The parking lot of my auto shop has some egregious potholes, and I think this is what you would call a "conflict of interest"

"Ninety-five percent of the department’s employees who don’t work on federal student aid have been furloughed." www.insidehighered.com/news/governm...

The USDA sent an email to grocery stores telling them they are prohibited from offering special discounts to customers affected by the SNAP funding lapse. I'm aware of at least 2 stores that had offered struggling customers a discount, then withdrew it after receiving this email

BOSTON (AP) — Judges order the federal government to use contingency funds for SNAP food aid payments during the shutdown.

If the administration wants to prevent student loan borrowers from receiving PSLF if they work for organizations engaged in supposedly illegal activity, why not use the proper legal channels to get such organizations shut down?

We wrote up a Brookings Post related to my recent paper with Ari Anisfeld, @drelizabethbell.bsky.social, and Dennis Kramer: www.brookings.edu/articles/how...

There's a growing movement to get "some college, no degree" students to reenroll and complete their degrees www.insidehighered.com/news/quick-t...

This is a nice summary of a recent Brookings panel on student loan limits, including a link to a recording of the panel www.brookings.edu/articles/stu...

It's noteworthy this NCAN guidance for mixed-status families filling out the FAFSA does *not* confidently encourage such families to fill out the form, citing that ED can provide information from the form to immigration enforcement www.ncan.org/news/713255/...

The latest round of layoffs at ED has been blocked by a federal judge. The Supreme Court will likely give a green light to the layoffs, though, just as they did with the March round of layoffs. www.insidehighered.com/news/quick-t...

The grad school loan caps in OBBBA seem half-baked to me I'm not opposed to some version of caps, but: -100k versus 200k is a big/rough difference -the distinctions are untethered to earnings and value to taxpayers -there's no recognition of variation in quality across programs within a field

The administration wants to make dramatic cuts to adult education, which would be harmful to community colleges www.chronicle.com/article/the-...

Past administrations used #SNAP contingency funds to prevent benefit gaps. Despite clear legal authority, the current Administration refuses to do, putting 1 in 8 people in the U.S. who need SNAP to afford their grocery bill. www.cbpp.org/research/foo...

Fun comparison: if LSU put this $54 million into expanded supports for students, it would probably produce about 400 additional college graduates

I had been wondering if the attacks on DEI in higher education would come for male-focused initiatives I guess the answer is "yes"

Research firms continue to shed talented staff—even after the far-reaching cuts earlier this year. Just this week, there have been announcements of significant layoffs at RAND and Mathematica.

This blog post from CCRC covers state funding for dual enrollment, including funding levels, funding mechanism (grants vs. formula), and funding flow (through K-12 or direct to college) ccrc.tc.columbia.edu/easyblog/how...

What Should Research at the Ed. Dept. Look Like? The Field Weighs In share.google/CK4UyCnjg8Bz...

Good new brief estimating that 26% of federal loan borrowers will exceed the new loan limits, and they will do so by about $22,000 per year on average www.american.edu/spa/peer/upl...

Trump Gutted the Institute of Education Sciences. Its Renewal Is in Doubt. www.insidehighered.com/news/governm...

I added Swarthmore to the tracker.

I suspect future students pursuing grad programs that currently put students into more than $100k of debt will counterintuitively be the *winners* of the new cap on debt because the price of those programs will come down and be subsidized by price increases for cheaper programs*

The Institute of Education Sciences: 22 Years of Helping States, Districts, and Educators Make Informed Decisions www.alicoalition.org/blog/the-ins...

NEW: A federal judge today temporarily paused the Education Department's layoffs of nearly everyone in its special ed division. Judge Susan Illston in the Northern District of California issued the ruling, which applies to thousands of other RIFs, too. Read more: www.usatoday.com/story/news/e...

I wrote for @theatlantic.com about Trump’s plan to purge Black people from the Ivy League. www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...

Old enough to remember when kids being anti-semitic was the basis for a federal government assault on higher education

I left my toddler alone for a few minutes the other day and he didn't die, confirming he does not need me and would be fine surviving on his own

On Thursday, @kevincarey1.bsky.social from @newamerica.org will discuss Trumpism and Higher Education Policy. 5/ zoom.us/meeting/regi...

The Trump administration has held up community colleges as the "good" higher education But even they are getting caught in the crossfire of Trump's war on higher ed www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2025/...

Republican lawmakers from the Congressional Hispanic Conference are asking McMahon to restore funding for HSIs It's a lot harder to maintain coalitions in power than out of power www.highereddive.com/news/mcmahon...

Hey Bluesky friends, how can we get more folks on the left to support gifted education? Would my 3 ideas help? schooledbymikepetrilli.substack.com/p/how-can-we...

This is like a dude who gets no matches on a dating app so he just starts swiping right on everyone

Already Battered by Cuts, Researchers and Colleges Face Federal Shutdown Impacts

🧵 New working paper! In joint work w/ @jscottclayton.bsky.social, Veronica Minaya, & Joshua Thomas, we use admin data from a large public univ system to examine earnings gaps for high- vs low-SES college grads 5 years out & the role of first jobs in explaining the gaps. 1/ www.nber.org/papers/w34366

A survey of community college students identified their top college disappointments as their social life and meeting new people There is a lot of room for improving social capital development and sense of belonging at community colleges www.insidehighered.com/news/student...

The Trump administration wants to sell high-performing segments of the federal student loan portfolio to private investors But they're not allowed to do it at a cost to the federal government Would this foregone revenue not represent a cost to the federal government? share.google/qITbJmszqnIF...

We've known for a long time that income disparities persist through degree attainment It's a big deal that we now have evidence on the primary mechanism by which that disparity persists

ED has already been failing to fulfill its legal obligations. Losing 500 more employees will not help.

Watching the last play of this game

A new NYT as-told-to series, "Lost Science," documents the work of researchers who have lost their jobs or funding after cuts by the Trump administration. Share your story with us! www.nytimes.com/2025/10/08/c...

Me: I'll drop five pounds once I get my running mileage back up Also me: Now that my running mileage is back up, I can have ice cream every night

Between 2002 and 2022, the percentage of high school students who expected to get a bachelor's degree decreased from 72% to 44% www.pellinstitute.org/wp-content/u...

Phillies fans having to watch a 9pm playoff elimination game on a Wednesday has me fully on board with the proposals to eliminate AL/NL and do East/West conferences instead

This is a terrific paper looking at which programs are likely to fail the new earnings threshold established by the OBBA www.american.edu/spa/peer/upl...

This is a really helpful summary of last week's negotiated rulemaking session on defining professional programs that get higher student loan limits, as well as looking forward to the committee's upcoming discussions.

I shared a few thoughts on the concerns I see with cuts to the Department of Education's data and research capacity, although there are also a few green shoots that are worth watching.

Well, there you go! www.gov.ca.gov/2025/10/02/g...

100%. Tuition freezes place a cap on sticker prices, which are often paid by higher-income students and not lower-income students. So capping sticker prices limits colleges' ability to generate revenue from higher-income students and subsidize lower-income students with institutional discounts.

Trump's higher ed ransom note is here - everyone would have to acquiesce to their unprecedented demands or not be "given priority for grants," plus they can demand "reimbursement" for "violations" www.wsj.com/us-news/educ... A mechanism to enforce fealty. An attack on academic freedom and democracy

⛓️ Here’s your quick end of the day wrap up from @insidehighered.com re: student loan cap regulations. Right after lunch, ED officials presented a new proposal that came from a long morning of negotiations behind closed doors. It was much appreciated but did not go without questions.