For advocates of opportunity and equity in education, the first two months of the new administration have been disheartening and overwhelming, to say the least. With so many executive actions, many of which are legally questionable and tied up in courts, it’s hard to track all the issues. Most importantly, it’s difficult to stay in touch with the many ways these actions are already affecting, and threaten to affect, the lives of students, educators, and families. While there are too many impacts to cover here (for those looking for comprehensive lists, we recommend NCAN’S Federal Policy Action Center and the Hechinger Report’s Tracker), we wanted to highlight the main threats facing the postsecondary access and success community:

College affordability:

• By moving to close the Education Department and shifting student loans to the Small Business Administration, the administration is putting the loans of 45 million Americans at risk. According to TICAS, with such a rash change, “system failure is inevitable.”
• The administration has put the availability of income-driven repayment plans in flux and is moving to end public service loan forgiveness for employees of non-profits it ideologically opposes.
• Finally, the Pell Grant program faces a multi-billion dollar budget shortfall and, without support from congress, could hold back countless students from pursuing college.

Funding for postsecondary access work:

• The federal government has not made direct cuts to K12 funding, but cuts are likely on the table this year.
• Layoffs at the Education Department risk the proper disbursement of existing funds, and New York recently sued over $363 million in funding that it hasn’t received.
• Like it has done with colleges, the administration has threatened to withhold funding from specific districts with policies it opposes.
• All these actions will have negative impacts on K12 schools, and we are particularly worried about the harm to postsecondary access – when there were budget cuts at the start of the pandemic, postsecondary access work was among the first things to go.

Attacks on vulnerable students:

• So far, the most direct impacts of the administration’s attacks on DEI have been outside NY, with several states passing legislation to ban DEI initiatives and campuses removing scholarships and centers for students of color and LGBTQ students (see the Chronicle’s useful tracker).
• The administration’s deportation campaign has led many undocumented students to stay at home, and some states have eliminated in-state tuition for undocumented students.
• As was noted far back as late 2024, mixed-status families are also affected: legal residents with a parent who is undocumented are increasingly cautious to apply for FAFSA out of a fear that tax information could be shared with ICE.

Along with so much else, the postsecondary landscape is changing on a daily basis, and will undoubtedly continue to do so in the months ahead. From CARA’s perspective, it is clear that these policies present a real threat to opportunity for the students we serve. No matter what comes next, we are committed to keeping ourselves and our partners aware of new policies, listening to and lifting up the voices of practitioners and young people, and working in community with schools and postsecondary access organizations.