The U.S. Department of Education said Thursday it is investigating reports that Tufts University and an education group shared confidential student data with political organizations to try to influence elections. The agency said it plans to examine whether Tufts and the National Student Clearinghouse violated the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act in the way they handled data for a national study of student political engagement. The National Student Clearinghouse said in a statement it is a “politically neutral” nonprofit and committed to complying with the federal privacy law. In addition, the Trump administration has also sued states to try to obtain voter registration information that is normally confidential. Tufts said the study involves 1,000 U.S. colleges that can use the information to improve student voting rates.

Source: Washington Post February 06, 2026 03:34 UTC