Category: Education Economics

October 16, 2023

When Erin Ford joined Virginia’s Chesterfield County Public Schools as director of technology services, she became concerned about the way the district monitored its technology assets. “We were tracking Chromebooks in a vendor-supported asset management system,” she says. “We also […]

October 6, 2023

More than 200 colleges and universities are eligible to receive federal funding designated for institutions with large numbers of Asian American, Native American and Pacific Islander students this year, but the majority are not applying. Just 32 of 192 eligible […]

October 3, 2023

The already dizzyingly confusing process of applying for financial aid was further complicated this year when the federal government postponed the release of the updated FAFSA from October to December. Theoretically, the new FAFSA, which stands for Free Application for […]

October 2, 2023

Federal money will continue to flow to state and local school systems — at least for now — after lawmakers in Congress struck a deal late Saturday for a continuing resolution to keep the government open through Nov. 17. President […]

September 29, 2023

The interest rates on new graduate loans from the U.S. Department of Education now top 7% while those for undergraduate loans have reached over 5%, the highest levels they’ve been in over a decade. That’s partly because the Federal Reserve […]

September 29, 2023

The Biden-Harris Administration marked a critical step forward in its efforts to deliver student debt relief to as many borrowers as possible through negotiated rulemaking under the Higher Education Act, even as extreme House Republicans threaten a government shutdown that […]

August 25, 2023

The U.S. Department of Education has settled with five free-standing law schools after an investigation showed that those institutions “improperly disbursed” federal financial aid to students enrolled in unaccredited master of laws programs. Albany Law School, Atlanta’s John Marshall School […]

August 22, 2023

Student loan borrowers can now apply for the Biden administration’s new loan repayment program, and the Education Department is working with a network of organizations to spread the word. The release of the application, which launched in beta form earlier […]

August 16, 2023

As juniors and seniors return to high school this fall, part of their school day likely will include thinking about which colleges and universities they’ll apply to. But recent data suggests that’s the case for fewer students, as college enrollment […]

August 11, 2023

The city of San Francisco is clearing the debts of 13,000 people who could not take courses at the local community college because they owed it money The debts, totaling $2.1 million, ranged from $10 to $200 and were accrued […]

July 20, 2023

Public K-12 schools and universities that house migrants on their campuses would have their federal education funding stripped away under legislation passed by a 222-201 mostly partisan House vote late Wednesday. H.R. 3941, known as the Schools Not Shelters Act […]

July 18, 2023

Biden took immediate action after the Supreme Court ruled against his initial loan forgiveness plan, which would have forgiven up to $20,000 for borrowers earning less than $125,000 a year. The same day the high court handed down its decision, […]

July 17, 2023

My dad and I sat slouched over his computer on a warm summer night a few months before the start of my junior year of college. We had been browsing my school’s financial aid website crunching every number. We were […]

July 17, 2023

More than 804,000 borrowers will have their student loans forgiven in the next month following moves by the Biden administration to count more payments toward forgiveness. The administration said in April 2022 that it would adjust accounts to give borrowers […]

July 6, 2023

After applications opened in November 2022 for the program’s first funding round, the Energy Department received 236 eligible applications totaling $1.62 billion from school districts in 44 states. “The demand for this funding was unprecedented at DOE,” said Sarah Zaleski, […]

July 5, 2023

The U.S. Department of Education’s proposed gainful employment regulations have the potential to significantly change the higher education landscape. Career education programs that leave graduates with poor earnings or unmanageable debt would risk losing access to federal financial aid under […]

June 26, 2023

West Virginia University is grappling with an enrollment decline all too familiar for many higher education institutions — though it is somewhat unusual for a public flagship to be staring down such a significant budget hole. E. Gordon Gee, WVU’s […]

June 20, 2023

For three decades, incarcerated students haven’t been allowed to tap into federal Pell Grants, a primary form of financial aid for low- and moderate-income borrowers. But that will change come July, when new rules take effect giving them access to […]

June 12, 2023

The new funding system, which comes with a $683 million allocation in the state budget, takes effect Sept. 1. Texas community colleges currently rely on tuition and property taxes for the majority of their funding, according to a report last […]

May 30, 2023

Federal education funding and all nondefense spending would stay flat in fiscal 2024 and get a 1% increase in fiscal 2025, according to a negotiated budget deal made over the Memorial Day weekend in an effort to prevent the country […]