Industry groups ‘alarmed’ Education Department cuts may weaken school cybersecurity

Several school and technology-focused advocacy groups are concerned about the Trump administration’s elimination of staffers at the Department of Education’s Office of Educational Technology. They cited worries this week about schools’ cybersecurity and the consequences of undoing progress made in digital learning.

The elimination — part of the larger effort from the Donald Trump administration to curtail the size of the federal workforce — impacted 50% of the Department of Education’s staff and all divisions within the department, the Associated Press reported.

Following the November general election, officials at several state education departments said they were concerned about Trump’s suggestion to completely eliminate the department, and the potential disruptions to grant programs, like Title I-A and Title IV-A, that school districts can use to purchase digital devices and software designed to improve learning for students from low-income families or those with disabilities.

The department’s Office of Educational Technology and its National Education Technology Plan, which it updates annually year, each provide “vital oversight and guidance to ensure equitable access to technology for all students,” Chloe Teboe, director of communications at the Maine Department of Education, told StateScoop last year.

The Consortium for School Networking, said in a news release this week it was “alarmed” by the dissolution of OET and the potentially cascading consequences “for school districts working to implement responsible AI strategies, address digital equity gaps and ensure students can learn safely online.” CoSN also noted that the department’s National Educational Technology Plan and recent AI guidance “risk becoming outdated and unavailable, leaving schools without critical support.”

“Congress created OET to ensure that students, educators and school districts benefit from cutting-edge technology, including artificial intelligence, digital learning tools and cybersecurity resources. Eliminating this experienced team, along with a broader 50 percent staff reduction at the Department of Education, sends a troubling signal about the future of the nation’s longstanding educational technology leadership,” Keith Krueger, CoSN’s chief executive, said in the news release.

Elizabeth Laird, the director of equity in civic technology for the Center for Democracy and Technology, expressed similar concerns about to gutting of the department, OET and its Office of Civil Rights.

“K-12 students and their families now find themselves at greater risk of tech-driven harms, as two of the principal offices that guide schools’ efforts to responsibly use AI and other tech have been decimated,” Laird said in an emailed statement. “This is a major setback for schools, which need to be able to confidently use technology without running afoul of statutory obligations on civil rights and student privacy. As school use of technology spikes, educators need help finding solutions that advance responsible tech use and protect students from harmful uses of their data.”

The worries also come as K-12 cybersecurity efforts over the last several years have become a key part of part of the widespread “whole-of-state” approach to cybersecurity undertaken by state governments, which seeks to use increased collaboration among all levels of government, the education sector, nonprofits and private industry.

But recent cuts hamper such efforts, including the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency’s recent cuts to two information sharing organizations widely used by state and local governments to protect IT and election systems from cyberattacks. CISA completely eliminated funding for the Elections Infrastructure Information Sharing and Analysis Center, or EI-SAC, and this week, the agency announced it cut $10 million in support from the Multi-State ISAC.

Former CoSN Chair Steven Langford, who serves as chief information officer for the Beaverton School District in Oregon, said the cuts to MS-ISAC will also damage schools’ cybersecurity postures.

“CISA and MS-ISAC provide essential cybersecurity resources for the Beaverton School District,” Langford said. “The combination of technical support, security threat awareness and cybersecurity resources are crucial components of our cybersecurity portfolio. Losing services from CISA and MS-ISAC will significantly reduce our ability to remain aware of and respond to cybersecurity threats in the future.”