ISU officials “uncertain” about the potential Department of Education shutdown

Photo Courtesy of Getty/J. David Ake

NORMAL, Ill. — Illinois State University officials are unsure of how the Trump administration’s Department of Education shutdown will impact the university and greater field of education

ISU’s School of Teaching and Learning Professor Ben Wellenreiter addressed the uncertainty surrounding the possible closure.

“I have seen, though it’s still really up in the air as to how this is going to happen, that those processes are going to be handed over to another part of the executive branch work,” Wellenreiter said.

A shutdown could have significant consequences for students who rely on federal financial aid, including FAFSA.

“The student loan processes that many of our students rely on for furthering their education are facilitated by the Department of Education,” Wellenreiter said. “Broadly, we’re unsure as to what the overall impact will be for students and for the university community.”

As of March 28, nearly 50% of the department’s workforce had been laid off or given early retirement.

Federal aid is not the only factor at risk. Wellenreiter emphasized that the closure could mean the end of Title IX, which protects individuals from sex-based discrimination in federally funded education programs.

“Things like Title IX enforcement, equity and gender equity in education, Title I grants that serve low-income communities,” Wellenreiter said. “Oversight there really helps level the playing field across states.”

Despite these concerns, the Department of Education announced in a statement on March 11 that it “will continue to deliver on all statutory programs that fall under the agency’s purview, including formula funding, student loans, Pell Grants, funding for special needs students and competitive grantmaking.”

Wellenreiter remains an advocate for students who rely on federal funding.

“I have a hard time believing that federal funding would go away entirely. It might be repackaged. It might look different, have different names to it,” he said.

Supporters of dismantling the Department of Education argue that it could eliminate unnecessary government jobs and reduce taxpayer costs.

“We don’t know how many people are actually needed to execute jobs, and it’s time to find out if it’s been a bloated bureaucracy all along,” said Neal McCluskey, director of the Center for Educational Freedom at the Cato Institute.

Wellenreiter pushed back against this viewpoint.

“I think that there’s a narrative about this bureaucracy, but it’s been my experience that there’s a misunderstanding as to what the U.S. Department of Education actually does,” he said.

He added that the department has been misconstrued in previous years and has lost its clear definition.

“The U.S. Department of Education is a support organization to assist students and universities in the work that they do,” Wellenreiter said. “So as far as a bloated bureaucracy, I really have a hard time understanding how it could be described that way if we don’t have a really clear understanding as to what the Department of Education does.”

The department recently announced the retirement of Chief Operating Officer for the Office of Federal Student Aid Denise Carter, who served 30 years with the organization and was formerly the acting U.S. secretary of education.