Welcome back to After the First 100 Days, Inside Higher Ed’s weekly roundup of news from the Hill to the Oval Office. I’m your host, Jessica Blake, Inside Higher Ed’s federal policy reporter.
First, let’s do the numbers. Today marks the end of the 39th week and 270th day of the second Trump administration. The government has been shut down for 17 days and has shown no sign of reopening. Four universities have so far rejected the Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education, the president’s deal for preferential grant treatment. And about 460 employees got laid off at the Education Department last week.
Pink Slips Pile Up: The Education Department, already a shell of its former self, now has just over 2,000 employees. The latest round of layoffs, announced late last week, follows Education Secretary Linda McMahon’s decision in March to fire more than 1,700 of her 4,000 employees.
The Office of Federal Student Aid appears to have avoided any losses in this round of layoffs, but other departments saw deep cuts. The Office for Civil Rights, which had already lost nearly half of its staff, was whittled down even further. The Office of Postsecondary Education, which used to have five subdivisions, is now down to just its policy team. And the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services is essentially gone. (More to come on what that means for colleges and universities next week but I wrote about the cuts of the Office of Postsecondary Education here).
A federal district judge blocked the layoffs for 10 days, but many observers are questioning what good that temporary restraining order—or any lower court ruling, for that matter—will do. In the first round of layoffs, judges from both the district and appellate courts also ruled in favor of federal workers, but the Supreme Court allowed the cuts. Knowing this, multiple legal experts are doubtful the highest court will rule differently this time around.
“The track record for challenging [RIFs] in the courts hasn’t been great,” Emily Merolli, a former department attorney turned founding partner at Sligo Law Group, told reporters. “We still very much consider these offices and these programs to be in immediate danger.”
Compact Watch: The Trump administration’s deal to colleges for supposed preferential treatment isn’t going over very well with institutions. At least, so far.
Of the nine universities Trump originally invited to sign the agreement, four—MIT, Brown, Penn and USC—have publicly rejected the offer, as of 12 p.m. Friday. Even before all nine have responded to the offer (they have until Monday), Trump invited any institution that wants to “return to the pursuit of Truth and Achievement” to sign the compact. So far, none have publicly done so. Leaders at key higher ed groups suggest it should stay that way.
“The administration is reading the writing on the wall that they wouldn’t be able to run the table on the nine and that there would be substantial pushback,” said Ted Mitchell, president of the American Council on Education. “And they didn’t want to own that, so they looked for more buyers.”
Still Closed: All the while, the government shutdown drags on, and the longer it persists, the more disruptive it could become. Faculty researchers have started to report difficulty applying for new grants, and the advisory committee that oversees accreditation agencies had its semiannual meeting bumped back for the second time this year.
We haven’t heard about any glitches in student grant distribution or loan services, but financial aid advocates told me they’re still keeping a close eye on the cash flow.
That’s it for Week 39. Eagle-eyed readers will notice that we changed up the long list of articles that usually runs below this written update. What do you think of it? Do you want the full list back? My editor Katherine wants all your opinions as we continue to make sure this newsletter works for you. (You can reach her at katherine.knott@insidehighered.com, and I’m at jessica.blake@insidehighered.com, just in case.)
As always, if news breaks this afternoon or over the weekend, you can find the latest at InsideHigherEd.com. In the meantime, I’ll be line dancing my cares away and (finally) enjoying the changing of the leaves. Hang in there, and we’ll see you next week!
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