My latest for @newamerica.org: The Trump administration rerouted tens of millions of dollars that Congress set aside for student-support grants, including food and housing aid, to aspiring college accreditors—most of which are unlikely to serve a federal purpose. www.newamerica.org/education-po...

This was such a good panel, am eager for the recording bc I could only make the 1st half. Highly encourage others to listen when it’s ready!

My latest for @educationwork.newamerica.org: My investigation with @antoinetteflores.bsky.social into how NACCAS, a beauty school accreditor, allows colleges with violations to keep accessing federal aid. Many fail to disclose sanctions to students. 🔗 www.newamerica.org/education-po...

Trump's ED Department has punished Harvard with heightened cash monitoring, an oversight tool for financially shaky colleges. But as ED squeezes Harvard, it’s letting unstable colleges slide off HCM—leaving students & taxpayers unprotected: My latest: www.newamerica.org/education-po...

I went to my first SHEEO policy conference last week! A highlight was presenting New America’s work on cosmetology schools, which shows many students earn less than high school grads, while industry lobbying keeps licensure strict and stifles new pathways. Read 👉 www.newamerica.org/education-po...

In an unsurprising display of hypocrisy, the Trump administration, which has been deeply critical of student loan forgiveness, is now offering to forgive student loans. As incentive to join ICE. www.dhs.gov/news/2025/07...

Ohio just cracked down on online program managers, or OPMs, shadowy third-party recruiters and program builders. Guardrails like the ones Ohio instituted can help stop abuses. A great breakdown from the Century Foundation: tcf.org/content/comm...

Today, I’m helping break down how the Big Beautiful Bill affects higher education finance and students’ ability to afford college. Join us today at 3 ET virtually ⤵️

Just because you wrote it down does not make it so. www.insidehighered.com/news/governa...

🧵1/n 🚨New publication alert! We just published a brief on what happens to parenting students' chances of success in college when they are threatened with eviction. The results are devastating. I have never cried when writing up research before. I did this time. www.newamerica.org/education-po...

Two big takeaways from my new piece today. One, the Trump administration is trying to strong-arm an accreditor into doing its political bidding. Two, Columbia’s accredition isn’t in real jeopardy if the proper processes are followed. www.newamerica.org/education-po...

Mind you, a GOP priority (allegedly?) is rooting out foreign influence in American colleges, and donations from Qatar have come under scrutiny before. But Republicans are fine Qatari officials just giving the president a $400M+ plane, I guess. www.newamerica.org/education-po...

Princeton University’s student newspaper is reporting Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth plagiarized portions of his senior thesis. www.dailyprincetonian.com/article/2025...

Your Friday reading, besides the Fetterman profile, is this explanation of Trump’s accreditation policies from me and @wesleywhistle.bsky.social. www.newamerica.org/education-po...

A few new accreditors want federal recognition. Their leaders are tied to predatory for-profit colleges, some of which defrauded students. My latest: www.newamerica.org/education-po...

🚨 How are DOGE cuts impacting your community? Under Musk's leadership, DOGE has implemented sweeping reductions in grants, contracts, and leases. Here’s a new tool I built that identifies grant and lease terminations by congressional district.

The president's mass layoffs strategy is backfiring—and sabotaging the priorities of his own party. ↘️ Here, our investigator @jbeowulf.bsky.social explains how this "government paralysis" will make implementing new legislation "likely impossible."

Tufts has issued a statement saying the graduate student who ICE agents abducted last month did not have a record that would warrant her arrest, and that a pro-Palestine essay she wrote did not violate university policy. www.tufts.edu/president/sp...

Trump's Education Department has reportedly frozen half of Princeton's federal funding after its president wrote a public essay criticizing the administration's attack on higher education. This is government retaliation, pure and simple. From @chronicle.com: www.chronicle.com/article/near...

So @garrettshanley.bsky.social, the Univ of Florida student journalist who broke the Ben Sasse scandal wide open, has another banger today about Florida's surgeon general, who has almost nothing to show for his six-figure, second job as a tenured prof at UF www.alligator.org/article/2025...

Last week, the House passed a GOP bill that would beef up colleges’ mandates to report foreign gifts and contracts to the Education Department. Except there’s a problem — Trump and DOGE have fired staff in the department who would help carry out the legislation. www.newamerica.org/education-po...

A federal judge has ruled against the Texas A&M University System board for banning drag shows on campuses. The “Draggieland” event, which prompted the board to cancel drag shows, can proceed as planned this week. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

President Trump just claimed during his remarks that everyone supports his idea to shut down the Education Department. That's wrong. Most Americans want the Education Department to stay open, as my colleagues just wrote about: www.newamerica.org/education-po...

Everyone--EVERYONE--in higher education has to understand that this is Trump's plan for you, too: federal control over scholarship, curricula, discipline, admissions--everything. They want you to submit. Your only other option is to stand up, together.

A political appointee recently demanded that @georgetownlaw.bsky.social stop teaching about diversity. 🎓 Here, our investigator @jbeowulf.bsky.social implores #HigherEd institutions to stand firm against authoritarian actors—and ignore their illegal orders.

Senator, I am one of 700,000 DC residents who would feel the pain of a $1B cut that this CR would create. & this is DC’s budget, largely paid for with locals’ tax dollars, not federal money. Passing the CR would hurt the district and give new leeway to Trump-Musk and their razing of the government.

So proud to do this work with Ewa.

Scoop: Washington Post editor Ruth Marcus says she’s resigning after a column on Jeff Bezos’s Wall Street Journal-like opinion pivot was rejected by Will Lewis

The acting U.S. attorney for DC demanded Georgetown Law stop teaching diversity-related topics. It’s wrong (and illegal) for political appointees to try to dictate what colleges can teach. But institutions must also stand up to authoritarian actors. My latest: www.newamerica.org/education-po...

Hey @nytimes.com, you are wrong here. www.nytimes.com/live/2025/03... The power to shut down the U.S. Department of Education rests squarely with Congress. It's not "likely" federal lawmakers would need to approve closing the department, they are the only ones who can!

Most cosmetology students can't earn a living wage, no matter their state. That's a horrifying reality, one that my team and I tease out in our new report on for-profit beauty schools we published today. This has been in the works for years, FYI! www.newamerica.org/education-po... Read on ↓

The governing board of the *public* Texas A&M University System unanimously banned drag shows on its campuses today. I’ll take blatant First Amendment violations for 300 please!! thebatt.com/news/regents...

New from me today. The Knoxville campus of Paul Mitchell beauty school has experienced budgetary and operational problems since it opened in 2011. Why did its accreditor allow it to stay open despite more than a decade of financial turbulence? www.newamerica.org/education-po...

McMahon said she believes there should be more transparency on foreign money flowing to colleges. The House just passed a bill that would require colleges to report all foreign gifts/contracts valued at $50K or more, down from current threshold of $250K. www.highereddive.com/news/50k-thr...

Linda McMahon said the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) might be able to move to Justice Dept. It shouldn't. OCR is a historically overburdened agency and folding it into DOJ — which is also facing cuts! — would weaken the govt's ability to uphold civil rights. More: www.newamerica.org/education-po...

Sen. Josh Hawley is being transphobic ad nauseam, accusing colleges of trying to defy President Trump's executive order that bans trans women from sports aligned with their gender identity. Trans athletes recently sued over the executive order: www.nytimes.com/2025/02/12/u...

Sen. @chrismurphyct.bsky.social asks McMahon, bluntly: "there's a possibility that public schools that run African American history classes... could lose federal funding if they continue to teach African American history?"

McMahon said she supports #TitleIX requiring colleges to investigate off-campus sexual violence that occurred between two students. The Title IX rule the Education Department is enforcing now (created during Trump 1) does NOT mandate that colleges investigate all off-campus incidents. #highered

McMahon asked if DOGE should have access to private student information. She believes DOGE staff have been on boarded in the Ed Dept and have looked at data "under the restraints" of being employees. Court decision blocked DOGE access to student data. More here: www.newamerica.org/education-po...

Linda McMahon: "Title I will continue to be appropriated .. .not looking to defund or reduce any of those amounts. IDEA is the same. But might it be better administered through a different agency?"

Linda McMahon, Trump’s ED Secretary nominee, said in the same sentence that she supports campus free speech AND college presidents calling the police on student protesters. Follow along her confirmation hearing: www.senate.gov/isvp/?auto_p... #highered #edusky

Republicans have labeled the Education Department a bloated bureaucracy, not factoring in the myriad ways it helps college students on the ground. #highered #edusky My latest: www.newamerica.org/education-po...

🚨 Elon Musk's team is gaining access to sensitive @usedgov.bsky.social data, sparking serious concerns. Read more from @jbeowulf.bsky.social about the dangers. @newamerica.org #HigherEd

New from me. DOGE staff have accessed sensitive Education Department data, almost certainly illegally. What are the repercussions? What kind of data does the ED Department collect? How does this relate to the administration's efforts to purge DEI? Read on: www.newamerica.org/education-po...

Trump’s new executive order targeting transwomen in sports will affect the most minuscule part of the college athletic scene.

NEWS: The Education Department just announced it will enforce the Title IX regulation created during the first Trump administration. Overview of that here: www.ed.gov/sites/ed/fil...

New from @ticas-org.bsky.social: Students in college courses run by for-profit companies called Online Program Managers should have certain rights, including knowing when institutions work with OPMs. ticas.org/wp-content/u...

This is the for-profit college the University of Arizona acquired and rebranded as the University of Arizona Global Campus, UAGC. www.newamerica.org/education-po...

Breaking: Johns Hopkins University and CalTech have settled in the ongoing 568 Presidents Group antitrust lawsuit. JHU settled for $18.5 million and CalTech for $16.7M. Remaining defendants are: Cornell, Georgetown, MIT, Notre Dame & Penn. www.insidehighered.com/news/quick-t...

The taxpayer-supported University of Arizona is paying nearly $12,000 *per student* to Google and Facebook to recruit customers for the scandal-ridden for-profit online college it bought for $1 and rebranded. Read more from my colleague @jbeowulf.bsky.social : www.newamerica.org/education-po...