The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is a new department within the federal government. It was established by an executive order on January 20, 2025, by President Donald J. Trump.
“From what I have heard about the Department of Government Efficiency it is taking a lot of funding away,” counseling and mental health teacher Justine Lashley said. “DOGE is getting rid of a lot of important programs.”
According to npr.org there has been some confusion surrounding who runs DOGE. President Trump pointed to Elon Musk as the head of DOGE in his joint address to congress on March 4, of this year. However, Musk is not an actual DOGE employee.
“I think Trump is referring to Musk as the head because Elon has a lot of influence in the economy,” sophomore Gavin Coppedge said. “He is a billionaire, so he knows how finance works. He seems like the right choice, because he can make big changes and affect the U.S. easily.”
Although Musk is not a DOGE employee, he does still play a role in the government as a senior advisor to the president. Senior advisors do not have formal government authority, but Musk’s role allows him to voice his opinions and provide advice to the president.
“I think that Trump and Elon have a strange relationship,” junior Masha Warnken said. “Trump definitely has Musk in his pocket and Elon is using Trump in the same way. They feed off of each other in terms of economic and political gain. They are both just trying to further their agendas.”
Initially government officials declined to publicly say who the chairperson of DOGE was. However, according to MSNBC the official head of DOGE is Amy Gleason. According to White House Press Secretary, Gleason is the acting administrator of the new department.
“I think they didn’t announce Amy as the head because no one knows who she is,” junior Paul Commeau said. “Obviously Elon Musk is a very big figure, so Trump addressing him as the executive of DOGE is most likely only for social media. It was also a way to market Trump, especially during his election campaign.”
The main purpose of DOGE is to regulate the government’s resources, time, money, and workers. According to AP News, the department is doing this by laying off employees as well as cutting federal funding to divisions.
“I think that DOGE is improving government efficiency,” Coppedge said. “The United States is not very good at managing finances, so having a department just for improving the countries budget will be helpful. The U.S. is one of the countries with the most debt, and we really need to fix it by getting rid of unnecessary things.”
One Federal agency that has been a main target of budget cuts is the Department of Education (DOE). According to the official DOGE website as of April 1, the DOE is classified as the second highest on the departments official agency efficiency leader board,
“I think that DOGE really shouldn’t be involved with education to begin with,” Warnken said. “I believe that education is one of the most important things in this country. By withholding funding DOGE is enabling Trump to be able to cut the program completely and give education rights back to the states. If that happens it is going to be horrible for a lot of people, especially in Texas where they want to integrate religion into class time.”
The DOE coordinates federal assistance to education and establishes policy for administrators. The department also ensures that programs are providing fair access to all people by enforcing laws that prohibit discrimination in programs that receive federal funding. These policies include the Higher Education Opportunity Act of 2008 and The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. In addition to federal policies the DOE identifies problems in American education by collecting data and overseeing research. Once these issues are identified the DOE draws national attention to them to promote reform.
“I think the way the government sees it is that there is a bunch of spending on things that are not actually beneficial to education,” Commeau said. “In that case I would agree. The Department of Education’s job is to provide aid to educational programs, and if it is not doing that then it is just spending wastefully.”
To encourage the resignation of DOE employees, DOGE offered the employees up to $25,000 to leave the department before firings occur. This buyout is called the Voluntary Separation Incentive Payment. According to The New York Post out of the 4,000 staff 137 workers have taken the offer.
“Compared to just firing them I think that $25,000 is a good offer,” Commeau said. “I’m not exactly sure how big the DOE is but if they have excess staff then cutting down would be beneficial in terms of government efficiency. By offering them this option it gives the workers a choice.”
According to the DOGE X (formerly known as Twitter) account the department is working with the administrator of the United States Environmental Protection Agency, Lee Zeldin. They are working to cancel Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI) programs and Environmental Justice grants in order to save money.
“Unfortunately I believe the removal of DEI will affect students a lot,” Lashley said. “I think they are going to take a lot of resources away. The Black Student Alliance (BSA) might not even be allowed to be a club next year. I think that this is a way to silence minorities and make sure our opportunities are limited”
Cutting DEI grants has impacted other departments in the federal government. According to Fox News the elimination of these DEI programs have caused the loss of funding for the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS). The IMLS is in charge of managing the grants to Museums and Libraries around the country.
“The slashing of this funding is not good,” Warnken said. “With no funding important libraries and museums could close down. That means we would lose access to resources that teach us about history. Without learning about the goods and the bads of history we are at risk of repeating precious deadly mistakes.”
