According to Amemo, the White House placed a halt on federal grants and loans on Monday. However, the Department of Education stated that the freeze would not impact student loans or college financial aid.
There is an exception for Social Security and Medicare in the freeze, which could impact billions of dollars in funding. The email states that help given directly to people is not included in the pause.
According to Matthew J. Vaeth, interim director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, the delay allows the White House to examine government funding for initiatives that don’t align with President Donald Trump’s policy agenda.
Financial support for international aid, non-governmental groups, DEI, awakened gender ideology, and the green new deal were all particularly mentioned in the document.
What student aid may be affected
According to the U.S. Department of Education, student loans and federal Pell Grants would not be impacted by the ban on federal aid. Additionally, it has no impact on the Free Federal Student Aid Application for the next academic year.
Education Department spokesperson Madi Biedermann said in a statement that the temporary halt has no bearing on Title I, IDEA, or other formula programs, nor does it apply to Federal Pell programs and Direct Loans under Title IV [of the Higher Education Act].
Title I offers financial aid to school districts with children from low-income households in addition to the federal financial aid programs covered by Title IV. Students with disabilities can get money through the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, or IDEA.
According to Biedermann, the funding freeze exclusively affects the Department of Education’s discretionary grants. Department leadership will examine these to make sure they match with the aims of the Trump Administration.
According to higher education analyst Mark Kantrowitz, the suspension may have an impact on federal work-study programs and the Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant, which are given to universities in large quantities for students to receive.
He noted that even that help might not be impacted because many universities have already depleted their spring quarter funding. He said that it might still have an impact on grants given to researchers, which frequently include money for graduate research assistantships.
Why the freeze caused confusion
Karen McCarthy, vice president of public policy and federal relations at the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators, stated that although the memo states that aid given directly to individuals is not covered by the funding pause, it is unclear if this includes funds sent to institutions, states, or organizations before being given to students.
McCarthy stated that the halt would not impact the majority of federal financial assistance programs, which are classified as Title IV funding and designated for individual students; however, it is unclear how the pause would impact all other aid programs outside of Title IV. Since campus-based aid programs receive different funding, we are also looking into the effects on them, she said.
Naturally, there are a lot of questions when you have programs that serve 20 million students, according to Jonathan Riskind, a vice president of the American Council on Education. This degree of uncertainty is extremely harmful to both students and institutions.
The American Council on Education’s president, Ted Mitchell, urged the Trump administration to withdraw the document.
According to him, this is poor public policy that would directly affect the funding for research and students. The damage will increase with the length of time this continues.