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June 20, 2025
Senate Embraces “Do No Harm” for Higher Education
…proposal would strengthen the higher education system. But the current political environment presents a once-in-a-generation chance to fix the broken federal role in higher education. Lawmakers shouldn’t miss the opportunity…
June 12, 2025
The Senate’s Higher Education Reforms Are Strong (But Could Be Stronger)
…outcomes. The Senate will need to approve the full package, and lawmakers must reconcile its differences with another higher education reform plan recently passed the House. There are more steps before these…
May 28, 2025
The Challenge: A Complex and Inefficient Student Loan System
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May 14, 2025
Graduation in the Time of COVID: The Weakened Relationship with Chronic Absenteeism
…to over 100,000 fewer graduates—if not for its weakened relationship with absenteeism. Educators and policymakers must purposefully contend with whether emergency pandemic policy changes have enduring effects on students and…
May 12, 2025
To Improve Student Outcomes, Focus On Classroom Practice, Not Policy
…by my recent Marquette Today piece, the event—hosted in collaboration with the College of Education—brought together educators, researchers, and policymakers to discuss how improving classroom practice is the linchpin of meaningful…
May 7, 2025
Republicans Unveil Plan to Rein in Student Debt and Waste in Higher Education
In a significant development for higher education policy, House Republicans have unveiled a sweeping proposal to reform student loans and financial aid through the federal budget reconciliation process. This effort, which complements…
May 5, 2025
What’s in House Republicans’ Student Loan Overhaul
…where lawmakers have proposed their own set of student loan reforms that differ on some points. However, the policies in the House package stand a better chance of becoming law than any…
April 24, 2025
It’s About Time: Bring Back Those Student Loan Collections
This week, the Department of Education announced that on May 5 it will begin collecting on defaulted student loans. This will be the first time since March 2020 that borrowers who have…
April 17, 2025
Turn Public Service Loan Forgiveness into a State Block Grant
As Congress negotiates a bill to overhaul the federal budget, lawmakers looking to save money should note $30 billion in potential savings hiding in plain sight. The Public Service Loan…
March 25, 2025
Reimagining Federal Education R&D: IES, Workforce Skills, and State Leadership
…countries that participate in the study (over 30 in PIAAC). This produces a diffuse survey covering far too many aspects of skills than are needed by US policy makers. An…