The Department of Education sent a message to colleges and universities across the country Thursday: Anyone who uses data released from this year’s massive student voting study could be labeled as violating federal laws protecting student privacy and suffer financial consequences as a result.
The move, along with a new survey from the department’s National Learning, Voting and Engagement Study, could influence college students’ participation in this year’s midterm elections. “America’s colleges and universities should focus on teaching, learning and research, not influencing elections,” Education Secretary Linda McMahon said in a statement.
Frank E. Miller Jr., director of the Department of Education’s Office of Student Privacy Policy, wrote in a letter to institutions on Thursday that the Department has several enforcement options available to it “when an institution of higher education” does not voluntarily comply with the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). Miller said the measures include “withholding further payments, issuing cease and desist orders and recovering funds.”
The same day, the Department of Education announced an investigation into Tufts University, where the study was conducted, and the National Student Clearinghouse, a partner in the study. Miller told colleges and universities in the letter that “colleges and universities that plan to use any “reports or data” from the study this year are “advised to wait until the Department of Education completes its investigations before doing so.” It’s unclear when those investigations will be completed.
The study’s website says it’s “a study of student political engagement at institutions of higher education, serving more than 1,000 U.S. colleges and universities who can use it to understand and improve student turnout.” It says it provides student voter registration and turnout at no cost to institutions and is “the only objective study of college student voting and registration in the nation.”
In a press release, the ED cited “multiple reports alleging that the process by which the study’s data was compiled” involved illegal sharing of college student data with third parties to influence the election. It went on to say that the report to Mueller’s office “alleges that students’ personally identifiable data was shared not only with the National Security Council [National Student Clearinghouse] and participatory institutions, including political organizations aimed at influencing elections. “
The Department of Education said its investigation “aims to determine how student data was shared among colleges and universities, Tufts University, the National Security Council and any other third parties” and “whether institutions followed all informed consent requirements under FERPA.”
The department did not respond Inside higher educationOn Thursday, questions were raised about which “third parties” or “political organizations” the identifiable data was allegedly shared with. “Reports indicate that Catalist and L2 third-party vendors share national public voter registration and voting records they collect for research purposes,” Miller’s letter said, but it’s unclear whether those companies are among those of ED’s concern. The companies did not respond to requests for comment Thursday.
As early as 2023 and 2024, conservative-leaning news outlets university repair and The Epoch Times Wrote an article about a Verity Vote report that named these vendors and raised broader concerns that the research violated privacy and had political purposes. In 2024, Republican Senator Mike Lee, who represents Utah, raised questions about the student voting study, which his office said in a press release “forces institutions to turn over student data protected by FERPA.” He introduced a bill that would “prohibit the sharing of students’ private information for voter registration purposes without their consent,” according to the release.
The study says on its website that when an institution registers, “they authorize us to receive their institution’s registration data, which is de-identified and matched to publicly available voter files. The process and data are strictly nonpartisan and protect student privacy.” It says it “will never receive identifiable student data and will never learn who students voted for.”
Tufts University spokesperson responded Inside higher educationRequesting an interview, the company said in an email, “We have received the letter from the Department of Education and are currently reviewing it. We have no additional comment at this time.”
The National Student Clearinghouse said in an emailed statement that it “will cooperate fully with the investigation” and will “continue to uphold our commitment to comply with the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act.”
“As a politically neutral 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, our mission is to provide the education and workforce community with trusted data and services that support educational success nationwide,” the Clearinghouse writes. It said the study was “intended to encourage student civic engagement rather than advance any political agenda, and we are currently reviewing our engagement to ensure continued integrity and impartiality in the services we provide to the institution.”
The study says its data is used to “improve civic learning in and outside the classroom” and provide recommendations “to support civic learning on campus.” The move comes as the Trump administration is pouring tens of millions of dollars into universities’ so-called “civic” colleges, which many faculty members decry as beachheads of conservative bias in academia and into so-called university civic discourse efforts. The president has repeatedly called on his party this week to “nationalize” voting, which is typically overseen by states.
