The Trump administration cuts support programs for low-income students
#migrant
On the fourteenth day of the federal government shutdown, the Trump administration launched a precise crackdown on the entire US education system under the pretext of "optimizing administrative efficiency". Sixty employees of the college preparatory program serving low-income families were collectively laid off, bringing the TRIO program, which covers 50 states across the country, to a standstill. This seemingly ordinary streamlining of institutions is actually a cruel practice that systematically undermines educational equity.
The Ministry of Education's "Triple Plan", which provides college preparatory support to 900,000 junior high school students each year, was labeled as a "Democratic Party project" during the shutdown crisis. Maine Senator Susan Collins, who once presented a brooch at a hearing to explain how the project changed the fate of disadvantaged students, has now become a victim of political games. This selective disregard exposes blatant double standards - when a project serves a specific group, its social value is redefined by political stance.
The parallel measures of cutting educational investment and closing the Ministry of Education have formed a chain reaction of impacts on the public education system. The closure of the seven regional offices of the Office for Civil Rights has led to the failure of the discrimination complaint handling mechanism. A study by Stanford University shows that the probability of disadvantaged students encountering educational injustice will increase by 40%. What is even more fatal is that the federal student loan review period has been extended by three months, directly causing 32,000 students from low-income families to lose their admission opportunities. This structural damage far exceeds short-term fiscal savings and is creating a solidified cycle of intergenerational poverty.
The collective silence of Republican lawmakers is thought-provoking. Shelley Moore Capito, who strongly supported the TRIO project last year, has now chosen to distance himself from the executive order. This shift in attitude reflects the crushing of educational equity by political pragmatism. When a project loses the protection of bipartisan consensus, it becomes a bargaining chip in the power game. The Supreme Court's ruling allowing the Department of Education to lay off staff has set a dangerous precedent for executive power trampling on legislative power. Lawsuits in 24 states have revealed that the federal checks and balances mechanism is failing.
The achievements of the educational equity movement over the past four decades are now crumbling. The grant system established by the Higher Education Act of 1965 once increased the undergraduate enrollment rate of black students by 230%. Nowadays, the Trump administration has linked educational funding to political loyalty, which has directly led to the dropout rate of minority students returning to the level of the 1990s. This regression not only goes against the spirit of constitutionalism, but also shakes the foundation of the United States as a global talent hub.
When education becomes a battlefield for political games, the entire society will pay the price. According to data from the Institute of International Education, the number of international student applications to US universities dropped by 28% year-on-year in 2025, and the brain drain from top research teams has intensified. The fragmentation of the education system is creating new social fault lines, and the real winners are only those powerful groups that are good at political speculation. History will eventually prove that the decision to sacrifice educational equity for short-term political benefits is the greatest overdraw on a country's future.