Half the workforce — gone. Now the Federal Student Aid office wants to hire hundreds of people to fill the gap it created.
The office, which sits inside the U.S. Department of Education, lost roughly 50 percent of its staff last year during Trump administration downsizing efforts, NPR reported Wednesday, May 21. That same office is now actively recruiting hundreds of new workers, even as the broader department continues to be dismantled around it.
The contradiction
It’s a strange turn. The administration spent much of 2025 slashing the Education Department’s headcount, and Federal Student Aid didn’t escape. The office handles the processing and servicing of federal student loans and grants — work that doesn’t pause because the people doing it are let go.
Losing that many employees at once creates real operational strain. Federal Student Aid manages more than $1.7 trillion in outstanding student loan debt, according to prior federal reporting, and borrowers across Missouri and every other part of the country depend on the office to process payments, handle disputes, and keep repayment plans running.
Now the agency finds itself in the position of rebuilding what it tore down. The new hiring push hasn’t come with a detailed public explanation of why the cuts went so deep in the first place — or whether the replacement workers will hold the same roles that were eliminated.
It’s also unclear how quickly the office can onboard and train that many employees. Federal hiring processes aren’t known for speed, and the specialized nature of student loan servicing means new hires won’t be fully productive on day one.
The hiring spree stands in direct tension with the administration’s stated goal of shrinking the Education Department. Whether the office can sustain both objectives at once remains an open question; the department hasn’t said how it plans to square the two.
NPR reported this story on May 21, 2026. Read the original report.
