From high school seniors planning for the next step of their lives to conservationists desperately fighting to save Hawai‘i’s vanishing ecosystems, President Trump’s executive order on March 21, 2025 had ripples of consequences far beyond Washington D.C. This order, dubbed the National Academic and Scientific Funding Adjustment Act, aimed to streamline federal spending by turning over the oversight of educational and environmental programs to state governments. Therefore, in doing so, it has dismantled national financial aid foundations and decreased funding for research. Such decisions have jeopardized college accessibility for thousands and threaten the protection of Hawai‘i’s fragile ecosystem and native species.

The Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) serves as a lifeline for students of low-income backgrounds and provides them with a gateway to higher education. However due to recent cuts, the U.S. The Department of Education has made support increasingly unstable and unreliable. Across the nation, students are reporting significant delays in FAFSA processing, reducing Pell Grant eligibility, and even confusion regarding their new site and forms. Without clear guidance or funding guarantees, students are forced to act on life-altering decisions based on incomplete, shortage of financial support. A senior at ‘Iolani expressed, “I picked my schools based on the financial aid packages, not because it was my first or second choice”. According to the ‘Iolani College Counseling Office, 38% applied to 10+ schools, often hoping to obtain a better financial aid package. As 83% of ‘Iolani students attend mainland schools, affordability becomes an undeniable driving factor. These kinds of stories are becoming more and more common, as students from under represented or low income communities face the front of these delays, the college they attend often comes down to affordability rather than fit. Not to mention rising tuition costs combined with an increasingly shrinking pull of aid, the college ‘Iolani students choose to attend is less of a preference and more about survival. 

The executive order’s impact extends well beyond the classroom. Federal research programs and the academic research community that once propelled innovation in fields such as sustainability, biotechnology and climate science are now grappling with severe funding gaps. Grant programs like the National Science Foundation (NSF), National Institute of Health, and NOAA’s B-WET (Bay Watershed Education & Training) were placed under stricter review or completely stripped. This strip in funds varies from grant cycles being frozen, review processes delayed and proposals deprioritized. In Hawaii, the loss of a $120,000 grant from NOAA B wet was particularly devastating, as this funding previously supported hands-on science education and research mentorship for students across the islands. “That grant supported our biggest marine science outreach. We had students doing field research, studying coastal ecosystems, and collecting bad diversity data. Now the entire program is gone,” said Dr. Yvonne Chan, a scientist and educator involved in Iolani’s environmental research community. The impact has been especially harmful for projects centered around women and minorities in STEM. Dr. Chan continues, “Words like ‘minority’ or ‘diversity’ in grant applications are now flagged. One of our women-in-STEM proposals never even made it out of draft.” With high uncertainty revolving around future opportunities, researchers fear a possible decline in both innovation and representation.

Nowhere are these budget cuts more visible and significant than in Hawai‘i’s conservation wildlife protection sector. The Hawaiian Islands are home to over 400 endangered species, highlighting us as one of the most ecologically sensitive regions in the United States, however, preservation efforts are decreasing due to understaffing, halted, monitoring, projects and a drastic decline in volunteer engagement. Ms. Joanna Kobayashi, a long time conservationist and researcher at ‘Iolani School, expresses that at the Moanalua Valley education forest there are only two people maintaining the entire region. Mrs. Joanna Kobayashi says, “We are losing the capacity to monitor nests this year. That means we may have lost a whole generation.” The threat is not hypothetical. In 2023 alone, eight native bird species were declared extinct. Experts warn that the Akikiki, one of Hawaii’s rarest birds, may be next. “I’ve devoted my life to saving these birds… and then it’s just wiped out in one administration,” said Dr. Chan. “We’re talking about species we’ll never get back.” 

In the face of federal withdrawal, institutions and individuals have begun and attempted to adapt. Local nonprofits have stepped up with grassroot support, and some faculty positions are being sustained through private donations. However, these prove to just be Band-Aid solutions to such an extensive problem. Amidst budget cuts and salary pulls, Hawai‘i’s academic and environmental communities are taking initiative and showcasing resilience through institutional support and volunteerism. At ‘Iolani, administrative support has ensured that faculty members whose salaries are partially grant-funded have continued to receive pay, stepping in and absorbing the costs that the federal programs once covered. Across the state, private donations to nonprofits and labs have increased, many continuing to work despite the loss of stipends and financial compensation. “Our fellows said ‘We’ll still do the work, even unpaid.’ That is the power of believing in a cause,” said Dr. Chan. The shift in responsibility from federal to state and private entities has fractured the educational system. Where there was once a unified coordination, now showcases in atmosphere, where student scientists once saw opportunities, now view them as obstacles and face adversities.

Although Trump 2025 executive order has aimed to cut cost, it has simultaneously cut off access to knowledge, opportunity and preservation. Students have begun to lose focus and confidence in their dreams goals, not on account of lack of ambition, but because they lack the financial support to pursue them. Scientists are losing time and sensitive data, not from apathy, but from understaffing and defunded operations. Defunding particular federal programs that support education and environmental progress strips away opportunities for students and dismantles efforts to preserve Hawai‘i’s natural heritage. As students walk away from their dream schools and scientists tragically lose the resources to protect Hawai‘i ecosystems, it becomes clear that the fight for funding is a fight for the future. Booke N. ’25 said, “It’s annoying that we are expected to solve all the world’s problems but don’t even have the support to educate ourselves and study them.”