December 8, 2023
Biden’s Even Worse Version of “Free College”
The Biden administration has abolished the federal student-loan program, at least if a “student-loan program” is one in which students borrow money and then eventually repay it. What’s being erected in its stead is a scheme that’s rife with moral hazard, seemingly designed to inflate college costs, and best described as a “student-fraud program”—in which…
November 17, 2023
Male Malaise Is Not Just About ‘the Culture’
You are familiar with the litany of ills blighting our society: declining rates of work and marriage; rising rates of obesity and loneliness; soaring deaths of despair. All of these trends reflect the falling fortunesof the American male, a malaise magnified when we look at boys and men in poor and working-class communities. When the male malaise…
November 8, 2023
Perspective: The 4-Year Dividing Line
New survey shows the compounding benefits of college degrees. Here’s how to help those without degrees to catch up When it comes to jobs and work, the past three years have been among the most tumultuous in decades. From mass layoffs in the early phase of the COVID-19 pandemic to surging reemployment and wages as the country…
October 26, 2023
New Report Sheds Light on Expansive Biden Student Loan Forgiveness Scheme
Last week, the Urban Institute published a new report examining, in detail, the implications of President Biden’s latest scheme to forgive as much student debt as possible before the next election cycle: the SAVE repayment plan. This report brings much needed clarity to the question of exactly how Biden’s misguided attempts to forgive student debt through executive…
October 20, 2023
Value Needs to be the Next Buzzword in Higher Education
For a long time, advocates and policymakers in the higher education space were fixated on improving “access” to higher education. As a society, we recognized that higher education was a powerful tool for promoting social mobility, and helping people born into lower-income households advance financially and pursue fulfilling careers. We also realized that higher education…
October 17, 2023
Measuring Value in Higher Education
Event Description As Republicans and Democrats on the Hill and in state legislatures nationwide seek to address the rising debt burden facing college graduates, new focus has been placed on institutions of higher learning and how well they prepare graduates for entering the workforce and paying off accrued debt. This event explores the prospect of…
October 16, 2023
Serve Students, Not Institutions
More than 20,000 physical therapists left the profession in 2021 alone, notes a recent report. It’s therefore hard to imagine why anyone would want to discourage universities from offering more physical therapy programs to help renew the ranks. Unfortunately, that’s just what the Maryland Higher Education Commission (MHEC) did recently when it voted to stop…
October 12, 2023
I Spoke to Arne Duncan About School Reform. Here Are 5 Takeaways
Last week, at the American Enterprise Institute, former Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and I sat down to talk about the future of school reform with The New York Times’ Erica Green (you can see the video here). Across town, at exactly the same time, Rep. Matt Gaetz and his gang of very online arsonists were…
October 6, 2023
After a Banner Year for School Choice, the Challenge Is to Ensure New Programs Work
The last few years have been historic ones for the school choice movement. Dozens of new programs have been adopted, existing programs have been expanded, education savings accounts (ESAs) have morphed from an oddity into a legislative reality, and new school models have flourished. But we’ve seen time and again that this kind of success…
October 3, 2023
A Way Forward for School Reform: A Conversation with Frederick M. Hess and Former Education Secretary Arne Duncan
A decade ago, for better or worse, education improvement was widely seen as a bipartisan cause. Today, fights over schooling are increasingly polarized. Are there opportunities for principled agreement on action regarding choice, teacher pay, parental involvement, the teaching of American history, or much else? Join AEI’s Frederick M. Hess, former US Secretary of Education…