Department of Education
A DOGE delegation arrived at the Department of Education only a week after the Inauguration, and in early February there were reports of up to 10 DOGE staffers embedded within the agency and feeding data to an AI system for analysis. DOGE’s primary mission at the Department of Education is to support the administration’s goal of eliminating the agency without needing approval from Congress. DOGE has contributed both its antipersonnel practicea and a tight control over spending, axing many key contracts in February for assessing the performance of American schools. These efforts have met some resistance in the courts, but DOGE is very much embedded in the Trump administration’s war on education.
Positions
| Position | Date | Person |
|---|---|---|
|
DOGE ED
1/28
|
detail (NTE 2026-07-04) court doc | |
|
ED
1/31
|
[as ED-02] appointed Senior Advisor, Office of the Secretary (Regular C, GS-15/6, $195,200) | |
|
OPM ED
2/03
|
[as ED-01] detail (NTE 2026-02-12) | |
|
ED
2/04
|
[as ED-04] consultant (NTE 2025-08-04, volunteer) | |
|
DOGE ED
2/05
|
detail «info from a govt legal filing» court doc | |
|
GSA ED
2/12
|
[as ED-03] detail (NTE 2026-02-26) | |
|
GSA ED
2/20
|
detail | |
|
DOGE ED
2/20
|
likely detailed | |
| No Start Date Known | ||
| ED | Jennifer Balajadia | |
Systems
| System | Dates | Access |
|---|---|---|
| FMS |
A system that consolidates grants, loans and work-study funds for students under Title IV of the Higher Education Act
|
Events
| Agency | Date | Event |
|---|---|---|
|
2/03
|
Sighting:
Twenty DOGE staff are reportedly within the Department of Education and “have gained access to multiple sensitive internal systems, including a financial aid dataset that contains the personal information for millions of students enrolled in the federal student aid program.”
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2/05
|
||
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2/06
|
Access:
The Washington Post reports that DOGE is feeding Department of Education data into an AI system hosted in Microsoft Azure
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2/08
|
Access:
NBC News reports that Akash Bobba and Ethan Shaotran have admin access to email and had also accessed the backend admin for the Department of Education website.
|
|
|
2/11
|
Legal:
In a court filing, the Department of Education agreed to block DOGE from access to financial aid systems.
|
|
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2/13
|
Directory:
A story on a proposal to use AI at the Department of Education lists several DOGE staffers identified there within the last few weeks.
|
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2/14
|
Disruption:
After a conservative account complained to Musk on Twitter about gender options on the FAFSA form, it was changed the same day (a change was already on the roadmap, but multiple contractors were called in to rush it)
|
|
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2/18
|
Legal:
A federal judge denied an attempt to block DOGE from accessing Department of Education systems related to financial aid
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2/24
|
Legal:
In a ruling, a judge declared “DOGE affiliates have been granted access to systems of record that contain some of the plaintiffs’ most sensitive data - Social Security numbers, dates of birth, home addresses, income and assets, citizenship status, and disability status - and their access to this trove of personal information is ongoing”
|
|
| March 2025 | ||
|
3/01
|
Report:
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) starts an audit of how DOGE handled data at several agencies
|
|
|
3/24
|
||
| April 2025 | ||
|
4/07
|
Legal:
In a 2-1 vote, the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals lifted a stay against DOGE data access at the Treasury, OPM and Department of Education imposed in the case American Federation of Teachers v. Bessent (D. Maryland 2025)
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4/12
|
Interagency:
Emailing from his CFPB account, Jeremy Lewin shares the documentation for the upcoming CFPB RIF with DOGE staff posted at several agencies. It’s unclear if they are representing their individual agencies or DOGE in the communication.
|
|
| May 2025 | ||
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5/16
|
Disruption:
GOP proposals that would cut student loans and increase debt collection would require new technical capacity and policy that the Department of Education is unlikely to accomplish after many recent cuts and the elimination of technical staff by DOGE
|
Questions
- Is it true that Adam Ramada accessed only one system at the Department of Education and only for a single day?
In sworn testimony, an employee at the Department of Education affirmed that Adam Ramada was the only person from DOGE with system access, that he was only granted access to the FMS system, and that he only used that access once