How DOGE’s funding cuts will affect education

Following President Trump’s March executive order to eliminate the Institute of Museum and Library Services, the Department of Government Efficiency, led by Elon Musk, has targeted the National Endowment for the Humanities, an agency that has been a crucial source of funding for Philadelphia area cultural and educational organizations. 

That happen, because the NEH money was pulled, they would not have been able to have this national competition that students have been working toward for a year unless they were able to fundraise the money,” said Alexandra Klein, the director of government relations at the National Humanities Alliance.

DOGE’s funding cuts affect grants, organizations, museums, and libraries. This would limit opportunities for students and other Americans to earn scholarships and learn from important educational programs.

“We know that there were at least 1,400 grants canceled from the National Endowment for the Humanities by DOGE. A lot of these go to colleges and universities where they're for research projects, and folks are researching literally every topic that you can imagine,” said Klein.

DOGE funding cuts will impact education, reducing the amount of resources seen in and out of schools around the United States. Furthermore, terminating federal contracts will disrupt current programs and the ability to address educational challenges.

“It not only affects us, but will affect opportunities for young people and Pennsylvanians, people in every state, especially in terms of limiting access to free programs in libraries, museums and community centers. It will mean less funding for after school activities like art, writing, and history, fewer grant opportunities for college students and for research,” Katz said.

Demilade Ojo, a senior at Carver HSES who has interned for the Penn Museum and seen firsthand how the youth benefits from free educational experiences, condemns the funding cuts.

“I feel like the funding cuts are really bad, and a lot of the institutions need this funding to keep up their programs and also to be able to reach out to kids and give them the opportunity to visit museums,” said Ojo. “I think museums should not be cut. Funding should not be cut.”

As DOGE and the Trump administration's funding cuts affect organizations and projects, the organizations are using their efforts to fight back. They are using methods like collaboration, lobbying Congress, and campaigns to spread public awareness about their funding and grants being taken away.

“PA Humanities is fighting back with legal and advocacy efforts. We have a campaign that is live on our website if people want to visit, pahumanities.org/act, there's tools there, there's scripts. People can reach out to elected officials, legislatures, and, you know, raise their voices about and share their stories about the impact of the humanities in their lives,” said Katz. “Teens are courageous activists and can come up with brave and bold ideas that adults often don't think of because we're not teens or much more inhibited or cynical. And so we really need young people.”