By ELISA TURNER
It’s FAFSA time, folks, as we all know from the email from the financial aid office earlier this month.
Last year, the FAFSA was reworked in order to make it shorter and more convenient for students to fill out. Though the federal aid actually distributed varies wildly from thousands of dollars to eleven raspberries and a nickel, the FAFSA is a prerequisite for school-awarded scholarship eligibility.
President Donald Trump, however, has made his intention to eliminate the Department of Education clear. What does that mean for those of us who rely upon federal student aid in order to receive higher education? What does that mean for those of us, here, at Beloit College?
From the White House, there hasn’t been one clear, direct answer. By March 11, 2025, we could’ve speculated infinitely after DoE staff was nearly cut in half, and the studentaid.gov website went down. On March 20, 2025, press secretary Karoline Leavitt claimed that student loans and Pell grants would “still be run out of the Department of Education.” This claim was contradicted by Trump a day later, who said the Small Business Administration would have dominion over student loans.
In the wise words of a January email from Robin Zebrowski, professor of cognitive science at Beloit College, “Right now it’s all chaos and questions, and this is how the Trump administration prefers to operate, so it may not change.”
Professionals, executives, and people more qualified than me have theorized, speculated, and made educated guesses as to what this horse loose in a hospital could realistically do to permanently impact how our education is funded amidst a time in the U.S. job economy where a bachelor’s degree is a prerequisite for a living wage.
Like a gaggle of worn-out parents, they have cautiously agreed “hey, let’s let him run around ‘till he tires himself out– there’s no way he could actually do anything. We have, like, laws in place to prevent that.”
It’s been argued that the FAFSA is so integral to American higher education, removing it would be impossible.
So, if we think of Donald Trump as a toddler in a candy shop without an attendee, we can be calm with the knowledge that he’ll give up sooner or later, whenever he gets a tummy-ache. But he’s not a child, he is the president of a nation. And using child psychology on a world leader in a GOP trifecta within the government, hoping that preexisting statues will get in this “teehee gimme term 3 electric boogalee” maniac, underestimates this man, and undermines the bullshit he did the first time around.
Featured image: Education Next
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