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February 6, 2025

High Costs, Uneven Value: Repairing The Federal Role in Postsecondary Education

The higher education system suffers from many problems, including excessive costs, low completion rates, uneven financial value for students, and high rates of student loan nonpayment. Federal government policies unintentionally…

January 29, 2025

How State Governments Can Fight Degree Inflation

Key Points State governments contribute to degree inflation—the addition of college degree requirements to jobs that did not previously have them—through their own hiring practices, and through occupational licensing laws….

January 23, 2025

Four College Enrollment Trends to Watch

The National Student Clearinghouse (NSC) published its biannual report on college enrollment trends this morning, providing a comprehensive look at how student numbers totaled up in fall 2024. NSC’s preliminary figures, released…

January 21, 2025

How Trump Can Permanently Fix the Student Loan Program

Even before he took office, President Donald Trump was already securing major policy wins. Trump’s election induced the Biden administration to withdraw two pending regulations that would have canceled over $250 billion in federal student…

January 6, 2025

Congress Can Block Student Loan Cancellation—Forever

Over the holiday season, the Biden administration withdrew two pending regulations to unilaterally cancel hundreds of billions of dollars’ worth of student loans. Officials evidently judged that the administration would not have time to…

December 18, 2024

Employers Should Drop Hiring Preferences for “Elite 34” Colleges

How do you know if someone went to Harvard? They’ll tell you. If a recent Wall Street Journal story is any indication, though, that classic joke may soon be outdated. According to the…

December 11, 2024

Some College Graduates Are Taking Lower-Paying Jobs

The promise of higher education is to equip students with new ideas and skills that will help them land higher-paying jobs. For many students, this dream comes true—but that is…

December 2, 2024

Reforming State Authorization of Colleges to Boost Competition and Lower Tuition

Key Points The higher education market is stagnant. The vast majority of students attend colleges that are more than 50 years old, and rising demand for college has not seen…

November 25, 2024

Don’t Write Off Workforce Pell Grants

Education Secretary nominee Linda McMahon, a former administrator of the Small Business Administration, is a proponent of expanding Pell Grants to short-term workforce education programs. In a September op-ed, McMahon boosted…

November 20, 2024

End Federal Loans for Graduate School

President-elect Donald Trump and his top advisors have announced plans to create a Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), a commission tasked with slashing wasteful spending throughout the federal budget. One place they…