CHARLOTTE, N.C. (QUEEN CITY NEWS) — Since taking office President Donald Trump and his administration have taken several steps to cut the federal workforce, funding to programs and overall government spending.
This week Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, also known as DOGE, is taking aim at the Department of Education.
On Saturday, a group of Democratic lawmakers were denied entry to the department’s headquarters in Washington D.C.
“To see a member of Congress or multiple members get turned away… I’ve just never seen anything like it,” UNC Political Science Professor Chris Cooper said.
The lockout came just one day after a group of students sued the Department of Education, claiming it gave DOGE access to loan borrowers’ private information.
The federal lawsuit, filed by the University of California Student Association claims DOGE violated privacy laws and federal regulations by infiltrating computer systems that house the personal data of over 42 million people.
“It appears that DOGE… these are people that were not elected to office, that are essentially government contractors are getting access to individual financial information of American citizens. I know we say ‘unprecedented’ a lot, but this is one really is truly unprecedented at least in recent memory,” Cooper said.
Given that the lawsuit was filed by a student association, Queen City News reached out to the UNC Association of Student Governments asking if it to plans to file any legal action.
“At this time, the Association has no plans to take any legal action against DOGE. However, we will continue to monitor how decisions at the federal level affect the more than 247,000 students in the University of North Carolina System. Our organization is dedicated to ensuring that student privacy, safety, success, and well-being are at the forefront of all decisions made at the system level,” UNC ASG president Cameron Brown said in a statement.
The lawsuit filed Friday by the University of California Student Association is looking to block the DOGE team from accessing or viewing any more private information at the Department of Education.
