March 19, 2026
Media contact: Dorie Turner Nolt, dorie.turner@gmail.com, 404-861-1127
American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) Local 252, which represents more than 2,000 current and former employees at the U.S. Department of Education, released the following statement from AFGE Local 252 President Rachel Gittleman:
“The Trump Administration continues to unlawfully dismantle the Education Department by moving programs and offices to other federal agencies despite clear warning from Congress that Education Secretary Linda McMahon lacks the authority to do so. Today’s announcement attempts to transfer the administration of the entire student loan system, including the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA, to the U.S. Treasury Department. Since Secretary McMahon took over, the agency has fired or pushed out nearly half of Federal Student Aid’s workforce, leading to the Government Accountability Office warning that the majority of federal student loan servicers running the government’s $1.7 trillion student loan portfolio have been repeatedly breaking the law without staff oversight.
So far, the interagency agreements moving both career and technical programs and postsecondary education programs to the Department of Labor have sown chaos for states and grantees, preventing Congressionally mandated funding from going out on time and hamstringing federal employees who are trying to do their jobs on behalf of the public. This isn’t efficiency — Secretary McMahon is creating confusion, eroding public trust, and harming students and families. This is an insult to the nearly 43 million Americans with federal student loan debt and to the taxpayers who depend on federal oversight to prevent waste, fraud, and abuse.”
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AFGE Local 252 