In campus support programs, first-gen students often hear that their most relevant difference from peers is that they can't call their parents for advice on college. Who decided not to talk also about inequality in K-12 schools? Why aren't faculty teaching them? ghost.edandclass.com/selective-om...

The latest: The White House/OMB is still blocking $2 billion in Congressionally approved education funds. More than $1 billion could expire in four months. www.edweek.org/policy-polit...

After seeing @maxkennerly.bsky.socials post last week, I dug into that study of college admissions readers more often rejecting low-income kids suspected of AI use in essays than they reject wealthier kids who use AI, because there is no tech fix for inequality. ghost.edandclass.com/penalizing-m...

Biggest impact of AI on college admissions is helping poor kids write like rich kids with consultants. But there's a catch: the elite schools already stereotyped them as bad writers, so poor kids get rejected for suspected AI use while rich kids get admitted. arxiv.org/abs/2602.17791

Not surprising, but dismaying all the same.

About congressionally appropriated funds, 'Spokespeople for the Education Department have repeatedly said the agency is reviewing every dollar it spends rather than giving out funds 'on autopilot.'"

New: The White House is blocking more than $2 billion Congress appropriated in February for K-12 and higher education. Here's a list of all 34 affected programs: www.edweek.org/policy-polit...

With record high FAFSA completion rates elsewhere, @juliabarajas.bsky.social reports that thousands fewer CA students in mixed-status families have submitted the federal forms in fear of exposing undocumented parents: "Fear is reshaping college-going behavior." ghost.edandclass.com/fearing-fafs...

Appreciate this new explainer @nytimes.com linking to my book The Privateers and to my 2023 piece @TIME on vouchers. On the fed scholarship. It may be a sea change—could reshape fed ed spending. Note: kids who stay in public school will also be able to use. www.nytimes.com/2026/05/20/h...

When I was sending teams of undergraduates out to find resources for students in crisis who lived on either side of a nearby urban/suburban school district boundary, I wish I'd had @newamerica.org's case studies of district boundary setting for them to read. ghost.edandclass.com/walling-off-...

“That is a sharp and significant withdrawal from financial aid and higher education systems. Each one of these numbers represents a student who is a U.S. citizen and is eligible for federal aid, as well as state aid." laist.com/news/educati...

Does your child’s PTA raise $1 million or $0? New data shows how parent fundraising continues to exacerbate inequities in NYC public school classrooms.

Call me old-fashioned, but maybe set up clear oversight systems at programs’ outset rather than after your state burns 1B/funds a year.

I started with @joshcowenmi.bsky.social strong piece on child and family supports within affordability agendas and ended with a lament that first-gen students hear a lot about their personal struggles but so little about the public troubles of unequal childhoods. ghost.edandclass.com/affordability/

More here, including sources for these claims. www.chalkbeat.org/2026/03/24/c... I agree that there remain many big open questions about the future of higher education. But any predictions about the future need to start with a basic understanding of the present.

It's a real problem that so many people who write about higher education think that the typical college costs "hundreds of thousands of dollars." www.wsj.com/lifestyle/ca...

Congratulations to our new union comrades at Penn State! Especially glad to hear the union covers temporary and part time faculty as well, to head off attempts to pit adjunct and TT against each other. www.centredaily.com/news/local/e...

It's graduation season, and I want to imagine that next year, faculty might work with first-gen students on campus to author counter stories to the "inspirational" stories that campuses tell about them, stories that implicitly normalize unequal childhoods. ghost.edandclass.com/who-tells-ou...

In truly excellent timing, we found out this week that the class of 2026 has hit a record FAFSA completion rate. @billdebaun.bsky.social has all the details www.ncan.org/Web/News/Cla...

"Black people in America did worse economically in 2025 than at any time since the Federal Reserve began its financial wellbeing survey in 2013 ... More notable is the gap between Black people and, in some cases, every other racial and ethnic group recorded." talkingpointsmemo.com/news/black-p...

Some good news on the college equity front: FAFSA simplification means that more high school students across demographic groups are completing financial aid applications. Great analysis by @econroy.bsky.social on the effects of relieving administrative burdens. ghost.edandclass.com/the-simplifi...

New data shows that compared to 2024, there are double-digit increases in FAFSA applications across the board, both for high schools with low and high-income students, white students as well as students of color, in rural and urban locations.

Turns out it is possible to make financial aid simpler for students! The FAFSA is working, more students are applying for and qualifying to college, and qualifying for aid. @donmoyn.bsky.social was nice enough to have me guest author for Can We Still Govern donmoynihan.substack.com/p/good-news-...

Some thoughts on that recent @moreperfectunion.bsky.social video on private equity in youth sports as yet another example of privileged parents hoarding opportunity via for-profit enclaves that dilute political support for public resources for all children. ghost.edandclass.com/opportunity-...

The White House is holding up funds for Education Department grants including: -Alaska Native Ed. -Arts Ed. -Civics Ed. -Comprehensive Centers -Community Schools -Native Hawaiian Ed. -Promise Neighborhoods -Ready to Learn -SEED/TQP/TSL for teacher training -and more: www.edweek.org/policy-polit...

New: Trump's OMB is withholding more than $2 billion Congress approved in February for K-12 and higher education. Advocates and experts weigh in on what this means and whether it's time to panic: www.edweek.org/policy-polit...

If you think administrative bloat or similar concerns is the cause of higher education’s financal woes, you should read this essay by @robertkelchen.com. Its among the most important essays on higner ed written in recent years www.chronicle.com/article/how-...

On many campuses, supporting first-gen students is about "reframing negative mindsets", not learning about stigmatization of the poor/working class, about invisibility within institutional policy and practice, about persistent educational inequalities in K-12. ghost.edandclass.com/learning-abo...

Politically defending public education as essential to democracy is critical. Too seldom also considered in education messaging: strong state investments in a broad education agenda makes life more affordable for many families.

More from this discourse today about a collective inability to speak politically about social class.

I want to add that class in the U.S. is only legible among white people. Black people have been the MOST working class segment of U.S. society for decades AND YET... Black people are consistently written out of the narrative of "working class" USians.

Tressie McMillan Cottom speaks of the political consequences of our inability to access language about social class to understand our personal and collective circumstances.

On many campuses, supporting first-gen students is about "reframing negative mindsets", not learning about stigmatization of the poor/working class, about invisibility within institutional policy and practice, about persistent educational inequalities in K-12. ghost.edandclass.com/learning-abo...

New international research recently published in Educational Research Review finds "educational tracking raises inequality without increasing competence levels." www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

"Go to trade school, not college", they're telling minoritized students. "And take out big loans that you'll hand over to the Wall St. investors running for-profit trade schools, because the affordable public options are already packed". ghost.edandclass.com/for-profit-e...

The feds are nudging marginalized students away from college and into trade schools. Public, affordable trades programs are full, so students are again handing student loan checks over to the Wall Street investors running for-profit programs. ghost.edandclass.com/for-profit-e...

BREAKING: The Education Department has finalized its rule on loan caps for graduate and professional degrees. The regulations, which narrowly define who qualifies as professional and limit who has access to higher loan amounts, are set to take effect July 1. www.insidehighered.com/news/governm...

Yet more burdens placed on colleges and on low-income and first -generation students under the guise of "fraud", as if colleges and aspirants to higher education who need financial should be presumed to be enemies of the public good.

"We are promised that private charity and billionaires who now have more resources will patch the holes left by public policy. It is a seductive logic that the “invisible hand” of the market is also a helping hand. The reality is, however, that support is not coming."

Really helpful new data @centeronbudget.bsky.social @joannalefebvre.bsky.social extends what researchers have known since the early 00’s Most voucher users were never in public school. These are subsidies for existing choices. And add new costs for states.

NEW from me: Immigration protections have become one of graduate students’ labor demands as foreign and undocumented students have been swept up in the Trump administration’s aggressive immigration enforcement. www.chronicle.com/article/grad...

I'm seeing prom pictures in my feeds, so I'll resurrect this piece on the ever-more competitive spending on prom glam ("The Cost May Make You Gasp") and the invisibility of students who have to skip all that to save for books and food at college next year. ghost.edandclass.com/raising-the-...

"In short, we are ruled by a class of people who seem either to believe or presume that war, disease, and apocalyptic destruction are things that will only ever happen to poorer and browner people."

What if, beyond addressing "imposter syndrome" of first-gen students as a psychological trait cured by "grit", we work with them to understand social systems that convey that they are indeed unworthy of the resources that go to privileged students. My new post: ghost.edandclass.com/opportunity-...

Ruling Class Religion: "Christian nationalism and approval of inequality are associated primarily among higher earners"

"Not everybody needs to go to college", say, as they cut already-underfunded college access TRIO programs for marginalized kids.

I think a lot about the complications of "belonging" for students from poor and working-class backgrounds. @bonstewart.bsky.social's piece about belonging in online spaces nudged my unease with urging first-gen students to find their own spaces to "belong". ghost.edandclass.com/complicating...

Inequality in education extending even to K-12 schools' capacity to protect students' health in the now-common periods of extreme heat. My post on a recent @hechingerreport.org article. ghost.edandclass.com/schools-clim...

"The New York Times seems to constantly forget, or just doesn’t care, that only about 1% of U.S. college kids attend the dozen so-called Ivy-plus top-tier universities, and that less than 30% attend any type of private university." - @willbunch.bsky.social share.inquirer.com/JuBLs2

Somehow, the Department of Education found a way to make things even worse with the ACTS survey component. jamessmurphy.com/2026/04/21/t...