES to publish results, while others can do it in months. A reformed IES should focus on what it does best 鈥� funding and evaluating research, operating nimbly and maintaining quality and independence 鈥� while supporting capacity elsewhere in the field for things like large-scale data collection and reporting, fast-turnaround field surveys and DARPA-like R&D investments.

The Department of Defense鈥檚 DARPA has pioneered breakthrough innovations in the military by funding high-risk, high-reward research with clear objectives and short timelines. IES could replicate this strategy by funding one or more bold new initiatives to conduct ambitious, time-bound research. This would bring together top scientists, technologists and educators for five-year terms to work on pioneering transformative solutions, such as AI-driven personalized learning, early literacy breakthroughs and reimagined teacher preparation. Notably, DARPA is not a new governmental function; it鈥檚 a mechanism for using fieldwide capacity in the private and university sectors as a problem-solving framework. 

Launch a National ‘Moonshot’ for Education

Rather than spreading resources across countless disconnected projects, IES should focus on the most urgent educational challenges. A National Education Challenge Panel should be convened every five years to identify critical research priorities tied to a broader federal policy strategy. Immediate areas of focus could include:

• 鈥淓liminate the early literacy gap by 2035.鈥�
  
• 鈥淓nsure every eighth grader can master algebra鈥�
  
• 鈥淓nsure every high school graduate is truly college- or career-ready by 2030.鈥�
  
• 鈥淩evolutionize the teaching profession to attract a cross-section of top college graduates.鈥�

Instead of fragmented efforts, this would focus the entire education research ecosystem on delivering real, transformative change.

Trump identifies as a deal maker. The ideas here could be the beginning of a new deal for education research, producing timely and usable evidence. We recognize that reforming IES in these ways will be controversial, requiring hard decisions about what research should prioritize and how the federal government should support it. But the status quo or abandonment of federal education research would be worse 鈥� leaving progress to a fragmented, underfunded patchwork of individual researchers and often ideological interest groups.

Even if you don鈥檛 like how DOGE and the Trump administration are approaching their work 鈥� and we don鈥檛 鈥� it is past time to substantially mend the federal role in education research. Especially now, if you don鈥檛 want to see that role end. 

Disclosure: The authors have all received funding from, or worked on projects funded by, IES and have worked or currently work with RAND. Andy Rotherham sits on 蜜桃影视鈥檚 board of directors.

Six individuals joined the suit, filed by the nation鈥檚 second-largest teacher’s union, alongside a coalition of labor unions representing over 2 million workers. Those impacted include teachers, who relied on federal student loans to pay for their college tuition, and high school students, who recently filed their federal financial aid forms with the department.

鈥淲hen I filled out the FAFSA, I gave my Social Security number and my parent鈥檚 income information as well as their investment information,鈥� Maryland high school student Sara Porcari said at an AFT Wednesday. 鈥淚 thought that information would be private and secure. Now I’m not sure what’s happening.鈥�

鈥淚’m only 17 years old,鈥� she continued, 鈥渁nd I don’t know who has access to my personal information or how this data breach will affect my future in college and in general.鈥�

AFT President Randi Weingarten questioned why Musk, a billionaire given free rein by the president to remake the federal government, and DOGE want access to that information, expressing doubts about their stated purpose of improving government efficiency. 

 An AFT press release Tuesday called for 鈥淓lon Musk and his minions to be immediately evicted from the U.S. Department of Education,鈥� alleging they were feeding the data from millions of people鈥檚 private student loan accounts 鈥渋nto artificial intelligence in one of the biggest data hacks in U.S. history.鈥�

Ernesh Stewart, a Washington, D.C., school counselor and mom, echoed those concerns Wednesday, 鈥淲hy do you need to access my daughter’s scholarship information? Why do you even need my home address? I can’t help but wonder if there is a hidden agenda. If one of the country’s wealthiest men, who also happens to be deeply invested in AI, has access to all this information, whatever it is, I feel like it’s a gross violation of privacy.鈥�

The Education Department, which oversees the private information of 43 million student borrowers who hold $1.6 trillion in student debt, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A DOGE representative did not immediately respond to an email requesting comment.

Weingarten and other panelists at the conference expressed their hope that President Donald Trump鈥檚 nominee for education secretary, Linda McMahon, would join them in condemning this 鈥渄ata breach,鈥� during her Thursday confirmation hearing.

鈥淚 would hope that what she would do is protect students and protect families from this kind of financial intrusion and invasion and 鈥� say to the millions of people that have been affected the steps she’s taking to stop it,鈥� Weingarten said.

While the lawsuit contends government agencies have valid purposes for maintaining these record systems, the makes clear they can only provide access to them in very specific situations. Here, though, the filing argues, DOGE representatives have accessed the data to shut down payments 鈥渁nd in the case of the Education Department, the agency itself.鈥�

After gaining access to the systems last week, Musk, who is not an elected official, turned to X, the social media platform he owns, to boast that the Department of Education no longer exists. 

What is this 鈥淒epartment of Education鈥� you keep talking about?

I just checked and it doesn鈥檛 exist.

鈥� Elon Musk (@elonmusk)

In another DOGE-led effort, the Trump administration moved Monday to gut the Institute of Education Sciences, temporarily disabling an essential source of data on a host of basic information, ranging from high school graduation rates to school safety. 

DOGE was created by a Trump executive order in January. Supporters argue Musk is working to cut federal bloat and streamline systems. But critics say Musk, whose companies, including SpaceX, receive billions in government contracts, lacks transparency and has immense conflicts of interest.  

The suit, filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Maryland, also alleges that the U.S. Department of Education, along with the Office of Personnel Management and the Department of Treasury, has exposed millions of Americans to 鈥渢he risk of identity theft, harassment, intimidation, and embarrassment鈥� by improperly disclosing their sensitive records to DOGE employees who lack appropriate security clearances. The staff includes a 19-year-old who has previously leaked proprietary information, according to the suit.

WIRED magazine broke the story earlier this month that at the center of DOGE’s effort to take over various federal departments and agencies are six male engineers, with ties to Musk.

In particular, plaintiffs claim that the Department of Education and its acting head, Denise Carter, have released data from the National Student Loan Data System, a financial aid-related database housed within the Education Department that contains information on almost 34 million borrowers and their families. It includes a plethora of sensitive information, including Social Security numbers, bank records, home addresses and immigration status. 

About 20 people with DOGE have begun working inside the education department, looking to cut According to reporting from some of these representatives have fed sensitive and personally identifiable data from across the department into artificial intelligence software to look into the agency鈥檚 programs and spending.

Plaintiffs are asking the court to end the data disclosure immediately by restoring Privacy Act protections and are demanding that any data currently in DOGE鈥檚 possession be deleted and destroyed. The act, put in place in the wake of the Watergate scandal, regulates the circumstances in which agency records about individuals can be shared; disclosing anything beyond this is illegal.聽

On Tuesday, a federal judge in a against the Education Department blocked Musk’s team from accessing several systems that store sensitive data including student loans, but only temporarily. In a hearing for that case, Musk said he did not see how DOGE鈥檚 access to student loan data caused harm.

While it has previously been reported that DOGE representatives are political appointees, it now appears that some have received official government credentials, including email addresses, at multiple agencies, including at the Department of Education, leading to confusion about who actually employs them.

Texas transplant Elon Musk is planning to start a university in Austin, according first reported by Bloomberg News.

The charity, called The Foundation, plans to use a $100 million gift from Musk to create and launch a primary and secondary school in Austin focused on teaching science, technology, engineering and math. Once it is fully operational, the filing states, the school will focus on creating a university. The school intends to seek accreditation by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges, a necessary first step to launch the school.

According to the filing, the university would teach students in person 鈥渁s well as using distance education technologies.鈥� It expects to start enrollment with 50 students and scale up over time. The school would fund its activities through donations and tuition fees, though the filing also states that if a student cannot pay tuition or fees, the school could provide financial aid. It is currently hiring an executive director, teachers and administrators, the filing states.

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Musk鈥檚 plan to start a new university in Austin 鈥� already home to the flagship University of Texas at Austin and multiple other private universities 鈥� comes just as another new private school in the city plans to officially open to students in fall 2024.

The University of Austin was launched two years ago by a group of higher education critics in response to their belief that U.S. college campuses were no longer a place where students and faculty can openly exchange ideas.

University of Austin President Pano Kanelos said he hopes the school can be a champion for free speech and open inquiry.

鈥淲e’re just living in a moment where things seem to be coming apart, where people seem to be pulled away from each other, where institutions seem to be shaking in their foundations,鈥� Kanelos said. 鈥淭he best response is to build new things.鈥�

Musk鈥檚 new university does not yet have a name. The Foundation did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Foundation鈥檚 trustees include Jared Birchall, head of Musk鈥檚 family office; Steven Chidester, a tax attorney at Withersworldwide; and Ronald Gong and Teresa Holland, who work at Catalyst Family Office in California, according to Bloomberg.

The Texas Tribune partners with Open Campus on higher education coverage.

Disclosure: University of Texas at Austin has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune’s journalism. Find a complete .

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