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May 9, 2024

FAFSA Flop: What Is Going On with the 2024–25 Cycle?

Event Summary On May 9, AEI hosted a panel conversation with AEI’s Beth Akers and Michael Brickman, Karen McCarthy of the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators, and Mark

May 9, 2024

The Federal Student Loan Program Is Unraveling

…enough to create a thriving private student loan market. Leaning against financial innovation, hostile regulators often threaten to block the private sector from using factors correlated with each college’s financial value…

May 2, 2024

A New Lost Generation: Disengaged, Aimless, and Adrift

…grace” during the pandemic, one middle school teacher and administrator told me. Students didn’t just get passing marks, they got good grades for minimal effort. Now there’s a lack of…

April 3, 2024

Feds Should Take a Big Step Back on Student Loans

…virtues of free markets, described a role for the government in solving the failure of the market to adequately fund efficient investments in education. But our persistent mismanagement of this essential program…

April 1, 2024

How Private Student Lending Can Repair Higher Education

Key Points Private student loans are a relatively small share of the market for higher education finance; however, scaling back the beleaguered federal student loan program would offer an opportunity…

March 28, 2024

Federal Student Lending is Beyond Repair

…held water. For the vast majority of borrowers, loans made sense. They financed an investment that paid off. And below market interest rates paired with safety nets for borrowers with…

March 14, 2024

The “No Excuses” Model Is Due for a Renaissance

In a dispatch over the weekend, the New York Times took note of the rise of “super strict schools in England,” marked by “strict routines and detentions,” silent corridors, and “zero-tolerance” policies for even…

March 11, 2024

Taking On the College Cartel

…results like rates of graduation, year-to-year retention, and job placement. Over the longer term, they would need to track student labor market outcomes and calculate graduates’ earnings—as compared to a…

March 6, 2024

College or Trade School? How About Both?

…access to higher education and reaped the benefits in terms of higher GDP and living standards. Education, then, feeds human capital development, the complex mix of education, skills, and social connection on which free markets depend for growth. To…

March 6, 2024

It’s Time to Scrap the Federal Student Loan Program

…should also be required to benchmark employee benefits, overhead, and administrative ranks against private sector norms, with student eligibility for federal loans contingent on acceptable performance. Moreover, institutions whose students…