Bush-era Education secretary wary about FAFSA disruptions as department faces dismantling

Plans to dismantle the Department of Education could rattle operations for incoming college students launching into enrollment season, according to former President George W. Bush’s Education secretary. 

While President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Thursday to scale down the Department of Education, he also promised that programs that oversee financial aid and resources for children with special needs would remain in place. They would, instead, fall under other agencies, he said. 

However, Margaret Spellings, who oversaw the agency from 2005 to 2009, said shuttering and realigning certain functions of the Education Dept. would not be a seamless transition – and it is unclear whether there is enough staffing to properly process all the necessary materials as students commit to colleges for the fall. 

“It’s college enrollment season, and are our universities – as the customer service part of that operation – going to be able to timely get information about financial aid packages and so on?” Spellings, now the president and CEO of the Bipartisan Policy Center, asked Fox News Digital. “Will half the people be able to do all the work? Time will tell. So that’s an immediate concern.”

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The Department of Education’s Office of Federal Student Aid processes over 17.6 million Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) forms annually, according to its 2024 report. Additionally, the office previously employed roughly 1,400 personnel. 

However, given the dramatic cuts to staffing, it is unclear how many are currently assigned to that office. Prior to signing the executive order to overhaul the Education Dept., the agency also moved to cut staffing by roughly half. 

Spellings also predicted transferring the different functions of the Education Dept. to other agencies would prove “disruptive,” because it would involve potentially training new employees and merging various data systems. As a result, she cautioned, it could detract from focusing on student achievement. 

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“I fear we’ll take our eye off the ball, which is keeping student achievement before us, as opposed to harmonizing data systems, reassigning employees, training new ones who know nothing about the purpose of the thing,” Spellings said. “Whether there’s evidence that the Department of Labor or [the Department of Health and Human Services] are a vanguard of good management – it’s a little bit of a head scratcher to me.” 

Spellings pointed to the creation of the Department of Homeland Security in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks to bolster national security efforts and prevent additional terrorist attacks, which Bush signed into law in November 2002. Ultimately, creating the new agency integrated 22 other previously existing departments or agencies, including the Coast Guard and the Customs Service and Border Patrol. 

However, merging all these agencies together proved a taxing endeavor, according to Spellings. 

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“That required lots of different functions from various agencies to come together, to have common technology systems, to have visibility across work streams and so on and so on,” Spellings said. “It was complicated and time-consuming, and furthermore expensive.”

Meanwhile, a Gallup poll released in February shows that Americans’ satisfaction with the state of education has declined sharply over the past decade. The poll found that only 24% of Americans are satisfied with the quality of education in the U.S. as of January 2025, compared to 37% in January 2017.

Trump’s decision to nix the agency did not come as a surprise; the president has routinely discussed plans to eliminate it. 

Additionally, proponents of shutting down the agency have cited the “Nation’s Report Card,” the 2024 National Assessment of Educational Progress, released every two years, published Jan. 27. The exam tests fourth and eighth grade students and found almost stagnant math scores for eighth graders compared to 2022. Reading scores dropped two points at both grade levels.

A White House fact sheet on the executive order said it seeks to “turn over education to families instead of bureaucracies” and orders Education Secretary Linda McMahon to “take all necessary steps to facilitate the closure of the Department of Education and return education authority to the States, while continuing to ensure the effective and uninterrupted delivery of services, programs, and benefits on which Americans rely.”

The White House referred Fox News Digital to the Department of Education when asked for comment. The Department of Education did not immediately reply to a request for comment from Fox News Digital.