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More than $11 billion has been cut in research funding in the last four months (Nadworny, 2025) - "The cuts affect things like cancer research, diabetes treatments, new wearable technology, farming solutions and studying domestic violence: research across nearly every discipline and subject."

$450 million alone have been cut from Harvard University

To offset cost, several universities have moved to self-fund research

NIH: Some bright spots

On Monday, 6/16, a federal judge (of note, appointed by Reagan) in Boston said that the termination of National Institutes of Health (NIH) grants for research on diversity-related topics by the Trump administration was “void and illegal”

The judge accused the government of discriminating against racial minorities and LGBTQ people (Bush, 2025)

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EducationCounsel-Summary Analysis of Trump Executive Actions - last updated 3.20.25.docx

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Analysis of Congressional Education Funding Bills

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Analysis of Congressional Education Funding Bills

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EducationCounsel - DEEP DIVE: Senate Education Budget Reconciliation Bill Summary and Analysis

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In this new Deep Dive, Nathan Arnold provides a high-level summary and analysis of the bill proposed by Senator Bill Cassidy (R-LA), the Chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee. The bill is one part of a larger Budget Reconciliation bill currently being developed by multiple Senate committees. Like the House Education and Workforce Committee’s version, the education portion of the Senate’s bill focuses entirely on higher education, providing an estimated budget savings of $300 billion over fiscal years 2025-2034. (For more on the House’s bill, see Nathan’s May 1 Deep Dive.) Overall, many critical provisions are nearly equivalent between the House and Senate education bills. However, significant areas of divergence remain, particularly with respect to accountability, undergraduate loan limits, and Pell eligibility restrictions. These latter provisions will require further negotiation between the House and Senate so are more likely to be modified or even dropped from the final bill.Note that all of EducationCounsel’s resources related to the Administration’s executive actions are available in one place by clicking here or by clicking on the blue banner at the top of our webpage. Please share any and all of our resources with your networks and others who might find them helpful. Finally, please keep in mind that these developments are sometimes changing rapidly so information may become outdated, and nothing in these resources constitutes specific legal advice. Click here to access Senate Education Budget Reconciliation Bill Summary and Analysis. A PDF version is also available here.

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Last week, Donald Trump Elon Musk to begin dismantling the Department of Education. Though not the only federal entity to face attacks from the new administration, it is the first cabinet-level agency-so far-that Trump has indicated he won't be satisfied to merely kneecap. He and Musk want to completely obliterate it. Of course, dismantling the Department of Education will be devastating for millions of students and families who rely on it for equal access to education and for the funding that the agency sends to state and local school systems each year. Perhaps less obvious, because the department has become so effective, is the core role it plays in financing and regulating education opportunities after high school. Without the Department of Education-or the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), another one of Musk and Trump's -we will undoubtedly see the return of the abusive and extractive for-profit colleges that these agencies have spent years reining in.

The Trump administration's interest in dismantling the Department of Education is one more part of its drive back toward an era of unbridled financial conning. It is about reopening the $1.6 trillion student debt market to profiteers, not optimizing our education system. That much is apparent when looking at Trump's attacks on the Department of Education, which regulates institutions that receive student loan dollars, in the context of other actions to dissolve existing consumer protections, including by shutting down the CFPB. By doing so, this administration is many of the crucial reforms that reined in the sectors that bled students and taxpayers dry for decades-what some might call an efficiency.

Not long ago, for-profit education companies-like the now-defunct ITT Technical Institute , Corinthian Colleges , and Trump University -operated unchecked, coercing and defrauding millions of students with ubiquitous, misleading marketing and fraudulent promises of high returns on investment. They did so while siphoning billions in federal dollars, in many cases specifically targeting populations that were entitled to student aid, including US veterans eligible for funding via the Post-9/11 GI Bill. Trump and Musk don't have a vision for the future of post-high school education in this country. Instead, they see an opportunity to raid another pot of tax money for their own purposes. A world in which there are no federal institutions dedicated to the welfare of students or their families would return us to the time when these companies ran rampant-and so did the fraud.

How the Department of Education Became an Enemy of Financiers

That wasn't always the case. Until 2010, the federal student loan program was a clunky system of privately issued loans that the federal government regulated. Under this system , private lenders had to raise their own capital to issue loans, but the federal government provided subsidies that guaranteed a certain rate of return and backstopped loans when students defaulted on them. During the Great Recession, these lenders, which had a harder time raising their own capital, appealed to Congress, that they'd be unable to issue more loans without additional government help. Without federal intervention, they argued, they'd be forced to renege on students hoping to finance their educations and on the colleges reliant on such student financing. Swayed by these arguments, Congress authorized the Department of Education to purchase the private loans the government had already guaranteed. Though this move the Department of Education's role in student borrowing, it did little to reduce the power of private lenders and servicers or to ease students' debt burdens.

Today, the Department of Education-along with other federal regulators including the CFPB and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)-plays a pivotal role in preventing (and seeking remedy for) the fraudulent behaviors of for-profit colleges, universities, and education companies. This vital role preventing grift and abuse is a through line in agencies that Musk is targeting alongside the Department of Education, including the CFPB and the . These agencies have been so effective that it's easy to forget the arc of for-profit colleges and their demise in the face of more ardent student protections levied by regulators over the past several years.

For-profit colleges were a siphon for federal student aid and a boon to their owners and investors - until the Department of Education and the CFPB cracked down in the 2010s. Though for-profit colleges and trade schools have been around for decades, accreditation requirements and restrictions on financing through federal funds (such as in the original 1944 GI Bill) kept the industry from gaining too much power. The 1990s saw the of publicly traded and private equity-owned for-profit college giants with multiple locations and thousands of students. To maximize profits, these schools kept their labor costs low and their marketing budgets high: A 2012 Senate found the typical for-profit school had a recruiter-to-career-services employee ratio of 10:1. The business model was to get students-and the dollars they borrowed-in the door; delivering on the promises of a secure career was immaterial. This extractive business model combined with the broader phenomenon of " credentialization ," whereby employers began demanding higher levels of educational attainment for a given job, to all but ensure that students and recent graduates accumulated larger and larger debt burdens for relatively little payoff in the labor market.

It's unlikely that a unilateral move by Musk to dismantle the Department of Education-or the CFPB-would hold up in court (both agencies were established through acts of Congress). That's not the point. Trump and Musk's recent actions are an attempt to reverse any and all material relief students and their families have received over the past several years-and to reignite for-profit industries that will take advantage of them with impunity. (In fact, the stocks of some for-profit colleges have already started overperforming .) Without federal institutions that can monitor, regulate, and intervene in private industry, those industries can and will take advantage of individuals and families-and those affected will have nowhere to go to seek relief.

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The Fall of the Department of Education and the Rise of For-Profit Colleges - Roosevelt Institute

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Last week, Donald Trump directed Elon Musk to begin dismantling the Department of Education. Though not the only federal entity to face attacks from the new administration, it is the first cabinet-level agency-so far-that Trump has indicated he won't be satisfied to merely kneecap. He and Musk want to completely obliterate it.

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What happens when the federal government stops funding university research

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What happens when the federal government stops funding university research

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What happens when the federal government stops funding university research : Trump’s Terms

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The federal government has cancelled about 11 billion dollars worth of university research funding, and is threatening to cut more. When the federal government stops funding research, there’s no one else to take on those costs. NPR’s Elissa Nadworny has the story.Support NPR and hear every episode of Trump’s Terms sponsor-free with NPR+. Sign up at plus.npr.org.

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Types of Financial Aid: https://studentaid.gov/resources/types-infographic-accessible

Eligibility for FAFSA:

https://studentaid.gov/sites/default/files/eligibility.pdf

TASFA information:

https://www.highered.texas.gov/students-families/tasfa/

Undocumented “FAFSA” assistance:

https://studentaid.gov/apply-for-aid/fafsa/filling-out/undocumented-students

International “FAFSA” assistance:

https://www.internationalstudentloan.com/resources/financial-aid-for-international-students-usa.php

State Financial Aid Programs:

https://www.nasfaa.org/state_financial_aid_programs

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Learn about the various types of financial aid offered by Federal Student Aid, including grants, loans, and work-study programs.

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Linked is a list by NAICU regarding all executive orders targeting or impacting higher education. While not all EOs have been officially signed into law (some have temporary injunctions by federal courts), here are some key areas and topics:

1. State control of biological sex

2. Ending "illegal discrimination" and restoring merit-based hiring practices

3. Regulation of transgender persons in gendered sports

4. Regulating free speech and prohibiting student demonstrations/protests deemed antisemitic

5. Mass deportations of undocumented immigrants, as well as permitting detentions and operations in sensitive locations (such as college campuses)

6. Educational initiatives being led by states rather than federally/seeking to dismantle the Department of Education

7. Targeting international students and Visa holders by implementing travel bans and scrutinized processes for obtaining Visas

8. Altering accreditations for universities and prohibiting DEI

9. Revoking Biden's EO regarding equity in HBCUs

10. Altering/severely restricting the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program (unclear of impact at this time)

11. Ending COVID-19 vaccine mandates

Other EOs have targeted education as a whole/K-12, including teachings of DEI and expertise of AI.

Other types of EOs include state-initiated, such as Texas GA-44 that prohibits student protests that are antisemitic, having institutions adopt the newly recognized definition of antisemitism, and demands for universities to discipline students found in violation of this EO.

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NAICU - Fact Sheet: Executive Orders Affecting Higher Education

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This executive order focuses on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives and contains four main components:

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The Dept of Education was established in 1979 to oversee federal education laws and programs. In March 2025, Trump issued an excutive order for the current secretary of education to do all within her allowable power to close the department of education: https://www.ncsl.org/state-legislatures-news/details/what-to-know-about-trumps-order-to-close-the-education-department

This executive order has led to a loss of over 2,000 employees, and a cut in over $600 million in grants.

DOE is described as having six main responsibilities:

1. Distributing Formula Block Grants and Student Funding: The vast majority of federal spending provides grant funding to supplement and enhance the educational experiences of low-income students and students with disabilities.

2. Lending to Students in Postsecondary Education: The federal government is the largest lender for postsecondary education.

3. Overseeing Accountability and Quality Assurance: To receive ESEA Title I funding, states agree to administer annual academic assessments, implement an accountability system.

4. Collecting Data, Conducting Research and Providing Technical Assistance: The Institute of Education Sciences collects national education data, funds education research and oversees technical assistance efforts.

5. Fostering Innovation, Improvement and Student Success: Nearly 5% of the department’s budget, approximately $3.8 billion, is allocated to competitive grant programs that support efforts to improve education outcomes.

6. Enforcing Civil Rights Law: The Office of Civil Rights interprets and enforces civil rights laws in schools, which involves investigating complaints of violations.

The administration claims that the goal of closing the DOE is to return more education power to the states. The Secretary of Education said in Part: “Closing the Department does not mean cutting off funds from those who depend on them—we will continue to support K-12 students, students with special needs, college student borrowers, and others who rely on essential programs. We’re going to follow the law and eliminate the bureaucracy responsibly by working through Congress to ensure a lawful and orderly transition.

“With today’s action, we take a significant step forward to give parents and states control over their children’s education. Teachers will be unshackled from burdensome regulations and paperwork, empowering them to get back to teaching basic subjects. Taxpayers will no longer be burdened with tens of billions of dollars of waste on progressive social experiments and obsolete programs." https://www.ed.gov/about/news/press-release/statement-president-trumps-executive-order-return-power-over-education-states-and-local-communities

Implications on the loss of DOE: https://sanford.duke.edu/story/explainer-what-dismantling-department-education-really-means-podcast/

Judge Blocks the closing of DOE: https://www.npr.org/2025/05/22/nx-s1-5407521/trump-education-department-layoffs-injunction

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Trump vs. Harvard & Claims of Antisemitism 

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Trump vs. Harvard & Claims of Antisemitism 

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Trump’s billion-dollar war on Harvard, explained

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Harvard Law professor Noah Feldman says the attack represents an erosion of democratic values: “Ultimately, this is about Trump trying to impose his view of the world on everybody else.”