A MART脥NEZ, HOST:
The U.S. Department of Education says that despite laying off nearly half its staff, it will continue to deliver all the programs that are protected by law. Federal student aid is the biggest division within the department. It's also the unit that saw the biggest cuts - more than 320 staff members on the list that was sent to the union and shared with NPR. Education scholar Beth Akers is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. That's a conservative-leaning think tank. So, Beth, with the Education Department making all those cuts, will it be able to effectively manage and collect student loans?
BETH AKERS: Oh, I'd say that's a great question. I'm definitely of the mind that there was a lot of streamlining, even reimagination of the agency that was really necessary. I'd say that my first reaction to this move is that this is a really aggressive first step, and this was a deep cut. And, you know, I'm really anxious and quite honestly concerned to see whether or not the department is going to be able to follow through and be able to execute all of the programs, including federal student aid.
MART脥NEZ: You said aggressive. Too aggressive, too quickly?
AKERS: I think time will tell. You know, as I said, I think there was plenty of room to make cuts, and I think most people both sides of the aisle who have worked with this agency feel like there was need for significant reform. The thing that gives me some confidence that we'll be able to work through this is that we have seen the administration backtrack when cuts have been too deep. So I think time will tell whether or not they're able to move forward and execute these programs effectively with these cuts. And if they don't, I do expect that we'll see them bringing new staff or old staff back on to make the programs work again.
MART脥NEZ: How much time, and what will we know? Like, what will happen that we will say, oh, that's - no, it's too much?
AKERS: There's a few things. So I think first we'll see student loan borrowers, of course, looking to see whether or not they're getting continuous servicing on their loans. You know, with the FAFSA coming up, we'll see students encountering potential challenges with that as they did in the last season. We saw some of that briefly yesterday with that website being down. I think that we'll hopefully have an indication sooner rather than later so that the administration can react and bring people back on if necessary. Of course, the concern is that some of these problems kind of linger underneath the surface and kind of pop up when it's too late to correct them in time, you know, for the upcoming school years.
MART脥NEZ: How much of a danger is there, Beth, that maybe student loans go uncollected, so, like, a de facto unintended forgiveness?
AKERS: Well, I'd say from a student perspective, that probably wouldn't be the worst thing. I think from a policy perspective, of course, that's something that I'm worried about. I certainly hope that behind the scenes, there is a strong plan in place. A lot of us have envisioned a transferring of student loan collection over to the treasury. I can imagine that that's happening, even though that's not part of the public discourse right now. And, you know, we'll have to just sort of wait and see.
MART脥NEZ: What does this mean, though, in general, for students who are maybe thinking about applying for assistance right now?
AKERS: I'd say if you're applying for college, if you want to fill out the FAFSA, as always, do it as early as possible. There were always problems with the FAFSA. It's always been a complex process. So I'd say be excessively vigilant in making sure that you're ahead of your deadlines and getting things done as quickly as you can, you know, to head off any potential disruptions in the process.
MART脥NEZ: Is it reasonable, you think, Beth, to argue that, even though this feels for a lot of people to be a shock and maybe too rough, and maybe, as you said, maybe too aggressive, that this is the only way?
AKERS: I think a lot of people who are advocating for this change do feel like this is the only way. We've seen Republican and Democratic administrations make a commitment to streamlining the bureaucracy, and they've all failed with the sort of incremental efforts that feel normal. So I think it's a defensible position to say that this is the only way. We need to sort of blow it up and then rebuild as necessary. So I don't know if it's what I would have done, but I think it's certainly a defensible take.
MART脥NEZ: Real quick - just about 20 seconds - how likely is it that these dismissals will face legal challenges?
AKERS: I'm pretty confident we will face legal challenges on these, and we'll just see how those play out.
MART脥NEZ: All right. That's Beth Akers of the American Enterprise Institute. Beth, thank you very much.
AKERS: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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