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Associated Press
a day ago
- Politics
- Associated Press
Texas A&M, university systems in other red states will create agency to review quality standards
The Texas A&M System is partnering with university systems from five other Republican-led states to create a new agency to set quality standards for their schools. The move comes amid Republican criticism of higher education accrediting agencies, which they say are partly responsible for promoting diversity, equity and inclusion programs, and reinforcing liberal bias in the country's colleges and universities. Officials with Texas A&M, State University System of Florida, University System of Georgia, University of Tennessee System, University of North Carolina System and University of South Carolina System said in a news release Thursday they will create a new agency to accredit them. They are calling the new body the Commission for Public Higher Education. Texas A&M and most other public, four-year universities in Texas are currently accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges. Jim Suydam, Texas A&M University System's director of media relations, said the university is not planning on leaving SACSCOC right now. 'In recent legislative sessions, our top state officials have sought a more reasonable and transparent pathway toward accreditation. And now, the leadership of the Texas A&M University System is pleased to announce that the System has joined an alliance of some of the nation's top university systems to provide a new, less cumbersome and more objective option for accreditation,' said Glenn Hegar, who will become the Texas A&M Chancellor on July 1. Accreditors assess higher education institutions' quality by reviewing their programs, curricula and graduation rates, among other metrics. Colleges and universities need to be accredited if they want their students to qualify for federal financial aid. Texas law requires the state's public universities to be accredited by one of seven federally recognized agencies. It's unclear if the five university systems have begun the process of getting the new agency recognized by the federal or state government. Suydam said it will likely be a two-year process. In recent years, President Donald Trump and Republican lawmakers have criticized U.S. universities for what they say amounts to promoting liberal ideologies to students. In April, Trump signed an executive order directing the Department of Education to overhaul the accreditation process for universities by reviewing existing accrediting agencies, suspending accreditation recognition for those deemed to have a poor performance, and recognizing new accreditors. He claimed some agencies have approved 'low quality' institutions and abused their authority by requiring that schools have diversity, equality and inclusion initiatives. SACSCOC does not have any DEI requirements for universities to get accredited, according to the agency. 'If DEI is the concern, then the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools would satisfy that concern because SACS does not require DEI for accreditation,' said Brian Evans, president of the Texas Conference of the American Association of University Professors. 'So, I don't know why the southern schools…are going band together to create a new accrediting agency.' The creation of the new accrediting agency also comes after the Texas Legislature passed Senate Bill 530, which will give schools other options to become accredited. SACSCOC will no longer be the sole accreditor for Texas universities, allowing them to choose any agency from an approved list by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board. ___ This story was originally published by The Texas Tribune and distributed through a partnership with The Associated Press.
Wall Street Journal
4 days ago
- Business
- Wall Street Journal
Big Banks, Worried About Being Trump's Next Target, Race to Appease Republicans
Big banks are trying to get out of the crosshairs of Republican states that are cracking down on companies for 'woke' policies that conservative policymakers say are illegal and discriminatory. Representatives from JPMorgan Chase JPM 1.19%increase; green up pointing triangle, Citigroup C 1.16%increase; green up pointing triangle, Wells Fargo WFC 2.14%increase; green up pointing triangle and other big banks met in recent weeks with officials in states including Texas and Oklahoma to defend against allegations that they refuse to do business with industries such as gun manufacturing and fossil-fuel extraction, people familiar with the discussions said.
CNN
11-06-2025
- Politics
- CNN
Why these trans elders say they ‘aren't afraid' amid attacks on trans rights
When Renata Ramos was 5, she stood in front of a mirror, squeezed her eyes shut, and prayed that when she opened them, she would see a girl looking back at her. 'I'd go to the mirror, I'd look, and I was still a little boy,' she said. Ramos, 64, says she has been transgender for as long as she can remember. She didn't begin living openly as a woman until her 50s, suppressing her identity because she feared she'd lose her career as a model and actor. When she finally came out, it felt 'like walking on clouds,' she said. For Pride Month, CNN spoke with Ramos and other trans people over the age of 60 about their lives and what they've learned from watching the decades-long battle for trans rights unfold. Many spoke with pride and wonder about the strides the trans rights movement has made in the 21st century, with access to gender-affirming health care more accessible than ever and trans people protected from discrimination by laws in several states. But they also spoke about the anxiety and dismay provoked by the flurry of executive orders from President Donald Trump that target trans people – including declaring that there are only two genders, banning transgender women from participating in most women's sports, and barring transgender recruits from the military. The orders make good on Trump's campaign promise to crack down on 'gender ideology' and build on a wave of anti-trans laws passed largely in Republican states over the past few years. After decades of progress to protect trans rights, the current moment feels like a step back, some said. Still, the older trans people with whom CNN spoke emphasized their resilience in the face of anti-trans legislation – a resilience that has persisted throughout years of trans activism. 'No one can erase our identities,' Pauline Park, a trans activist and organizer, said. 'They can certainly try to take away our rights and undermine our ability to live openly and freely. And we need to resist that, and challenge that. 'But they can't erase our identities.' For Ramos, the latest attack on trans rights is just one more fight in a series of battles the LGBTQ community has fought in the past decades – and won. 'I don't give a damn' about the latest executive orders, she said. 'We've been overcoming one battle after the other all our lives.' The model and actress lived through the height of the AIDS crisis. After rallying for government action in Washington, DC, and attending countless friends' funerals, she saw the disease go from a death sentence to a survivable condition. And she witnessed same-sex marriage go from a dream to a mundane reality across the US. 'These young people are not used to it, which I completely understand,' she added. 'But we, from the old school, we're not afraid.' Ramos was born in Soca, a small and conservative city in Uruguay, where even coming out as gay 'scandalized' people, she said. She immigrated to Rhode Island alongside her family when she was 7. Although she was certain of her transgender identity from childhood, she thought she would never succeed as an actor if she came out. Most trans women she knew in her youth were pushed into sex work due to the lack of work opportunities for trans people, she said. Instead, she lived publicly as a gay man for decades, fantasizing about the day she would be able to retire and live as her true self. She worked as a Spanish-language interpreter while also racking up acting credits: She appeared as a 'drape' in 'Cry-Baby,' the 1990 film by iconic queer director John Waters. She finally began taking steps to medically and socially transition at 56, after a winding career that included stints in Washington, DC, Arizona, Miami, and New York, as well as an extended period of chronic illness followed by a stroke in 2014. Transitioning 'gave me comfort in my own skin,' she said. 'It's so beautiful.' She added that despite the current setbacks, acceptance of transgender people has increased significantly in the past years. It's only 'in the past decades, that you could be transgender and admit it,' she said. She emphasized the diversity of the trans community, despite stereotypes like those that link trans women to sex work. 'They only see one side of the transgender community,' she said. 'But there are many of us that have lived our dreams that are out there.' Criss Smith's gender journey starts in the sweltering heat of Jamaica – with a group of rambunctious boys and Go-Karts. Smith was seven years old, playing Go-Karts with his brother and friends. The other children – all boys – took off their shirts in the heat. But when Smith did the same, he was rebuked. His brother said, ''You're a girl child,'' Smith recalled. 'Oh my God, it was like he stabbed me in the heart.' 'I cried for two days because I did not want to be a girl child,' he said. It wasn't until Smith moved to the US and attended college at Skidmore in upstate New York that he met other queer people and came out as a lesbian, finding confidence in a masculine self-presentation. But even though he was part of a burgeoning queer community, his identity was still fraught by the aftereffects of his conservative, religious upbringing: 'I was so worried that the first time I had sex, I actually thought that God was going to strike me down,' he said. When he came out to his mother, she stopped speaking to him for a year. 'It was heartbreaking,' he said. Smith can still remember the first time he met an out trans person, a bartender in New York who was pursuing top surgery (a gender-affirming mastectomy) in California in the 80s – at a time when the gay rights movement was nascent and transgender rights were on the extreme periphery. He was 'blown away' by how the bartender 'was living so freely, and being so expressive,' he said. His own transition – which started when he was 52 after deep soul-searching and years of 'feeling like he was wearing a mask' – gave him the same sense of freedom. 'I felt like I was reborn,' he said. 'For the first time in my life, I felt like I was being truly me.' It's the same freedom that he hopes can be a lesson from trans people for the rest of the world, even as trans people face 'horrible' attacks on their freedoms and rights. 'Trans people teach the rest of society that freedom is real – because we live freedom every day,' he said. 'We live authenticity every day.' Being trans has been the ultimate expression of self-love, he added. 'That's our superpower, is that we love ourselves so much that we're able to make a choice that is for us only,' he said. 'That's the highest form of self-love.' For Pauline Park, attacks on transgender and queer identity are more than just repressive. They also directly contradict a long and rich history of gender variance across the world. 'There have been people like us since the dawn of history,' she told CNN. She pointed to transgender traditions like the hijra community in South Asia and kathoey in Thailand, as well as Guanyin, a figure in Buddhist mythology who is often represented as genderless or as shifting from male to female. 'It's important to recognize that, in the larger span of history, we have existed, and we will continue to exist,' she said. Park's own coming out went hand-in-hand with her work advocating for LGBT rights. Like Ramos and Smith, Park had long known she was trans – but adopted from South Korea into a 'Christian, fundamentalist household' when she was less than a year old, she 'knew instinctively' that her gender identity wasn't something she could discuss with her parents. Even same-sex marriage was 'inconceivable' when she grew up, she said. A career pivot to LGBT activism brought her to lead the campaign for a transgender rights bill in New York City, and she came out and began living as a woman full-time shortly after. 'Actualizing my transgender identity has been instrumental in my ability to bring about social change,' she said. Park cofounded the New York Association for Gender Rights Advocacy and has helped advocate for trans rights across the state. Park has led hundreds of transgender sensitivity trainings, she said, where one of the main goals is to help participants 'realize that when you're talking about transgender, you're actually talking about everyone,' she said. 'Not that everyone is trans, but the issues that transgender people face are issues that are rooted in structural oppressions,' she explained. 'We have to think about society as a whole – and whether we want to make it welcoming and inclusive or not.' That work is particularly important right now, when 'the community is now under unprecedented attack, from the highest leadership in the land,' according to Park. She called transphobia 'one of the last generally acceptable prejudices in our society.' She added that anti-trans legislation will have the most devastating impacts on trans youth. Restrictions on gender-affirming care, she said, won't stop trans youth from pursuing that care – but they might mean that they turn to black market solutions instead of gender-affirming therapy overseen by a doctor. 'People will actualize their identities if they want to, even in the face of legal and structural impediments,' she said. 'The effort to try to eliminate gender-affirming care is going to fail, but it's going to harm a lot of people,' she said. 'It's ultimately both futile and morally reprehensible – and it won't work.' For Justin Vivian Bond, the Trump administration's attacks on nonbinary identity reflect 'willful ignorance' more than anything else. The 62-year-old cabaret performer and actor grew up in the 60s and 70s, when even same-sex marriage seemed a far-off dream. As a child, they were terrified to come out to their family. Today, they're a trailblazer in nonbinary representation and something of an institution in New York City's music and theater scene. 'Some people are so resistant to anything that they don't know that they'll never know me – because they're just too ignorant,' they said. The concept of trans or nonbinary identities might be new to some people, they noted. But 'constant change, constant evolution, is part of being alive,' they went on. 'Otherwise you might as well just, you know, hang up your hat and go home and never leave again — or, in other words, drop dead.' A Maryland native, Bond's own career is a testament to the evolution of queer art and culture. They started their career in San Francisco, performing in trans playwright Kate Bornstein's 'Hidden: A Gender' before developing the legendary character of Kiki, 'a 60-some-year-old alcoholic lounge singer with ex-husbands and children,' one half of the 'Kiki and Herb' cabaret duo in which Bond performed in drag. The over-the-top, enraged character was forged at the height of the AIDS epidemic, through a palpable sense of anger from 'the knowledge that the people in power literally wanted us dead.' Since then, Bond has built a flourishing career as a solo artist, maintaining a years-long residency at Joe's Pub at The Public Theater in NYC and receiving a 2024 MacArthur 'genius grant' for crafting 'performances that center queer joy.' Bond's gender, like their artistic practice, is 'constantly evolving,' they said. After decades playing with gender and performance in their on-stage work and life, they started taking hormone replacement therapy in their 50s. 'Still to this day, I don't like being trapped into any identity, because it's just not something that is fixed,' they explained. Bond's own response to the newest waves of attacks by the Trump administration was one of exasperation and frustration: 'Why do we have to go through this?' But the queer community has survived worse, they said. 'All of our rights were fought for,' they said. 'We've always had ways of working around these patriarchal nimrods, and living our lives and being happy and enjoying each other's company and dancing together and partying together and living together and sleeping together and cooking together.' 'That's not going to stop just because they say we should be unhappy.' Dawn Melody realized that she might be trans later in life – after her son came out first. In 2012, her 12-year-old told her he was transgender. Melody, trusting her children to 'tell [her] who they are,' quickly affirmed his identity, supporting him as he cut his hair and came out to friends and family. 'Watching that young person go on to bravely be who they are' was 'inspiring,' she said. And a few years later, it inspired her own soul-searching. Melody had long harbored an ineffable feeling that 'something was different.' But growing up in an Irish Catholic household in Westchester, New York, being queer was off the table – and 'the idea of transgender, that was like being from another planet,' she told CNN. In her 50s, Melody, still searching for the source of that constant feeling of 'difference,' sought out women's clothes and a wig to test-drive presenting as a woman at home. That first trial felt 'miraculous,' she said. Melody said that she had ultimately been inspired by her son's 'steadfast' commitment to his identity. 'This is me taking the cue from my child that that if you're brave enough to do this, so am I,' she said. When Trump first began signing anti-trans legislation in January, she felt 'nausea.' 'He declared it during his inauguration speech that I don't exist,' she said. 'That I'm undesirable.' Melody framed the executive orders as 'frantically trying to sweep back the sea when the sea can't be swept back.' But 'there's no way to stop progress,' she said. And despite the attacks, being trans is 'the best thing that ever happened to me,' she added. 'I'm glad that I am this way, and I wouldn't change it for all the tea in China,' she said. Living as a woman feels like 'swimming with the current' after decades of fighting to swim across it, she said. She added that she hopes trans youth today can keep faith in themselves despite a wave of anti-trans sentiment and legislation. 'It's not without its moments of horror and fear, but life is such a gift – and it's way too short.'
Forbes
06-06-2025
- Business
- Forbes
Borrowers Receive Misleading Student Loan Interest Notices — Here's What To Know
Hundreds of thousands of federal student loan borrowers received a formal notice this week warning them that interest is accruing on their balance, and suggesting that they make a payment. But for many of these borrowers, interest isn't actually accruing, and the notice provided misleading information. The federal student loan repayment system remains plagued by dysfunction, making the environment ripe for confusion and misinformation. More than eight million borrowers who had enrolled in the SAVE plan remain stuck in a forbearance after a court blocked the program last summer. The ruling came in response to a legal challenge brought by Republican-led states. Meanwhile, the Department of Education and its contracted loan servicers are trying to work through a two-million application backlog for income-driven repayment plans after the Trump administration shut down the system earlier this year following a new court order related to the SAVE plan litigation. Then, last month, Republican lawmakers pushed legislation through the House to reshape the federal student loan repayment system, although no legal changes are in effect quite yet. Here's the latest, and what borrowers should know about student loan interest accrual during these turbulent times. At least eight million federal student loan borrowers who had been enrolled in the SAVE plan are currently in a forbearance. A federal appeals court issued an injunction last summer blocking the program after a group of Republican state attorneys general filed a legal challenge, arguing that the Biden administration exceeded its authority by crafting a student loan repayment plan with such generous terms. The court blocked, but did not strike down, the SAVE plan, as the challenge continues. As a result, SAVE plan borrowers were put into a forbearance. The SAVE plan forbearance period does not count toward student loan forgiveness for both IDR purposes or for Public Service Loan Forgiveness, or PSLF. But borrowers don't have to make payments during the forbearance, and interest should not be accruing. 'You are in a general forbearance,' the Department of Education tells SAVE plan borrowers on its website, 'because your loan servicer is not currently able to bill you at an amount required by the court injunction. You will be in this forbearance until servicers are able to accurately calculate monthly payment amounts or the court reaches a decision on the availability of the SAVE Plan.' The department's notice indicates that during this general forbearance, 'You do not have to make your monthly payments on your student loans, interest is not accruing, and time spent does not provide credit toward Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) or IDR.' This week, millions of federal student loan borrowers who are in the SAVE plan forbearance received a notice from their loan servicer, MOHELA, telling them that interest is accruing on their loans. 'In an effort to keep you updated on your federal loan(s), we have enclosed details about your loans), including the accrued interest, interest rate, and total balance,' reads the notice. "The loan(s) listed in this letter are currently in forbearance. Although no payments are due at this time, interest continues to accrue on your loan(s) during the forbearance period. You have the option to pay the interest during forbearance." But for many of these borrowers, interest should not be accruing, and this mass notice provided misleading information, suggesting that borrowers should make payments on their student loans when no payment is due and no interest is accruing. Borrowers still in the SAVE plan forbearance can look to the second page of the letter, which should indicate that the interest rate for the covered loans is 0%, and no interest has accrued so far this year. After the notices were sent to borrowers, MOHELA issued a statement on its website clarifying the situation. 'If you recently received an interest notice for your student loan account, please know that this is not a bill, and no action is necessary at this time,' said MOHELA. 'For borrowers on the SAVE administrative forbearance, interest is currently set at 0%. Refer to your loan details in your notice.' Some borrowers in the SAVE plan forbearance are reporting that interest actually is accruing on their student loan balances. These borrowers are reportedly being told by their loan servicer that this is a mistake, and that the Department of Education should correct the error when the SAVE plan forbearance ends, likely later this year or sometime next year. However, some borrowers may be understandably concerned about this. If you're in the SAVE plan forbearance and not sure whether interest is accruing on your student loans, there are a few things you can do: Federal student loan borrowers should be aware that while the SAVE plan forbearance halts interest accrual, interest will continue to accrue on balances during most other forbearance periods. 'If you get a forbearance, you're still responsible for the interest that accrues while you're not making payments,' says general Department of Education guidance on forbearance periods. Importantly, this includes 'processing' forbearances, where a loan servicer places borrowers in forbearance if a student loan repayment application (such as for an IDR plan) takes longer than a couple of weeks to complete. 'Servicers may place borrowers into a different forbearance category, known as processing forbearance, if the servicers need additional time to process those borrowers' applications to enroll in IDR, recalculate their payments on an IDR plan, or recertify their incomes for their IDR plan,' says the Department of Education. 'In contrast to the general forbearance for borrowers enrolled in SAVE (previously known as REPAYE), interest will accrue while a borrower is in processing forbearance. Additionally, time spent in processing forbearance (up to 60 days) is eligible for PSLF credit. Processing forbearance will last no longer than 60 days." After that, borrowers may return to a general forbearance. Federal student loan borrowers should be aware that it is no longer possible to apply for the SAVE plan following the most recent court ruling earlier this year. This means that borrowers who aren't already in the SAVE plan forbearance cannot enroll, and therefore cannot benefit from the zero interest accrual benefit. Borrowers can still apply for other IDR plans, but interest will continue to accrue during any associated processing forbearance.
Yahoo
20-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Just how many jobs and GDP dollars do US clean energy factories create?
American manufacturing has already surged in the clean energy sector, bringing with it significant economic rewards. That's the main takeaway from a census of U.S. clean energy factories, published today by the American Clean Power Association trade group. The report identifies 200 operating across 38 states as of early 2025. The production of solar panels leads the count with at least 90 facilities. About 65 factories are making batteries, while a smaller number produce equipment for onshore and offshore wind. A broader population of over 800 facilities plays a supporting role in the clean energy supply chain, manufacturing materials and subcomponents that turn the solar panels and batteries into full-fledged power plants. Those facilities already contribute 122,000 jobs and create $33 billion of economic activity annually, which includes earnings, goods and services produced, and payments to supporting industries, ACP found. Notably, 73% of these factories operate in what the report describes as 'Republican states' (as determined by presidential vote). That economic impact could grow to $164 billion by 2030 if the currently planned and announced factories come to fruition. The report came out as ACP met for its annual conference in Phoenix, but the intended audience includes the Republican members of Congress who will soon vote on cuts to the slew of tax credits underpinning this factory buildout. The report asserts that the burgeoning cleantech factory sector could 'be the foundation for American energy dominance that is built by Americans for Americans.' 'We have seen a tremendous amount of momentum over just even the past couple of years in clean energy manufacturing growth,' MJ Shiao, ACP's vice president of supply chain and manufacturing, said on a press call Friday. 'With stable tax and stable trade policy, we can really continue to amplify, grow that momentum.' Clean energy leaders have spent the months since the November election hoping that the sheer economic dynamism their factories inject into Republican congressional districts could overcome President Donald Trump's desire to unravel Joe Biden's legacies. It didn't help that the Democrats passed the Inflation Reduction Act, with its many highly targeted tax credits for clean energy deployment and manufacturing, on a party-line vote. But enough Republican representatives publicly argued against a wholesale repeal of the credits to give cleantech insiders hope. Indeed, the House Ways and Means Committee declined to eradicate the credits entirely in its budget proposal from last week. But the proposed tweaks to many of the individual programs narrow their scope and could render them wholly unworkable nonetheless. 'If they are implemented as currently drafted, which we certainly hope they are not, we will see factories shutting down,' Shiao said. 'We will see these American manufacturers have to lay people off, and we will see them having to tell their local business partners that they no longer have the opportunity to work with them.' In that light, the ACP report reads as a tabulation of what the country could miss out on if policy changes underway in Washington bring the onshoring trend to a staggering halt. The manufacturing job count could grow to 579,000 by 2030 if the other announced factory projects get built and come online. Total job count doesn't confirm how desirable the work is, but these jobs happen to pay quite well, especially solar manufacturing salaries, which averaged $134,000 in 2024. A Canary Media visit to the enormous QCells solar factory in Dalton, Georgia, last year showed why this work pays more than traditional manufacturing. The brand-new factories leverage considerable automation and robotic assistance for the heavy lifting and repetitive, high-precision tasks. Workers patrolled the lines and intervened when the machinery needed help. That greater output of an in-demand, high-tech product supported considerably higher pay than the carpet factories down the road. 'This is not our parents' generation's manufacturing,' Shiao said. 'There is automation, there is robotics, there is AI in these facilities. And that's a good thing, because these are high-tech, high-skill opportunities that are being brought into some of these communities that are really eager to find ways to keep their best, keep their brightest in the places that they grow up in.' Across cleantech factories, annual earnings from clean energy manufacturing averaged $118,000, the study found, well above the average U.S. worker's pay of $76,000. It's not just immediate employees who benefit, though. First comes the intensive but temporary construction phase. Once complete, the factories create additional work for support services in the region, such as shipping and delivery companies, food vendors, hotels for visiting customers, and waste disposal. Domestic manufacturing also relies on other component suppliers: Utility-scale solar panels sit on American steel trackers, covered in U.S.-made solar glass. The authors calculate that each job in a clean energy factory leads to three more in supporting industries. This reality sounds a lot like the vision that Trump campaigned on last year, of growing jobs at home by restoring U.S. manufacturing from the ravages of globalization. He also repeatedly emphasizes a desire to secure more critical minerals for the U.S.; clean energy technologies provide much of the expected demand growth for those minerals. 'This administration talks a lot about an all-of-the-above energy strategy that facilitates American energy dominance,' Shiao said. 'I think there needs to continue to be that recognition that solar, wind, energy storage are key pieces and critical pieces to realizing that growth, certainly in terms of the speed at which those projects can be deployed.' The Ways and Means budget proposal dealt a blow to the cleantech industry's hopes for a predictable investment landscape. It was also the opening volley of a weekslong negotiating process that will soon involve the Senate as well. Amid all that uncertainty, ACP has at least provided some fresh numbers on the value clean energy factories have created in their short moment of ascendancy, as well as helped clarify what's at stake. 'We think we've got a winning message, one that is bringing positivity, and of course, economic growth to the country,' said John Hensley, ACP's senior vice president of markets and policy analysis. 'We're going to continue to tell that story, and hopefully it lands on ears that are willing to listen.'
