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Contact: media@edtrust.org

The Trump Administration Defunds Evidence-Based Student Success Program
Statement from Wil Del Pilar, senior vice president of EdTrust, on the U.S. Department of Education’s announcement to eliminate Fiscal Year 2025 funding for the Postsecondary Student Success Grants (PSSG) and other programs under the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education (FIPSE)

WASHINGTON – The Department of Education announced this week that it would ignore existing congressional directives by diverting $167 million in higher education funding from programs that directly support students into new special projects. This decision unilaterally defunds seven bipartisan programs: the Postsecondary Student Success Grant (PSSG) program, Basic Needs Grants, the Rural Postsecondary and Economic Development Grant Program, HBCU, TCU, and MSI Research & Development Infrastructure Grants, Centers of Excellence for Veteran Student Success Grants, Transitioning Gang-Involved Youth to Higher Education Grants, and Open Textbook Pilot Grants. EdTrust recently released a joint statement from 11 organizations in support of continued funding for the PSSG program.

“This week’s announcement that the U.S. Department of Education would abandon funding for PSSG and other important programs under the Fund for the Improvement of Post Secondary Education (FIPSE) that help improve college access, retention, and completion for students of color and students from low-income backgrounds is deeply disappointing,” said Wil Del Pilar, Ph.D., senior vice president of EdTrust. “Over the course of the last eleven months, the Department has systematically defunded and deprioritized programs and supports designed to improve academic outcomes and eliminate barriers for underserved students. The decision this week to eliminate funding for PSSG, which has been proven to help strengthen completion and employment outcomes and reduce the “skills gap” between available jobs and qualified candidates, is especially concerning given the challenges currently facing students of color and students from low-income backgrounds.

“In response, we support the passage of the Fiscal Year 2026 (FY26) Senate Labor-HHS-ED bipartisan appropriations bill that statutorily directs the Department to administer the prior FIPSE programs funded by Congress. Failing that, we urge the Department to reconsider this decision next year and to restore funding to PSSG and other FIPSE programs for FY26 if given the latitude to do so by another continuing resolution.”

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