My vision. Every college degree program comes embedded with a work-based learning experience (a paid internship for those with need), & every student graduates with a skill-based certification upon degree completion. Work matters. Skills matter. @ginaraimondo.bsky.social @petebuttigieg.bsky.social

A 2028 hopeful should go big on work study, strengthen it, & better tie it to academic programs. The Trump admin has proposed an 82% cut to work study even though students who complete a paid internship are half as likely to be underemployed post-graduation. Help them & show Ds value work. #Clinton

Seems to me any college has good grounds to sue and seek an injunction stopping implementation of the Trump administration’s “compact” with higher ed. It runs directly counter to 20 USC 1232’s prohibition on direct or indirect federal control of academic programming. The law still matters, right?!

Doesn't have to be the @barackobama.bsky.social + @arneduncan.bsky.social one (though I think it has many elements worth reanimating), but we've gotta offer something that's about using public institutions to change policies to make schools fairer and better (while ALSO funding them better).

Education “reform advocates should always want…bipartisan support…[I]t makes for a stronger & more durable coalition,” says @michaelpetrilli.bsky.social True, but sometimes that’s not enough (see NCLB). You need the upper middle class as well. schooledbymikepetrilli.substack.com?utm_campaign...

It's clearer by the day that Columbia making a deal with Trump in July was a catastrophe for higher education as a whole. It gave terrible people a bottomless appetite for extortion. The other eight universities must follow MIT's lead. www.nytimes.com/2025/10/10/u...

There’s a new campaign asking alumni to urge their alma maters to reject the Trump administration’s latest shakedown of higher ed. They should start a PAC as well. Use participatory democracy to defeat those who would destroy it. @bluehaveninit.bsky.social alumni.controlshift.app/petitions/tr...

Democrats should go in the opposite direction of Mamdani on gifted programs. There should be more, not fewer of them. And we should reward students who fast track through school. @rahmemanuel.bsky.social @joshshapiro.bsky.social @all4ed.org @crpe.bsky.social all4ed.org/wp-content/u...

My K-12 ed reform recipe list: 1) Time- Think summer learning 2) Teachers- Better trained, better paid 3) Rigor- High standards & acctly for all 4) Relevance- Curricula that resonates & matches the research; & 5) Student Motivation- Policies that facilitate success @mattyglesias.bsky.social

Reading Skills Hit a New Low. The real question is why doesn't anyone care? Why doesn't the Democratic Party care? I submit it's because mainly it's the lowest achieving students who are declining. Political power rests with parents of middle & high achieving students www.nytimes.com/2025/09/09/u...

So, which is it? Clamp down on international students and base policy on (anecdotal) stories of “forever students” OR recognize the contributions international students bring to American higher education and support our higher education trade _surplus_? apnews.com/article/chin...

The weight given to non-academic criteria ('character', etc) and the discretionary admissions process really are odd characteristics of the US university system. Biased, privilege-protecting results plus lots of resentment is precisely what one would predict this leads to.

In education and beyond, Democrats need to offer real solutions to that which rightly fuels populist rage. As long as we’re just against Trump without offering compelling, lasting solutions to the ways in which the deck is stacked against working people, we will lose. @dynarski.bsky.social

My take on the threat Trump poses to our system of higher education- America’s crown jewel. He is destroying the goose that has laid our golden egg, as he attempts to destroy democracy. We must resist- together! You can open a free account to read my open letter. www.chronicle.com/article/an-o...

Still waiting on the Trump administration to declare the legacy preference an unlawful violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act. It carries just as much if not more of a disparate impact as the DEI policies the Trump administration continues to attack and declare unlawful.

More and more folks are suggesting elite colleges embrace ⁦‪an‬⁩ “abundance agenda” to self-mitigate the effects of the endowment tax. 🤔 ⁦‪ ‪@ezraklein.bsky.social ‪@dkthomp.bsky.social ‪@mattyglesias.bsky.social ‪@glastris.bsky.social www.bostonglobe.com/2025/07/23/m...

The tragic fall of #UVa’s Jim Ryan is yet another indication that the Trump administration’s war on higher ed will not abate. Defensive lawsuits are good, but not enough. Time for higher ed to hit back and use participatory democracy to defeat those who would destroy it. #Harvard

It’s politically negligent that the Association of American University Professors doesn’t have a PAC like other interest groups. Scores of #Harvard professors already have pledged 10%(!) of their salaries to help Harvard fight the Trump admin. Imagine that nationally. #UVA @dynarski.bsky.social

Higher ed needs to start acting like a forceful special interest. Engage in polling, do msg development, mobilize students, make hard $ campaign contributions, finance soft $ campaigns…Call it the Campaign for Academic Freedom & hire a campaign professional. Do it now www.nytimes.com/2025/06/27/u...

Five things to remember about war:

The House GOP “Big, [Not] Beautiful Bill” is replete with massive financial aid cuts - over $330 BILLION worth. And yet there’s barely a peep about it from elected Dems who rightly focus on even larger Medicaid cuts. Still, think about what the lack of attention to education says about where we are.

End of course exams are working in North Carolina. Other states should take heed. @michaelpetrilli.bsky.social

The federal endowment tax (and massive GOP proposed increase) applies only to colleges with over $500,000 in wealth per student. If colleges subject to the current endowment tax let in enough more students, they could escape the tax entirely. #Abundance @ezrakleinbot.bsky.social @dkthomp.bsky.social

A progressive elite higher ed acctly agenda: Cap tuition at super-wealthy colleges that needlessly charge working class & poor students; Condition tax-exempt status on getting rid of unfair admission practices; & Link the endowment tax to working class enrollment. www.nydailynews.com/2019/12/27/a...

Democrats should’ve gotten out front on the elite college access issue yrs ago. The below op-ed says among other things the size of the endowment tax should be linked to rich colleges’ enrollment of their fair share of talented working-class & low-income students. www.nydailynews.com/2019/12/27/a...

Lindsey Henderson @flippyfeets.bsky.social is right. Time on task, high quality instructional materials, well-trained teachers, & frequent assessments boost math achievement. But stakes need to be attached to the latter as well. Stakes drive student motivation. www.educationnext.org/colleges-sho...

Given Trump has threatened Harvard's ability to compete for grants _and_ its tax-exempt status, shouldn't Harvard threaten to act as a regular corporation willing to fund an independent expenditure campaign in unlimited fashion as per Citizens United? #Harvard could contribute $1 billion to an IEC.