The White House’s aggressive push to support technological development within the U.S. has placed technology at the center of nearly every federal agency.
Nowhere is this more evident than in the Department of Education, where AI systems are now replacing staff members. While the Trump administration prioritizes the advancement of AI and technology, it’s inadvertently destroying the future of technological advancement by tearing apart the education system in the U.S.—ironically undermining the very future that innovation is meant to create.
Millions of students are entering college for the first time this fall; navigating summer financial aid deadlines and registering for classes, students are now entering a college atmosphere full of more uncertainty than ever. The Trump administration isn’t just causing concerns for financial aid and international student enrollment, however. Students are now beginning a new era of corrupted education—one with an infrastructure increasingly driven by artificial intelligence.
The Timeline of DOGE’s Actions Against the Department of Education
Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, SpaceX, and X (formerly Twitter) and head of the Department of Government Efficiency.
Since its inception this January, Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has made several aggressive efforts to implement artificial intelligence, particularly in the Department of Education. Just weeks after its creation, DOGE employees were feeding sensitive data such as student financial records into AI systems.
By mid-February, claims of replacing thousands of federal student aid call center workers with AI chatbots emerged from DOGE employees. Courts initially permitted DOGE’s data access, but revoked it in March due to national scrutiny over the security issues of replacing humans with Microsoft’s AI systems.
In April, however, the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals court reinstated DOGE’s access to student data–despite the obvious privacy concerns. Now, DOGE has complete access to student data at the DoE, including financial records, social security numbers, home addresses, and more.
As lawsuits mount and lawmakers call for investigation, the consequences of automating critical public services—seemingly without any safeguards or security structure at all—are only beginning to surface. As House Democrats continue to press for transparency regarding DOGE’s operations, Republicans seem terrifyingly complacent as the White House tears apart education, replaces essential personnel with AI, and illegally revokes international students’ rights to education in the U.S.
The current White House administration’s rampant use of AI is representative of its immature attitude toward education: technical ability is easily replaceable, and humans are worth no more than functions in a machine.
What It Means for the Union
By gutting the Department of Education’s workforce and funneling critical student services through untested AI systems, the administration isn’t just calling for concerns regarding security and job opportunities; it’s further signaling to its citizens that it doesn’t value education at all—treating students not as learners, but as line items. In its rush to innovate, the administration is eroding the very foundation of the future it claims to prioritize.
The White House is wrong about one simple fact: technological development isn’t about cost-effectiveness or convenience, it’s about discovery and human progress—and the human aspect isn’t replaceable.
By dismantling the Department of Education, the current administration is not just disrupting public services—it is actively dismantling the infrastructure meant to support the next generation. The U.S. Constitution promises to “form a more perfect union,” a vision rooted in education, humanity, and collective progress—not automation and greed.
That vision is unraveling. When students are treated like replaceable data points and education professionals are thrown away like they’re worthless as learning is reduced to a cost, we are far from perfecting the union—we are completely abandoning it.