The US Department of Education, in Washington, D.C.,Graeme Sloan/SIPA USA/AP
On Thursday, the Washington Post reported that Elon Musk’s DOGE fed sensitive data into artificial intelligence software as a way to help decide which of the Department of Education’s programs were wasteful, to try and slash its budget.
President Donald Trump is expected to soon release an executive order that would reduce education spending as much as possible while recognizing that he cannot get rid of the department itself. That can only be done by an act of Congress—Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) recently reintroduced such a bill in the House.
As I previously reported, the Department of Education plays a crucial role in making sure disabled kids receive the same access to education across states, and distributes funding for the needed accommodations. Disabled people are used to being told that those accommodations are too expensive, which is one cause for concern with DOGE’s use of AI for this purpose.
Ariana H. Aboulafia, who leads disability rights efforts for the DC-based nonprofit Center for Democracy & Technology, says it’s important to remember that federal funding for students with disabilities is crucial in ensuring they have fair access to learning. “Any efforts to use unproven, AI-driven technology to make funding cuts could lead to excessive harm to this community,” she told me. “In this instance, it is unclear whether the AI model in question even works for this purpose, but it does appear to raise serious security questions given the sensitivity of the data that is being shared.”
AI is not a neutral source, and research has indicated that it has ableist biases. For instance, a 2024 study found that ChatGPT gave a lower score to resumes that indicated a disability. “Many cuts to the Department of Education, whether they are determined through the use of AI models or human decision-making,” Aboulafia says, “will have a disproportionate and significant impact on students with disabilities.”
