Tennessee Tech could largely be impacted if President Trump follows through with an executive action to dismantle the Department of Education.
Education and Human Sciences Department Chair Jeremy Wendt said Tennessee Tech is keeping a close eye on the development. Wendt said if the Department of Education closes then student loans would likely have to be put on hold.
“Any break in service or repayment or funding for those would be problematic,” Wendt said. “You know if a student didn’t have access to financial aid then they wouldn’t be able to enroll in classes because they couldn’t afford it.”
Wendt said a large portion of students at Tennessee Tech use student loans in order to attend college and that it would hurt the university financially. Wendt said students could turn to private loans however, for some students private loans are not an option.
“Private loans are not as good of an option,” Wendt said. “You know interest rates are a lot higher and so a federal student loan at three percent interest versus going to a bank and getting a loan for 10 or 12 percent interest is not really sustainable.”
Wendt said the federal government did not form the Department of Education until the 1970s. Several functions were formerly under other departments. Wendt said there are discussions that the Department of Education would close but the services and programs would not.
“One of the ways to keep services moving would be reassigning those duties to other areas in the government and I know that’s been one of the discussions,” Wendt said. “So obviously our hope would be that many of our processes and procedures will continue on without a lot of challenges you know or hiccups to continue just say student loans in general.”
Wendt said a lot of the controversy with the Department of Education has centered around the curriculum and other controversial topics. Wendt said some people may not even realize that the Department of Education plays a huge role in education at the university level.
