Latest news with #AmericanCouncilonEducation
Yahoo
13-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
How the One Big Beautiful Bill Impacts Higher Education
How the One Big Beautiful Bill Impacts Higher Education originally appeared on L.A. Mag. On July 4, 2025, President Trump signed into law the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (H.R.1), a sweeping reconciliation package that touches nearly every facet of federal policy. Among its most consequential components is a comprehensive overhaul of higher education finance, particularly student loans, repayment structures, and federal aid eligibility. Here is a breakdown of how the bill changes the higher education landscape for students, families, and institutions. The bill eliminates subsidized undergraduate Direct Loans, meaning students will now accrue interest during school enrollment. It also ends the Grad PLUS loan program (as of July 1, 2026), which previously allowed graduate students to borrow up to the full cost of attendance. In its place, new federal loan caps are introduced: Master's Degrees: $20,500/year, $100,000 lifetime Law/Medical Degrees: $50,000/year, $200,000 lifetime Parent PLUS Loans: $20,000/year, $65,000 lifetime per child Total federal student borrowing (including undergraduate): capped at $257,500 These caps apply only to federal loans, meaning students who need additional funding may have to turn to private lenders, which typically offer fewer borrower on ACE's dotEDU Live, a higher education podcast hosted by the American Council on Education, warned that these caps fall short of tuition levels in many professional programs, such as law and medicine. This shift may push more students toward private loans and potentially reduce access for lower-income students. The Act consolidates federal repayment plans from seven to two: Standard Repayment Plan: Fixed monthly payments over 10 to 25 years, depending on loan balance Repayment Assistance Plan (RAP): An income-driven repayment (IDR) plan requiring 1% to 10% of income for up to 30 years, with a minimum $10 monthly payment Borrowers enrolled in now-discontinued plans (SAVE, PAYE, IBR, ICR) must switch by July 1, 2028, though existing participants may remain in their current plans until then. The law also ends deferment for economic hardship or unemployment for loans issued after July 1, 2027. As part of the transition, the U.S. Department of Education issued a press release announcing that interest accrual under the SAVE plan will resume on August 1, 2025, following a February 2025 injunction by the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that found certain provisions unlawful. Borrowers in the SAVE plan are encouraged to explore alternative options, including the existing Income-Based Repayment (IBR) plan, until RAP becomes available in July new RAP plan waives unpaid interest for borrowers who make timely monthly payments, helping to avoid negative amortization. However, the 30-year repayment period may result in higher total repayment costs, particularly for lower-income Department resumed collection efforts in May 2025 and will expand enforcement later in the year. Borrowers are encouraged to use the Federal Student Aid Loan Simulator and related federal tools to evaluate options and avoid delinquency or default. The bill changes Pell Grant eligibility in two key ways: Tightened income requirements: higher-income families face more scrutiny Ineligibility for fully funded students: those receiving full scholarships are excluded from additional Pell support In parallel, the bill introduces 'Workforce Pell Grants' to cover short-term, high-quality vocational and job training programs previously excluded under Pell Grant eligibility criteria. Here is a section-by-section summary of the Bipartisan Workforce Pell Act. These changes reflect a broader federal policy shift toward supporting skilled labor development alongside traditional academic pathways. Several provisions target colleges and universities directly Endowment Tax: Institutions with high per-student endowments now face a graduated tax starting at 1.4%, up to 8% Reduced Department of Education authority: The bill rolls back rulemaking powers, including those tied to gainful employment metrics Paused : The federal government suspends borrower protections that previously linked institutional eligibility to student debt-to-income outcomes. The bill aims to reduce what lawmakers describe as inefficiencies in higher education spending, including through measures such as taxing large endowments. However, insights from dotEDU suggest these changes may weaken federal oversight of institutions with poor student outcomes, particularly those with low graduation rates or high debt burdens. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act will impact California's higher education landscape across public and private institutions alike. For graduate students at schools such as the University of California system, California State University system, California Institute of Technology (CalTech), Stanford, USC, etc. the elimination of Grad PLUS loans and new federal borrowing caps mean fewer options to fully finance degrees through federal aid. As a result, students may increasingly rely on private loans, which often carry higher interest rates and lack income-based repayment repayment reforms may also shift how California borrowers manage debt. RAP, launching in 2026, simplifies repayment, but it may extend debt timelines, especially for lower-income Californians, many of whom live in regions with high living costs. Changes to Pell Grant eligibility could also affect enrollment dynamics. Students from middle-income families—especially those attending high-tuition private universities—may face new barriers to aid. However, expanded eligibility for Pell-funded short-term training could benefit students at California Community Colleges and vocational more than 2.9 million students in its public colleges and a robust network of private institutions, California's higher education system is positioned to experience broad effects from these federal changes in both student financing and institutional planning. This story was originally reported by L.A. Mag on Jul 12, 2025, where it first appeared.
Boston Globe
20-06-2025
- Business
- Boston Globe
Tuition increases, layoffs are coming to a broad set of universities
Students and employees from coast to coast are poised to feel the squeeze. Although the exact consequences will vary by school, administrators are warning that many students may have to pay more, professors may lose their jobs, programs could vanish, and support services could shrink. Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up The turmoil is not limited to any one type of university or college, or any one state. A day before Michigan State University trustees opted for tuition increases, a California State University campus minutes from the Pacific Ocean announced that it was trimming its workforce. Advertisement 'If you're a student or family looking to go to college this year, all of the numbers are going in the wrong direction,' said Ted Mitchell, president of the American Council on Education, who described the mood among higher education leaders as 'dark but resolved.' The Trump administration's efforts to reduce research funding are siphoning cash from many campuses, sometimes by hundreds of millions of dollars. But that is just one factor contributing to higher education's financial crunch. Colleges, like businesses and households, are facing greater costs for wages, supplies, utilities, and other expenses. Advertisement Their income sources are not always keeping pace. In Nebraska, the state government's contribution to the university system will rise roughly 0.6 percent, far below the 3.5 percent increase that the Board of Regents had sought to account for inflation. But regents saw the increase as a modest victory. Governor Jim Pillen, a Republican who wanted the state to have 'the courage to say no, and to focus on needs, not wants,' had originally urged a 2 percent reduction. 'We will need to continue to reduce spending and make increasingly difficult choices to ensure fiscal discipline,' Jeffrey P. Gold, the University of Nebraska's president, told regents before a vote Thursday to impose cuts and increase tuition. Students who enroll at the flagship campus in Lincoln are poised to pay about 5 percent more. In neighboring Kansas, only one of the state's six public universities did not propose a tuition increase for the coming school year. And University of Oklahoma leaders just raised tuition again, too. The White House rejected accusations from some college administrators that the federal government is partly to blame for tuition increases and other budget moves. 'Any school that scapegoats the administration's policies of cutting waste, fraud and abuse to justify raising already astronomical tuition costs is failing American students in an effort to score political points and fatten its coffers,' Harrison Fields, a White House spokesperson, said in a statement. He added: 'If these higher education institutions were serious about lowering costs, they would cut the bloated salaries of their faculty and stop wasting money on useless programs that do little to advance education.' Advertisement Some schools are more reliant than others on federal money, especially research institutions, and leaders on many of those campuses have cited the administration's tactics as they have reworked their budgets. But public institutions are also sometimes facing significant resistance in statehouses, and recent rises in inflation have put new demands on campus finances. College leaders across the country have sometimes sought to defend new tuition increases by noting correctly that their prices had stayed relatively steady in recent years. Others point to the number of scholarships and grants they offer, which routinely drive costs well south of the sticker price, and say that many students are ultimately paying less than in the past. In Minnesota, students are set to pay more for less. State leaders maintained stable support for the University of Minnesota — a decision that university officials considered an effective budget cut, given inflation. And questions are swirling over how much additional declines in federal money could worsen the university's financial outlook. Tuition at the Twin Cities campus will rise by at least 6.5 percent. But the university is also pursuing cuts of 7 percent. Academic units have been asked to come up with millions of dollars in 'reallocations' that could lead to program changes and fewer materials in the Law Library, among other things. More than 350 jobs could be eliminated. 'Making these kinds of cuts here is new to us in Minnesota,' Rebecca Cunningham, the university's president, said during a board meeting Wednesday. 'It is unfortunate, but indeed we are not alone.' They are not. The University System of Maryland's chancellor, Jay A. Perman, bluntly told employees in a video this month that the schools would absorb a 7 percent cut for the coming fiscal year. Advertisement 'A 7 percent cut simply can't be achieved on every campus in a way that doesn't touch any of our people,' Perman said. Private universities often say far less about their finances than public institutions, but similar signs of immense strain are emerging. Duke University is seeking about $350 million in cuts, amounting to roughly 10 percent of its budget. Harvard University, which has clashed bitterly with the Trump administration, is urgently seeking contributions from donors and has been making cuts, partly because billions of dollars in its endowment have restricted uses. And in a statement Wednesday ominously titled 'a message on financial austerity,' leaders at Cornell, which also has a substantial endowment, described a dire landscape.
Boston Globe
20-06-2025
- Business
- Boston Globe
Tuition increases and layoffs are coming to a broad set of universities
Students and employees from coast to coast are poised to feel the squeeze. Although the exact consequences will vary by school, administrators are warning that many students may have to pay more, professors may lose their jobs, programs could vanish and support services could shrink. Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up The turmoil is not limited to any one type of university or college, or any one state. A day before Michigan State University trustees opted for tuition increases, a California State University campus minutes from the Pacific Ocean announced that it was trimming its workforce. Advertisement 'If you're a student or family looking to go to college this year, all of the numbers are going in the wrong direction,' said Ted Mitchell, president of the American Council on Education, who described the mood among higher education leaders as 'dark but resolved.' The Trump administration's efforts to reduce research funding are siphoning cash from many campuses, sometimes by hundreds of millions of dollars. But that is just one factor contributing to higher education's financial crunch. Colleges, like businesses and households, are facing greater costs for wages, supplies, utilities and other expenses. Advertisement Their income sources are not always keeping pace. In Nebraska, the state government's contribution to the university system will rise roughly 0.6%, far below the 3.5% increase that the Board of Regents had sought to account for inflation. But regents saw the increase as a modest victory. Gov. Jim Pillen, a Republican who wanted the state to have 'the courage to say no, and to focus on needs, not wants,' had originally urged a 2% reduction. 'We will need to continue to reduce spending and make increasingly difficult choices to ensure fiscal discipline,' Jeffrey P. Gold, the University of Nebraska's president, told regents before a vote Thursday to impose cuts and increase tuition. Students who enroll at the flagship campus in Lincoln are poised to pay about 5% more. In neighboring Kansas, only one of the state's six public universities did not propose a tuition increase for the coming school year. And University of Oklahoma leaders just raised tuition again, too. The White House rejected accusations from some college administrators that the federal government is partly to blame for tuition increases and other budget moves. 'Any school that scapegoats the administration's policies of cutting waste, fraud and abuse to justify raising already astronomical tuition costs is failing American students in an effort to score political points and fatten its coffers,' Harrison Fields, a White House spokesperson, said in a statement. He added: 'If these higher education institutions were serious about lowering costs, they would cut the bloated salaries of their faculty and stop wasting money on useless programs that do little to advance education.' Advertisement Some schools are more reliant than others on federal money, especially research institutions, and leaders on many of those campuses have cited the administration's tactics as they have reworked their budgets. But public institutions are also sometimes facing significant resistance in statehouses, and recent rises in inflation have put new demands on campus finances. College leaders across the country have sometimes sought to defend new tuition increases by noting correctly that their prices had stayed relatively steady in recent years. Others point to the number of scholarships and grants they offer, which routinely drive costs well south of the sticker price, and say that many students are ultimately paying less than in the past. In Minnesota, students are set to pay more for less. State leaders maintained stable support for the University of Minnesota -- a decision that university officials considered an effective budget cut, given inflation. And questions are swirling over how much additional declines in federal money could worsen the university's financial outlook. Tuition at the Twin Cities campus will rise by at least 6.5%. But the university is also pursuing cuts of 7%. Academic units have been asked to come up with millions of dollars in 'reallocations' that could lead to program changes and fewer materials in the Law Library, among other things. More than 350 jobs could be eliminated. 'Making these kinds of cuts here is new to us in Minnesota,' Rebecca Cunningham, the university's president, said during a board meeting Wednesday. 'It is unfortunate, but indeed we are not alone.' They are not. The University System of Maryland's chancellor, Jay A. Perman, bluntly told employees in a video this month that the schools would absorb a 7% cut for the coming fiscal year. Advertisement 'A 7% cut simply can't be achieved on every campus in a way that doesn't touch any of our people,' Perman said. Private universities often say far less about their finances than public institutions, but similar signs of immense strain are emerging. Duke University is seeking about $350 million in cuts, amounting to roughly 10% of its budget. In a video message this month, Duke's president, Vincent E. Price, said the university was trying to sort out proposals from the federal government 'that have quite dire implications for the university.' He added there was 'sadly, no scenario in which Duke can or will avoid incurring substantial losses of funding due to these policy changes.' The university has imposed a hiring freeze and developed buyout plans, but Price said that Duke would 'likely' resort to layoffs. The school is among the wealthy universities that could face a higher endowment tax under a Republican plan working its way through Congress. Many schools that would be hit hardest were already reeling. Harvard University, which has clashed bitterly with the Trump administration, is urgently seeking contributions from donors and has been making cuts, partly because billions of dollars in its endowment have restricted uses. And in a statement Wednesday ominously titled 'a message on financial austerity,' leaders at Cornell, which also has a substantial endowment, described a dire landscape. 'The spring semester was unlike anything ever seen in higher education,' school officials wrote, noting, among a long list of federal cuts, the burden of rising inflation along with 'rapidly escalating legal expenses.' Advertisement To manage the financial pressures, school leaders said they 'anticipate involuntary reductions in head count.' This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
Yahoo
12-06-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Nearly quarter of WI college students are single moms. They need child care help.
For me, my "normal" junior year of college consisted of homework, meeting new people and long lectures. The only difference was that I was pregnant and due during finals week. With Title IX, school was manageable, even when I was induced nearly a month early. As a senior with a 3-month-old at home, school was the same but with less resources available, especially when it came to child care, which is a nationwide issue for working parents due to its inflexibility and high cost. Many child care businesses are closing also making them inaccessible. This forces many parents to stay at home and leave the workforce, costing Wisconsin $1.1 billion a year, $122 billion nationally. With tuition as an additional stressor, being a student parent is difficult to manage. While the daycare dilemma is large and complex, colleges have a unique role. Student parents (and faculty and staff) can be supported with resources by the university. Tuition paid by students should cover the costs of child care, if provided on campus. According to an analysis by the American Council on Education, nearly one in every five undergraduate college students, about 18%, are parents, typically to preschool-aged or younger. In Wisconsin alone, 22% of all undergrads are single moms. Opinion: Child care is in crisis. High costs hurt parents and providers. And while student parents statistically have higher GPAs, they struggle in other areas. They often borrow more money for tuition since they have other expenses to prioritize (family expenses, child care, etc.). In 2016, their debt was more than double the debt of students without children. Since then, the child care crisis has only grown and prices have increased. A large amount of work to cover the costs of school and child care is required. Student parents must juggle full-time hours of work along with finding time for class, homework and the laborious job of parenting. Tuition should cover the costs of child care if provided on campus. Marquette University, where I recently earned an undergraduate degree, offers child care services to students, faculty and staff. With tuition and fees being around $67,000 before financial assistance, to ask for more for child care is unreasonable. In the perspective of faculty and staff, requiring a portion of their check back for child care is exploitative. At the very least, Marquette offers discounted child care services. Often times, this is not the case. Over 90% of private, nonprofit colleges do not provide any on-campus child care. Universities are failing to be inclusive of a large minority group: student parents. If free child care is out of reach at the moment, colleges should provide students with other resources to alleviate other financial stress. Opinion: She's walked in their shoes. Her mission: Help families afford child care The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee offers a Student Parent Success Program which supports students with children by individually assessing their needs and providing resources. UWM also offers lactation rooms for nursing mothers, a food center and pantry where baby necessities are supplied, and a children's learning center. In addition to discounted child care costs, UWM also allows requests to be made by student parents for cost of attendance adjustments. These adjustments can lead to student parents receiving more financial aid. Because of personal matters and financial assistance, Marquette was the best choice for me. UWM has taken a step in the right direction, but more work is required by all universities. With so many universities in the area, more needs to be done. If colleges are genuinely concerned about the success of their students, then they must support their students, faculty and staff. Everyone benefits when someone succeeds. Student parents are taking steps into success by earning degrees. Do we want these parents and their children to succeed long-term? It just requires some additional support right now. Colleges need to invest in all their students to fully set them up for success (and ultimately set future generations up for success too). As a former student parent, I understand the stress of balancing life expenses, child care, school work and costs. As a mom, it is easy for our parental needs to be overlooked. It is unreasonable to expect a student to pay their own tuition and child care costs while they work to pay off these expenses, study, attend their classes and fulfill their parental duties. What got me to graduation was my support system: my husband and family (who also alleviated child care expenses by babysitting). Every student parent needs support, including from their university, to succeed. Opinion: Lawmakers should listen to their own commission and fully fund special education Child care is a significant issue in America, but it deeply affects student parents. Besides the fact that this nationwide crisis is causing the country to lose money, parents are also losing by not being fully supported on their path to success. While steps need to be made to combat the issue, universities can do their part to help their students succeed. For this reason, at the very least, tuition should cover on-campus child care expenses for student parents. Michelle Murphy is a recent journalism graduate from Marquette University, originally from Chicago. While aiming for a future career in sports and considering grad school, she plans to spend this summer being a stay-at-home mom (without any homework!). This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Child care burden for student parents. Colleges must step up. | Opinion
Boston Globe
08-06-2025
- Politics
- Boston Globe
Can the Ivy League band together to fight Trump's attacks on higher education?
Harvard University has suffered most of President Trump's blows, with the president stripping Advertisement At other schools, university presidents are giving interviews and campus speeches critical of the White House. Professors are unionizing to advocate for their research and students. And many alumni groups are spearheading public awareness campaigns to pressure their alma maters to fight back against Trump. Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up Because 'The fight is going to be won among the public,' said Jon Fansmith, vice president of the nonprofit American Council on Education. The Trump administration has arguied elite universities force-feed students leftist ideology and allowed antisemitism to run rampant since the Israel-Hamas war began in October 2023. The administration has announced investigations of colleges and universities allegedly discriminating against white people and cut off or threatened to cut federal funding to many schools. Advertisement At Columbia University, leaders in March said they would comply with the administration's demands after officials froze hundreds of millions of dollars in funding because the administration said the school failed to protect Jewish students from discrimination. But that didn't seem to appease the White House, which announced last week it was targeting the school's accreditation, which could ultimately result in Columbia losing federal financial aid for its students. In April, several Big Ten conference schools formally signed on to a 'The Trump administration has no intention of backing down, and the only thing that will work to oppose him is strong collective action where we have each other's backs,' said Lieberwitz, whose university had Students on the campus at Princeton University in Princeton, N.J., on March 7. HANNAH BEIER/NYT University presidents speak out Ivy League university presidents have responded differently to allegations of antisemitism on campus and the Trump administration's attempts to control how they run their schools. A Eisgruber, a constitutional law scholar, has been particularly outspoken, slamming Advertisement 'It's really important for conservative views to be welcome on a campus, but that's different from insisting on ideological balance on a campus,' Eisgruber told the host of The Daily this spring. After Harvard lost billions in science funding in April, Eisgruber posted 'Princeton stands with Harvard,' on his LinkedIn profile. At Brown University, the school's highest governing body recently extended president Christina Paxson's term through June 2028 in a show of confidence. Eisgruber's and Paxson's long tenures put them in better positions to speak out, higher education advocates told the Globe this spring. Other Ivies have recently been plagued by turnover among leaders, including high-profile oustings over responses to pro-Palestinian protests and allegations of antisemitism. The presidents of Yale, Cornell, and the University of Pennsylvania were installed this spring. 'The other university presidents are not standing up for Harvard because they don't want to be the next one on Trump's list,' said Todd Wolfson, president of the American Association of University Presidents, a union. University presidents are also strategizing with lawmakers in Washington D.C., professors told the Globe. The largest public outcry from university presidents came on April 22, when hundreds signed a public statement with the American Association of Colleges & Universities against 'unprecedented government overreach and political interference now endangering American higher education.' Dartmouth president Sian Beilock was the only Ivy president to not sign, despite being urged to by professors and alumni, said Derek Jennings, an active member of the Native American Alumni Association of Dartmouth. The school's director of media relations, Jana Barnello, said like other schools, Dartmouth has filed supporting declarations in lawsuits over the funding cuts. Advertisement Professors rally to organize against Trump While university presidents seem to be taking a more careful and calculated approach, many professors rapidly organized this spring, forming union chapters in an attempt to defend their research. 'The level of increased faculty activism at Dartmouth is demonstrating that those of us who value the ideals and values of higher education are not waiting for administrators to lead on this,' said Bethany Moreton, who helped launch Dartmouth's chapter of the American Association of University Presidents in May 2024. Membership has since ballooned to 150, she said. Across the Ivy League, researchers said they're best suited to publicly advocate for their work, describing their life-saving findings and discoveries at rallies and in letters to lawmakers, groups told the Globe. While some observers warn of a potential brain drain among professors to Canada or Europe in response to Trump's cuts to research funding, some said Trump's attacks are creating more unity among colleagues than they've seen in years. 'If the intention was to divide faculty and pit us against each other with all the threats, it's really not working,' said Princeton English professor Meredith Martin. 'We care so much about our students that, if anything, this is bringing us together and making us stronger.' During the recent school year, membership in AAUP surged to 50,000, from 42,000, with almost all of that after Trump's inauguration in January, according to the group, and is the largest spike since its founding a century ago. Alumni stand up for schools Alumni are also pushing administrators at their alma maters to do more to stand up for their schools' autonomy. Harvard's alumni campaign, Crimson Courage, met Friday in a packed auditorium on the Cambridge campus to discuss how it is 'reaching out beyond Harvard to build the campaign,' an event description said. Advertisement The group Stand Up for Princeton and Higher Education amassed more than 9,000 alumni supporters in the past five weeks. Some held signs and wore buttons while walking the P-rade route on May 24. The group's In Connecticut, the group Stand Up for Yale sent a Similar alumni groups are taking shape across the Ivy League, with several urging university presidents to sign on to group statements, alumni told the Globe. Schools must band together formally, experts say Many graduates said their support is for all of higher education, not just their alma maters. At the recent Princeton reunion after the P-rade, a Yale Divinity School student caught up with a University of Chicago Law School graduate over barbecue. Outside nearby Firestone Library, recent graduates of Yale's and Harvard's law schools enveloped in hugs. 'The education my peers and I received was life changing, and our schools know this and are not backing down on ensuring future students get the same opportunities,' said Joshua Faires, who has an undergraduate degree from Princeton and a master's degree in sociology from Columbia University. HoSang, from Yale's AAUP chapter, said Trump knows higher education institutions depend on each other and share one 'ecosystem,' and so a threat against one is a threat to all, he said. Advertisement 'There is no saving Yale, Harvard, or Princeton without standing up for all of higher education,' HoSang said. Still, faculty and alumni need more support from administrators, some warned —all the way from the presidents at the top, said Wolfson, the national AAUP president. 'I think they need to be bold,' Wolfson said. 'And this is hard to do but I'll say it anyway: They need to put their institution second, and then need to put higher education — as a critical sector in US society — first.' Claire Thornton can be reached at
