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"slug": "americans-may-have-soured-on-college-but-the-data-show-theyre-still-going",
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"content": "\n\u003cp>Americans are turning against higher education. At least, that’s what many of them say.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Only\u003ca href=\"https://news.gallup.com/poll/715133/record-low-say-college-education-important.aspx\"> 31 percent\u003c/a> of Americans now consider a college education “very important,” according to a Gallup poll conducted in August and released this month. That’s a record low and a stunning decline from 70 percent in 2013.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1706\" height=\"1564\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2026/10/College-0d8fd369.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-66694\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2026/10/College-0d8fd369.png 1706w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2026/10/College-0d8fd369-160x147.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2026/10/College-0d8fd369-768x704.png 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2026/10/College-0d8fd369-1536x1408.png 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1706px) 100vw, 1706px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">\u003cem>Source: Gallup,\u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://news.gallup.com/poll/715133/record-low-say-college-education-important.aspx\">\u003cem> Record-Low 31% Say College Education Is ‘Very Important’\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem>, Oct 1, 2026\u003c/em>.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The shift isn’t confined to groups that have historically been skeptical of higher education. Even women, Democrats, Black and Hispanic Americans and college graduates themselves — people who traditionally placed a greater importance on college — have also registered double-digit declines in their approval of higher education in recent years.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>But here’s the reality: American behavior hasn’t changed nearly as much as American opinion. College enrollment has remained remarkably steady.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Let’s start with new high school graduates.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The latest data from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center, released last month, shows that the share of high school graduates enrolling in two- or four-year colleges immediately after high school has remained \u003ca href=\"https://nscresearchcenter.org/high-school-benchmarks/\">steady\u003c/a>. Among graduates from low-poverty high schools, 74 percent enrolled in college in the fall of 2025, up slightly from 73 percent in 2024. Among graduates from high-poverty high schools, the rate was 51 percent in both years.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The National Student Clearinghouse data don’t go back far enough to tell us what immediate college-going looked like decades ago. For that, we have to turn to the federal government, where the National Center for Education Statistics has documented a slump over the longer term. The immediate college-going rate fell from 68 percent in 2014 to 63 percent in 2024.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>That’s a meaningful 5 percentage-point drop. But compare it with the collapse in public enthusiasm for college: The share of Americans saying college is “very important” fell 39 percentage points over roughly the same period.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>And when we look at\u003ca href=\"https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d25/tables/dt25_306.10.asp\"> total college enrollment\u003c/a> — including people who don’t go immediately after high school, as well as graduate students — the picture also doesn’t show a collapse in college-going. In fact, the number of enrolled students has been rising since 2022.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1266\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2026/10/Enrollment-a08fc278-scaled.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-66695\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2026/10/Enrollment-a08fc278-scaled.png 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2026/10/Enrollment-a08fc278-2000x989.png 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2026/10/Enrollment-a08fc278-160x79.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2026/10/Enrollment-a08fc278-768x380.png 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2026/10/Enrollment-a08fc278-1536x760.png 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2026/10/Enrollment-a08fc278-2048x1013.png 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\" />\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The increase is even more dramatic over the long term. Nearly 20 million students were enrolled in higher education in 2024, up substantially from fewer than 16 million in the early 2000s. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>That said, the increase hasn’t been a straight line; today’s enrollment is still short of the all-time high of 21 million students in 2010 and 2011. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>That bump happened because college enrollment is countercyclical. When jobs are plentiful, young adults pursue work. When the economy is weak and jobs are scarce, more people go to school.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Enrollment surged between 2008 and 2011, when the country was reeling from the Great Recession. And it decreased after 2011, as the job market strengthened.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Still, we might have expected enrollment to have grown more than it did because the number of potential college students increased. U.S. births began rising after 1998, and 18 years later there were roughly \u003ca href=\"https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d24/tables/dt24_219.10.asp\">900,000\u003c/a> more high school graduates in 2016 than in 1998.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Yet college enrollment did not rise proportionally. Could declining faith in higher education be restraining what would otherwise have been greater growth in college enrollment? That’s possible. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Why might opinions and actions diverge, when it comes to higher education? Other surveys provide some clues. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>A recent\u003ca href=\"https://www.gallup.com/analytics/644939/state-of-higher-education.aspx\"> Lumina Foundation-Gallup survey\u003c/a> found that 73 percent of adults without a college degree or credential said earning a two- or four-year degree is at least as important as it was 20 years ago. So did 69 percent of college graduates. And when\u003ca href=\"https://news.gallup.com/poll/693047/parents-prefer-college-pathway-child.aspx\"> Gallup asked parents\u003c/a> what they would prefer their children do after high school, a majority chose a two- or four-year degree. (The Lumina Foundation is among the many funders of The Hechinger Report.)\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Americans may be increasingly critical of higher education without being ready to give up on it. People can believe that college is too expensive, too political, overrated or no longer worth what it costs — and still believe that a college degree is the best bet for themselves or their own children.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Our opinions about college have changed dramatically. Our behavior, at least so far, hasn’t.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Marina Villeneuve contributed reporting to this story.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This story about \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/proof-points-college-enrollment/\">\u003cem>college enrollment\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem> was produced by\u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/special-reports/higher-education/\">\u003cem> \u003c/em>The Hechinger Report\u003c/a>\u003cem>, a nonprofit, independent news organization that covers education. Sign up for\u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/proofpoints/\">\u003cem> \u003c/em>\u003cem>Proof Points\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem> and other\u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/newsletters/\">\u003cem> \u003c/em>\u003cem>Hechinger newsletters\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2026/10/College-0d8fd369.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-66694\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2026/10/College-0d8fd369.png 1706w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2026/10/College-0d8fd369-160x147.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2026/10/College-0d8fd369-768x704.png 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2026/10/College-0d8fd369-1536x1408.png 1536w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 992px) min(100vw, 1536px), (min-width: 768px) min(100vw, 1280px), min(100vw, 1020px)\"/>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">\u003cem>Source: Gallup,\u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://news.gallup.com/poll/715133/record-low-say-college-education-important.aspx\">\u003cem> Record-Low 31% Say College Education Is ‘Very Important’\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem>, Oct 1, 2026\u003c/em>.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>That’s a meaningful 5 percentage-point drop. But compare it with the collapse in public enthusiasm for college: The share of Americans saying college is “very important” fell 39 percentage points over roughly the same period.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>And when we look at\u003ca href=\"https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d25/tables/dt25_306.10.asp\"> total college enrollment\u003c/a> — including people who don’t go immediately after high school, as well as graduate students — the picture also doesn’t show a collapse in college-going. In fact, the number of enrolled students has been rising since 2022.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>And when we look at\u003ca href=\"https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d25/tables/dt25_306.10.asp\"> total college enrollment\u003c/a> — including people who don’t go immediately after high school, as well as graduate students — the picture also doesn’t show a collapse in college-going. In fact, the number of enrolled students has been rising since 2022.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The increase is even more dramatic over the long term. Nearly 20 million students were enrolled in higher education in 2024, up substantially from fewer than 16 million in the early 2000s. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>That said, the increase hasn’t been a straight line; today’s enrollment is still short of the all-time high of 21 million students in 2010 and 2011. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>That bump happened because college enrollment is countercyclical. When jobs are plentiful, young adults pursue work. When the economy is weak and jobs are scarce, more people go to school.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Enrollment surged between 2008 and 2011, when the country was reeling from the Great Recession. And it decreased after 2011, as the job market strengthened.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Still, we might have expected enrollment to have grown more than it did because the number of potential college students increased. U.S. births began rising after 1998, and 18 years later there were roughly \u003ca href=\"https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d24/tables/dt24_219.10.asp\">900,000\u003c/a> more high school graduates in 2016 than in 1998.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Still, we might have expected enrollment to have grown more than it did because the number of potential college students increased. U.S. births began rising after 1998, and 18 years later there were roughly \u003ca href=\"https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d24/tables/dt24_219.10.asp\">900,000\u003c/a> more high school graduates in 2016 than in 1998.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Yet college enrollment did not rise proportionally. Could declining faith in higher education be restraining what would otherwise have been greater growth in college enrollment? That’s possible. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Why might opinions and actions diverge, when it comes to higher education? Other surveys provide some clues. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>A recent\u003ca href=\"https://www.gallup.com/analytics/644939/state-of-higher-education.aspx\"> Lumina Foundation-Gallup survey\u003c/a> found that 73 percent of adults without a college degree or credential said earning a two- or four-year degree is at least as important as it was 20 years ago. So did 69 percent of college graduates. And when\u003ca href=\"https://news.gallup.com/poll/693047/parents-prefer-college-pathway-child.aspx\"> Gallup asked parents\u003c/a> what they would prefer their children do after high school, a majority chose a two- or four-year degree. (The Lumina Foundation is among the many funders of The Hechinger Report.)\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>A recent\u003ca href=\"https://www.gallup.com/analytics/644939/state-of-higher-education.aspx\"> Lumina Foundation-Gallup survey\u003c/a> found that 73 percent of adults without a college degree or credential said earning a two- or four-year degree is at least as important as it was 20 years ago. So did 69 percent of college graduates. And when\u003ca href=\"https://news.gallup.com/poll/693047/parents-prefer-college-pathway-child.aspx\"> Gallup asked parents\u003c/a> what they would prefer their children do after high school, a majority chose a two- or four-year degree. (The Lumina Foundation is among the many funders of The Hechinger Report.)\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Americans may be increasingly critical of higher education without being ready to give up on it. People can believe that college is too expensive, too political, overrated or no longer worth what it costs — and still believe that a college degree is the best bet for themselves or their own children.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Americans may be increasingly critical of higher education without being ready to give up on it. People can believe that college is too expensive, too political, overrated or no longer worth what it costs — and still believe that a college degree is the best bet for themselves or their own children.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Marina Villeneuve contributed reporting to this story.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This story about \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/proof-points-college-enrollment/\">\u003cem>college enrollment\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem> was produced by\u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/special-reports/higher-education/\">\u003cem> \u003c/em>The Hechinger Report\u003c/a>\u003cem>, a nonprofit, independent news organization that covers education. Sign up for\u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/proofpoints/\">\u003cem> \u003c/em>\u003cem>Proof Points\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem> and other\u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/newsletters/\">\u003cem> \u003c/em>\u003cem>Hechinger newsletters\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\n\u003cp>Americans are turning against higher education. At least, that’s what many of them say.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Only\u003ca href=\"https://news.gallup.com/poll/715133/record-low-say-college-education-important.aspx\"> 31 percent\u003c/a> of Americans now consider a college education “very important,” according to a Gallup poll conducted in August and released this month. That’s a record low and a stunning decline from 70 percent in 2013.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1706\" height=\"1564\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2026/10/College-0d8fd369.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-66694\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2026/10/College-0d8fd369.png 1706w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2026/10/College-0d8fd369-160x147.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2026/10/College-0d8fd369-768x704.png 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2026/10/College-0d8fd369-1536x1408.png 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1706px) 100vw, 1706px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">\u003cem>Source: Gallup,\u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://news.gallup.com/poll/715133/record-low-say-college-education-important.aspx\">\u003cem> Record-Low 31% Say College Education Is ‘Very Important’\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem>, Oct 1, 2026\u003c/em>.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The shift isn’t confined to groups that have historically been skeptical of higher education. Even women, Democrats, Black and Hispanic Americans and college graduates themselves — people who traditionally placed a greater importance on college — have also registered double-digit declines in their approval of higher education in recent years.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>But here’s the reality: American behavior hasn’t changed nearly as much as American opinion. College enrollment has remained remarkably steady.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Let’s start with new high school graduates.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The latest data from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center, released last month, shows that the share of high school graduates enrolling in two- or four-year colleges immediately after high school has remained \u003ca href=\"https://nscresearchcenter.org/high-school-benchmarks/\">steady\u003c/a>. Among graduates from low-poverty high schools, 74 percent enrolled in college in the fall of 2025, up slightly from 73 percent in 2024. Among graduates from high-poverty high schools, the rate was 51 percent in both years.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The National Student Clearinghouse data don’t go back far enough to tell us what immediate college-going looked like decades ago. For that, we have to turn to the federal government, where the National Center for Education Statistics has documented a slump over the longer term. The immediate college-going rate fell from 68 percent in 2014 to 63 percent in 2024.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>That’s a meaningful 5 percentage-point drop. But compare it with the collapse in public enthusiasm for college: The share of Americans saying college is “very important” fell 39 percentage points over roughly the same period.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>And when we look at\u003ca href=\"https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d25/tables/dt25_306.10.asp\"> total college enrollment\u003c/a> — including people who don’t go immediately after high school, as well as graduate students — the picture also doesn’t show a collapse in college-going. In fact, the number of enrolled students has been rising since 2022.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1266\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2026/10/Enrollment-a08fc278-scaled.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-66695\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2026/10/Enrollment-a08fc278-scaled.png 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2026/10/Enrollment-a08fc278-2000x989.png 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2026/10/Enrollment-a08fc278-160x79.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2026/10/Enrollment-a08fc278-768x380.png 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2026/10/Enrollment-a08fc278-1536x760.png 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2026/10/Enrollment-a08fc278-2048x1013.png 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\" />\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The increase is even more dramatic over the long term. Nearly 20 million students were enrolled in higher education in 2024, up substantially from fewer than 16 million in the early 2000s. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>That said, the increase hasn’t been a straight line; today’s enrollment is still short of the all-time high of 21 million students in 2010 and 2011. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>That bump happened because college enrollment is countercyclical. When jobs are plentiful, young adults pursue work. When the economy is weak and jobs are scarce, more people go to school.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Enrollment surged between 2008 and 2011, when the country was reeling from the Great Recession. And it decreased after 2011, as the job market strengthened.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Still, we might have expected enrollment to have grown more than it did because the number of potential college students increased. U.S. births began rising after 1998, and 18 years later there were roughly \u003ca href=\"https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d24/tables/dt24_219.10.asp\">900,000\u003c/a> more high school graduates in 2016 than in 1998.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Yet college enrollment did not rise proportionally. Could declining faith in higher education be restraining what would otherwise have been greater growth in college enrollment? That’s possible. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Why might opinions and actions diverge, when it comes to higher education? Other surveys provide some clues. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>A recent\u003ca href=\"https://www.gallup.com/analytics/644939/state-of-higher-education.aspx\"> Lumina Foundation-Gallup survey\u003c/a> found that 73 percent of adults without a college degree or credential said earning a two- or four-year degree is at least as important as it was 20 years ago. So did 69 percent of college graduates. And when\u003ca href=\"https://news.gallup.com/poll/693047/parents-prefer-college-pathway-child.aspx\"> Gallup asked parents\u003c/a> what they would prefer their children do after high school, a majority chose a two- or four-year degree. (The Lumina Foundation is among the many funders of The Hechinger Report.)\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Americans may be increasingly critical of higher education without being ready to give up on it. People can believe that college is too expensive, too political, overrated or no longer worth what it costs — and still believe that a college degree is the best bet for themselves or their own children.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Our opinions about college have changed dramatically. Our behavior, at least so far, hasn’t.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Marina Villeneuve contributed reporting to this story.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This story about \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/proof-points-college-enrollment/\">\u003cem>college enrollment\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem> was produced by\u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/special-reports/higher-education/\">\u003cem> \u003c/em>The Hechinger Report\u003c/a>\u003cem>, a nonprofit, independent news organization that covers education. Sign up for\u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/proofpoints/\">\u003cem> \u003c/em>\u003cem>Proof Points\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem> and other\u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/newsletters/\">\u003cem> \u003c/em>\u003cem>Hechinger newsletters\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\n\u003cp>When Maycee DeJersey Gonzales replaced her tablet with a used laptop that she bought from her friend, she was grateful to do away with the smaller keyboard in favor of her new device’s larger one. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“It was terrible because the keyboard is like super close together,” she said of her old tablet. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>But as she starts a new school year, the laptop is on its last legs. She’s not looking forward to spending more money on a new one. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>DeJersey-Gonzales had chosen Sierra College, a local community college, partly because she wanted to avoid taking on the kind of student debt she had watched her mother and aunt pay off well into adulthood. In California, the \u003ca href=\"https://www.cccapply.org/us/money/california-college-promise-grant\">California College Promise Program\u003c/a> makes community college tuition-free for qualifying students. But that doesn’t mean college is free.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>There are still textbooks and other supplies to pay for. And because Sierra College is about an hour from her home, there’s the cost of getting there.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“Living so far away from Sierra College, I didn’t realize the gas is kind of expensive. Especially now, you know, gas is $6 a gallon,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>DeJersey-Gonzales is far from alone. The sticker price of college is only one part of what students actually pay. Even when financial aid covers much of a student’s tuition, other expenses, including housing, food, transportation, technology and child care, can make college unaffordable. Those costs can be particularly difficult for students from low-income families, students of color, students from immigrant families and first-generation college students, who may have fewer financial resources to fall back on.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>The Costs of College Go Beyond Tuition\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The price of going to college goes beyond tuition, according to Sara Goldrick-Rab, a sociologist who studies the price of college. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“[The price of college] is mainly coming from living costs, in particular from rent.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Housing is one of the largest expenses students face. \u003ca href=\"https://educationdata.org/average-cost-of-room-board-at-college\">Data\u003c/a> from the U.S. Department of Education show that room and board can make up a substantial portion of the total cost of attending college, particularly for students who live away from home.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>For Goldrick-Rab, this is why conversations about making college more affordable can miss a crucial part of the problem. Lowering tuition does not always address the costs students still have to pay for housing, transportation and food.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Anything that affects the general population, like the rising cost of produce or increased rent, is going to hit college students even harder, according to Goldrick-Rab. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“Not only do college students still have to deal with the price of rent, but they have less time to deal with the cost of rent because they’re actually in school and that is work,” she said. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>In 2022, about \u003ca href=\"https://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/indicator/ssa/college-student-employment\">44% of full-time students \u003c/a>ages 16 to 24 were employed. DeJersey-Gonzales got a job last school year at a local pizza parlor as a busser. It has helped her shoulder expenses, but she’s had to carefully balance her need for money with having time to study. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“We had lost two girls at our work. They got fired. So me and my other coworker had to pick up the slack,” she said. “So definitely during that time it was stressful.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>College Students Aren’t All Carefree 18-Year Olds\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Popular movies about college often portray students as young and carefree, living in dorms and figuring out who they are. The reality is much more varied, according to Goldrick-Rab, who says that the number of students who go to college without significant financial concerns make up less than 20% of students. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Some students are supporting families. Nearly \u003ca href=\"http://google.com/url?q=https://www.urban.org/research/publication/who-are-undergraduates-dependent-children&sa=D&source=docs&ust=1788888386231519&usg=AOvVaw2fXLu3YDsCMwyDbfx_ObBH\">one in five undergraduate students\u003c/a> are parents themselves, according to the Urban Institute. Those competing responsibilities can make it harder to stay enrolled. In general, almost 40% of college students fail to complete their degree program within an 8 year period. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>And even students who receive financial aid, which is meant to buffer aspiring scholars from the cost of college, sometimes have to leave school because of finances. For example, 53% of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/62959/the-fafsa-rollout-has-been-rough-on-students-the-biggest-problem-is-yet-to-come\">students who receive Pell Grants\u003c/a>, federal grants intended to help students with significant financial need, graduate from four-year institutions compared to \u003ca href=\"https://feed.georgetown.edu/access-affordability/where-pell-grant-recipients-are-most-likely-to-succeed/\">non-Pell students who graduate at a rate of 73%\u003c/a>. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>In her interviews with thousands of Pell Grant recipients, Goldrick-Rab encountered some who had stopped attending college. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“They all ended up feeling the same way: that they have done something wrong,” she said. “We make people think that their failures are the private problems of personal individuals because we don’t want to admit that these are systemic failures.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>While many students who stop out intend to return to college, \u003ca href=\"https://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/articles/dropping-out-of-college-why-students-do-so-and-how-to-avoid-it\">only about a third of students do so\u003c/a>. In some cases, they end up with no degree and more debt than when they started.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“It’s not like anybody’s calling them and saying, ‘Hey, come back, hey come back.’ When you leave a college, a college pretty much usually leaves you,” Goldrick-Rab said. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Typically, college leads to higher earnings and opens up specialized career paths. Though \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/66596/hands-on-learning-as-college-a-new-school-hopes-to-curb-rising-tuition-and-create-new-pathways\">the cost of college is rising,\u003c/a> the number of students going to college has increased in recent years. According to Godrick-Rab, one of the best tricks to keeping students from feeling completely overwhelmed from the cost of college is an affordable one. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“Just telling students about existing resources helps them get connected more easily,” she said. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>What Opportunities Are There for Vulnerable Students?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The Trump administration has \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/65737/these-programs-help-poor-students-with-college-trump-wants-to-pull-the-funding\">proposed cuts to several programs\u003c/a> that help vulnerable populations attend college. In some cases, organizations are having to fill in where schools fall short. \u003ca href=\"https://10000degrees.org/\">10,000 Degrees\u003c/a>, a California-based organization has been around for 45 years. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“We support students coming from low income backgrounds to be able to have all of the relevant information, guidance, and resources so that they can get to and through college,” said 10,000 Degrees executive director Kim Mazzuca. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Mazzucca and others at the organization are seeing their role expand in a challenging season of supporting students. They are prepared to help because what they are seeing now is similar to issues students faced nearly a decade ago. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>One of the students they supported was Ariana Aparicio, who grew up in a small town in West Marin. With parents recently immigrated from Mexico who did not go to college and worked exceptionally hard, she had always wanted to attend college as a way to unlock more opportunities. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Because of her undocumented status she couldn’t access traditional financial aid opportunities available to students with US citizenship. Her counselor introduced her to 10,000 Degrees. The organization helped her complete her college applications, secure financial aid and assigned her a mentor.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“The questions that my mentor was able to answer revolved around financial aid and revolved around how to look at my options,” Aparicio said.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>She ultimately decided to attend Santa Rosa Community College, about an hour’s drive from her home. While she encountered challenges such as navigating a commute and not being able to apply for a California driver’s license because of her undocumented status, she was also extremely fortunate because DACA, an immigration policy that allowed children of undocumented immigrants to work in the US, passed before she graduated. She went on to work at 10,000 Degrees and eventually completed a PhD in education administration and policy from the University of California Riverside.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Today, \u003ca href=\"https://www.edweek.org/policy-politics/75-000-undocumented-students-graduate-high-school-each-year-what-happens-next/2026/02\">75,000 undocumented high school students graduate each year across the U.S.\u003c/a>, according to a 2026 analysis from the Migration Policy Institute. For many of those students, the transition to college comes with additional uncertainty as immigration policies and enforcement change.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“I know people are tired and overwhelmed, but this is the moment in time to engage more,” said Mazzuca. “We need to uphold the power of education.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>After receiving \u003ca href=\"https://10000degrees.org/2025/10/08/mackenzie-scott-donates-42-million-gift-to-10000-degrees/\">42 million dollars from MacKenzie Scott\u003c/a>, a philanthropist, novelist and co-founder of Amazon, 10,000 Degrees is committed to expanding their services to support more students like Aparicio, with more targeted outreach and partnerships with new schools. While current circumstances continue to change for students, 10,000 Degrees’ goals stay the same: to ease fears and make sure parents and students know what pathways are available to them. In many cases, it’s more than they think.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>DeJersey-Gonzales had chosen Sierra College, a local community college, partly because she wanted to avoid taking on the kind of student debt she had watched her mother and aunt pay off well into adulthood. In California, the \u003ca href=\"https://www.cccapply.org/us/money/california-college-promise-grant\">California College Promise Program\u003c/a> makes community college tuition-free for qualifying students. But that doesn’t mean college is free.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“Living so far away from Sierra College, I didn’t realize the gas is kind of expensive. Especially now, you know, gas is $6 a gallon,” she said.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>DeJersey-Gonzales is far from alone. The sticker price of college is only one part of what students actually pay. Even when financial aid covers much of a student’s tuition, other expenses, including housing, food, transportation, technology and child care, can make college unaffordable. Those costs can be particularly difficult for students from low-income families, students of color, students from immigrant families and first-generation college students, who may have fewer financial resources to fall back on.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>DeJersey-Gonzales is far from alone. The sticker price of college is only one part of what students actually pay. Even when financial aid covers much of a student’s tuition, other expenses, including housing, food, transportation, technology and child care, can make college unaffordable. Those costs can be particularly difficult for students from low-income families, students of color, students from immigrant families and first-generation college students, who may have fewer financial resources to fall back on.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>The Costs of College Go Beyond Tuition\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The price of going to college goes beyond tuition, according to Sara Goldrick-Rab, a sociologist who studies the price of college. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“[The price of college] is mainly coming from living costs, in particular from rent.” \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Housing is one of the largest expenses students face. \u003ca href=\"https://educationdata.org/average-cost-of-room-board-at-college\">Data\u003c/a> from the U.S. Department of Education show that room and board can make up a substantial portion of the total cost of attending college, particularly for students who live away from home.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Housing is one of the largest expenses students face. \u003ca href=\"https://educationdata.org/average-cost-of-room-board-at-college\">Data\u003c/a> from the U.S. Department of Education show that room and board can make up a substantial portion of the total cost of attending college, particularly for students who live away from home.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>For Goldrick-Rab, this is why conversations about making college more affordable can miss a crucial part of the problem. Lowering tuition does not always address the costs students still have to pay for housing, transportation and food.\u003c/p>\n",
"innerContent": [
"\n\u003cp>For Goldrick-Rab, this is why conversations about making college more affordable can miss a crucial part of the problem. Lowering tuition does not always address the costs students still have to pay for housing, transportation and food.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Anything that affects the general population, like the rising cost of produce or increased rent, is going to hit college students even harder, according to Goldrick-Rab. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Anything that affects the general population, like the rising cost of produce or increased rent, is going to hit college students even harder, according to Goldrick-Rab. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“Not only do college students still have to deal with the price of rent, but they have less time to deal with the cost of rent because they’re actually in school and that is work,” she said. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>In 2022, about \u003ca href=\"https://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/indicator/ssa/college-student-employment\">44% of full-time students \u003c/a>ages 16 to 24 were employed. DeJersey-Gonzales got a job last school year at a local pizza parlor as a busser. It has helped her shoulder expenses, but she’s had to carefully balance her need for money with having time to study. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>In 2022, about \u003ca href=\"https://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/indicator/ssa/college-student-employment\">44% of full-time students \u003c/a>ages 16 to 24 were employed. DeJersey-Gonzales got a job last school year at a local pizza parlor as a busser. It has helped her shoulder expenses, but she’s had to carefully balance her need for money with having time to study. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“We had lost two girls at our work. They got fired. So me and my other coworker had to pick up the slack,” she said. “So definitely during that time it was stressful.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>College Students Aren’t All Carefree 18-Year Olds\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Popular movies about college often portray students as young and carefree, living in dorms and figuring out who they are. The reality is much more varied, according to Goldrick-Rab, who says that the number of students who go to college without significant financial concerns make up less than 20% of students. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Popular movies about college often portray students as young and carefree, living in dorms and figuring out who they are. The reality is much more varied, according to Goldrick-Rab, who says that the number of students who go to college without significant financial concerns make up less than 20% of students. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Some students are supporting families. Nearly \u003ca href=\"http://google.com/url?q=https://www.urban.org/research/publication/who-are-undergraduates-dependent-children&sa=D&source=docs&ust=1788888386231519&usg=AOvVaw2fXLu3YDsCMwyDbfx_ObBH\">one in five undergraduate students\u003c/a> are parents themselves, according to the Urban Institute. Those competing responsibilities can make it harder to stay enrolled. In general, almost 40% of college students fail to complete their degree program within an 8 year period. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Some students are supporting families. Nearly \u003ca href=\"http://google.com/url?q=https://www.urban.org/research/publication/who-are-undergraduates-dependent-children&sa=D&source=docs&ust=1788888386231519&usg=AOvVaw2fXLu3YDsCMwyDbfx_ObBH\">one in five undergraduate students\u003c/a> are parents themselves, according to the Urban Institute. Those competing responsibilities can make it harder to stay enrolled. In general, almost 40% of college students fail to complete their degree program within an 8 year period. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>And even students who receive financial aid, which is meant to buffer aspiring scholars from the cost of college, sometimes have to leave school because of finances. For example, 53% of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/62959/the-fafsa-rollout-has-been-rough-on-students-the-biggest-problem-is-yet-to-come\">students who receive Pell Grants\u003c/a>, federal grants intended to help students with significant financial need, graduate from four-year institutions compared to \u003ca href=\"https://feed.georgetown.edu/access-affordability/where-pell-grant-recipients-are-most-likely-to-succeed/\">non-Pell students who graduate at a rate of 73%\u003c/a>. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>And even students who receive financial aid, which is meant to buffer aspiring scholars from the cost of college, sometimes have to leave school because of finances. For example, 53% of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/62959/the-fafsa-rollout-has-been-rough-on-students-the-biggest-problem-is-yet-to-come\">students who receive Pell Grants\u003c/a>, federal grants intended to help students with significant financial need, graduate from four-year institutions compared to \u003ca href=\"https://feed.georgetown.edu/access-affordability/where-pell-grant-recipients-are-most-likely-to-succeed/\">non-Pell students who graduate at a rate of 73%\u003c/a>. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>In her interviews with thousands of Pell Grant recipients, Goldrick-Rab encountered some who had stopped attending college. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“They all ended up feeling the same way: that they have done something wrong,” she said. “We make people think that their failures are the private problems of personal individuals because we don’t want to admit that these are systemic failures.” \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>“They all ended up feeling the same way: that they have done something wrong,” she said. “We make people think that their failures are the private problems of personal individuals because we don’t want to admit that these are systemic failures.” \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>While many students who stop out intend to return to college, \u003ca href=\"https://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/articles/dropping-out-of-college-why-students-do-so-and-how-to-avoid-it\">only about a third of students do so\u003c/a>. In some cases, they end up with no degree and more debt than when they started.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>While many students who stop out intend to return to college, \u003ca href=\"https://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/articles/dropping-out-of-college-why-students-do-so-and-how-to-avoid-it\">only about a third of students do so\u003c/a>. In some cases, they end up with no degree and more debt than when they started.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“It’s not like anybody’s calling them and saying, ‘Hey, come back, hey come back.’ When you leave a college, a college pretty much usually leaves you,” Goldrick-Rab said. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Typically, college leads to higher earnings and opens up specialized career paths. Though \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/66596/hands-on-learning-as-college-a-new-school-hopes-to-curb-rising-tuition-and-create-new-pathways\">the cost of college is rising,\u003c/a> the number of students going to college has increased in recent years. According to Godrick-Rab, one of the best tricks to keeping students from feeling completely overwhelmed from the cost of college is an affordable one. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Typically, college leads to higher earnings and opens up specialized career paths. Though \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/66596/hands-on-learning-as-college-a-new-school-hopes-to-curb-rising-tuition-and-create-new-pathways\">the cost of college is rising,\u003c/a> the number of students going to college has increased in recent years. According to Godrick-Rab, one of the best tricks to keeping students from feeling completely overwhelmed from the cost of college is an affordable one. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“Just telling students about existing resources helps them get connected more easily,” she said. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>What Opportunities Are There for Vulnerable Students?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The Trump administration has \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/65737/these-programs-help-poor-students-with-college-trump-wants-to-pull-the-funding\">proposed cuts to several programs\u003c/a> that help vulnerable populations attend college. In some cases, organizations are having to fill in where schools fall short. \u003ca href=\"https://10000degrees.org/\">10,000 Degrees\u003c/a>, a California-based organization has been around for 45 years. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>The Trump administration has \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/65737/these-programs-help-poor-students-with-college-trump-wants-to-pull-the-funding\">proposed cuts to several programs\u003c/a> that help vulnerable populations attend college. In some cases, organizations are having to fill in where schools fall short. \u003ca href=\"https://10000degrees.org/\">10,000 Degrees\u003c/a>, a California-based organization has been around for 45 years. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“We support students coming from low income backgrounds to be able to have all of the relevant information, guidance, and resources so that they can get to and through college,” said 10,000 Degrees executive director Kim Mazzuca. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>“We support students coming from low income backgrounds to be able to have all of the relevant information, guidance, and resources so that they can get to and through college,” said 10,000 Degrees executive director Kim Mazzuca. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Mazzucca and others at the organization are seeing their role expand in a challenging season of supporting students. They are prepared to help because what they are seeing now is similar to issues students faced nearly a decade ago. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>One of the students they supported was Ariana Aparicio, who grew up in a small town in West Marin. With parents recently immigrated from Mexico who did not go to college and worked exceptionally hard, she had always wanted to attend college as a way to unlock more opportunities. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>One of the students they supported was Ariana Aparicio, who grew up in a small town in West Marin. With parents recently immigrated from Mexico who did not go to college and worked exceptionally hard, she had always wanted to attend college as a way to unlock more opportunities. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Because of her undocumented status she couldn’t access traditional financial aid opportunities available to students with US citizenship. Her counselor introduced her to 10,000 Degrees. The organization helped her complete her college applications, secure financial aid and assigned her a mentor.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Because of her undocumented status she couldn’t access traditional financial aid opportunities available to students with US citizenship. Her counselor introduced her to 10,000 Degrees. The organization helped her complete her college applications, secure financial aid and assigned her a mentor.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“The questions that my mentor was able to answer revolved around financial aid and revolved around how to look at my options,” Aparicio said.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>She ultimately decided to attend Santa Rosa Community College, about an hour’s drive from her home. While she encountered challenges such as navigating a commute and not being able to apply for a California driver’s license because of her undocumented status, she was also extremely fortunate because DACA, an immigration policy that allowed children of undocumented immigrants to work in the US, passed before she graduated. She went on to work at 10,000 Degrees and eventually completed a PhD in education administration and policy from the University of California Riverside.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>She ultimately decided to attend Santa Rosa Community College, about an hour’s drive from her home. While she encountered challenges such as navigating a commute and not being able to apply for a California driver’s license because of her undocumented status, she was also extremely fortunate because DACA, an immigration policy that allowed children of undocumented immigrants to work in the US, passed before she graduated. She went on to work at 10,000 Degrees and eventually completed a PhD in education administration and policy from the University of California Riverside.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Today, \u003ca href=\"https://www.edweek.org/policy-politics/75-000-undocumented-students-graduate-high-school-each-year-what-happens-next/2026/02\">75,000 undocumented high school students graduate each year across the U.S.\u003c/a>, according to a 2026 analysis from the Migration Policy Institute. For many of those students, the transition to college comes with additional uncertainty as immigration policies and enforcement change.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Today, \u003ca href=\"https://www.edweek.org/policy-politics/75-000-undocumented-students-graduate-high-school-each-year-what-happens-next/2026/02\">75,000 undocumented high school students graduate each year across the U.S.\u003c/a>, according to a 2026 analysis from the Migration Policy Institute. For many of those students, the transition to college comes with additional uncertainty as immigration policies and enforcement change.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“I know people are tired and overwhelmed, but this is the moment in time to engage more,” said Mazzuca. “We need to uphold the power of education.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>After receiving \u003ca href=\"https://10000degrees.org/2025/10/08/mackenzie-scott-donates-42-million-gift-to-10000-degrees/\">42 million dollars from MacKenzie Scott\u003c/a>, a philanthropist, novelist and co-founder of Amazon, 10,000 Degrees is committed to expanding their services to support more students like Aparicio, with more targeted outreach and partnerships with new schools. While current circumstances continue to change for students, 10,000 Degrees’ goals stay the same: to ease fears and make sure parents and students know what pathways are available to them. In many cases, it’s more than they think.\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "As confidence in higher education shifts and economic pressures intensify, young people are navigating increasingly complex decisions about life after high school. ",
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"subhead": "Even when financial aid covers much of a student’s tuition, other expenses, including housing, food, transportation, technology and child care, can make college unaffordable.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\n\u003cp>When Maycee DeJersey Gonzales replaced her tablet with a used laptop that she bought from her friend, she was grateful to do away with the smaller keyboard in favor of her new device’s larger one. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“It was terrible because the keyboard is like super close together,” she said of her old tablet. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>But as she starts a new school year, the laptop is on its last legs. She’s not looking forward to spending more money on a new one. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>DeJersey-Gonzales had chosen Sierra College, a local community college, partly because she wanted to avoid taking on the kind of student debt she had watched her mother and aunt pay off well into adulthood. In California, the \u003ca href=\"https://www.cccapply.org/us/money/california-college-promise-grant\">California College Promise Program\u003c/a> makes community college tuition-free for qualifying students. But that doesn’t mean college is free.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>There are still textbooks and other supplies to pay for. And because Sierra College is about an hour from her home, there’s the cost of getting there.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“Living so far away from Sierra College, I didn’t realize the gas is kind of expensive. Especially now, you know, gas is $6 a gallon,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>DeJersey-Gonzales is far from alone. The sticker price of college is only one part of what students actually pay. Even when financial aid covers much of a student’s tuition, other expenses, including housing, food, transportation, technology and child care, can make college unaffordable. Those costs can be particularly difficult for students from low-income families, students of color, students from immigrant families and first-generation college students, who may have fewer financial resources to fall back on.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>The Costs of College Go Beyond Tuition\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The price of going to college goes beyond tuition, according to Sara Goldrick-Rab, a sociologist who studies the price of college. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“[The price of college] is mainly coming from living costs, in particular from rent.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Housing is one of the largest expenses students face. \u003ca href=\"https://educationdata.org/average-cost-of-room-board-at-college\">Data\u003c/a> from the U.S. Department of Education show that room and board can make up a substantial portion of the total cost of attending college, particularly for students who live away from home.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>For Goldrick-Rab, this is why conversations about making college more affordable can miss a crucial part of the problem. Lowering tuition does not always address the costs students still have to pay for housing, transportation and food.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Anything that affects the general population, like the rising cost of produce or increased rent, is going to hit college students even harder, according to Goldrick-Rab. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“Not only do college students still have to deal with the price of rent, but they have less time to deal with the cost of rent because they’re actually in school and that is work,” she said. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>In 2022, about \u003ca href=\"https://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/indicator/ssa/college-student-employment\">44% of full-time students \u003c/a>ages 16 to 24 were employed. DeJersey-Gonzales got a job last school year at a local pizza parlor as a busser. It has helped her shoulder expenses, but she’s had to carefully balance her need for money with having time to study. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“We had lost two girls at our work. They got fired. So me and my other coworker had to pick up the slack,” she said. “So definitely during that time it was stressful.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>College Students Aren’t All Carefree 18-Year Olds\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Popular movies about college often portray students as young and carefree, living in dorms and figuring out who they are. The reality is much more varied, according to Goldrick-Rab, who says that the number of students who go to college without significant financial concerns make up less than 20% of students. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Some students are supporting families. Nearly \u003ca href=\"http://google.com/url?q=https://www.urban.org/research/publication/who-are-undergraduates-dependent-children&sa=D&source=docs&ust=1788888386231519&usg=AOvVaw2fXLu3YDsCMwyDbfx_ObBH\">one in five undergraduate students\u003c/a> are parents themselves, according to the Urban Institute. Those competing responsibilities can make it harder to stay enrolled. In general, almost 40% of college students fail to complete their degree program within an 8 year period. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>And even students who receive financial aid, which is meant to buffer aspiring scholars from the cost of college, sometimes have to leave school because of finances. For example, 53% of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/62959/the-fafsa-rollout-has-been-rough-on-students-the-biggest-problem-is-yet-to-come\">students who receive Pell Grants\u003c/a>, federal grants intended to help students with significant financial need, graduate from four-year institutions compared to \u003ca href=\"https://feed.georgetown.edu/access-affordability/where-pell-grant-recipients-are-most-likely-to-succeed/\">non-Pell students who graduate at a rate of 73%\u003c/a>. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>In her interviews with thousands of Pell Grant recipients, Goldrick-Rab encountered some who had stopped attending college. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“They all ended up feeling the same way: that they have done something wrong,” she said. “We make people think that their failures are the private problems of personal individuals because we don’t want to admit that these are systemic failures.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>While many students who stop out intend to return to college, \u003ca href=\"https://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/articles/dropping-out-of-college-why-students-do-so-and-how-to-avoid-it\">only about a third of students do so\u003c/a>. In some cases, they end up with no degree and more debt than when they started.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“It’s not like anybody’s calling them and saying, ‘Hey, come back, hey come back.’ When you leave a college, a college pretty much usually leaves you,” Goldrick-Rab said. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Typically, college leads to higher earnings and opens up specialized career paths. Though \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/66596/hands-on-learning-as-college-a-new-school-hopes-to-curb-rising-tuition-and-create-new-pathways\">the cost of college is rising,\u003c/a> the number of students going to college has increased in recent years. According to Godrick-Rab, one of the best tricks to keeping students from feeling completely overwhelmed from the cost of college is an affordable one. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“Just telling students about existing resources helps them get connected more easily,” she said. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>What Opportunities Are There for Vulnerable Students?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The Trump administration has \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/65737/these-programs-help-poor-students-with-college-trump-wants-to-pull-the-funding\">proposed cuts to several programs\u003c/a> that help vulnerable populations attend college. In some cases, organizations are having to fill in where schools fall short. \u003ca href=\"https://10000degrees.org/\">10,000 Degrees\u003c/a>, a California-based organization has been around for 45 years. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“We support students coming from low income backgrounds to be able to have all of the relevant information, guidance, and resources so that they can get to and through college,” said 10,000 Degrees executive director Kim Mazzuca. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Mazzucca and others at the organization are seeing their role expand in a challenging season of supporting students. They are prepared to help because what they are seeing now is similar to issues students faced nearly a decade ago. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>One of the students they supported was Ariana Aparicio, who grew up in a small town in West Marin. With parents recently immigrated from Mexico who did not go to college and worked exceptionally hard, she had always wanted to attend college as a way to unlock more opportunities. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Because of her undocumented status she couldn’t access traditional financial aid opportunities available to students with US citizenship. Her counselor introduced her to 10,000 Degrees. The organization helped her complete her college applications, secure financial aid and assigned her a mentor.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“The questions that my mentor was able to answer revolved around financial aid and revolved around how to look at my options,” Aparicio said.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>She ultimately decided to attend Santa Rosa Community College, about an hour’s drive from her home. While she encountered challenges such as navigating a commute and not being able to apply for a California driver’s license because of her undocumented status, she was also extremely fortunate because DACA, an immigration policy that allowed children of undocumented immigrants to work in the US, passed before she graduated. She went on to work at 10,000 Degrees and eventually completed a PhD in education administration and policy from the University of California Riverside.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Today, \u003ca href=\"https://www.edweek.org/policy-politics/75-000-undocumented-students-graduate-high-school-each-year-what-happens-next/2026/02\">75,000 undocumented high school students graduate each year across the U.S.\u003c/a>, according to a 2026 analysis from the Migration Policy Institute. For many of those students, the transition to college comes with additional uncertainty as immigration policies and enforcement change.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“I know people are tired and overwhelmed, but this is the moment in time to engage more,” said Mazzuca. “We need to uphold the power of education.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>After receiving \u003ca href=\"https://10000degrees.org/2025/10/08/mackenzie-scott-donates-42-million-gift-to-10000-degrees/\">42 million dollars from MacKenzie Scott\u003c/a>, a philanthropist, novelist and co-founder of Amazon, 10,000 Degrees is committed to expanding their services to support more students like Aparicio, with more targeted outreach and partnerships with new schools. While current circumstances continue to change for students, 10,000 Degrees’ goals stay the same: to ease fears and make sure parents and students know what pathways are available to them. In many cases, it’s more than they think.\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "more-degrees-but-not-higher-earnings-puzzling-data-from-cunys-famed-asap-program",
"title": "More Degrees But Not Higher Earnings: Puzzling Data from CUNY’s Famed ASAP program",
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"headTitle": "More Degrees But Not Higher Earnings: Puzzling Data from CUNY’s Famed ASAP program | KQED",
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"content": "\n\u003cp>Every community college reformer wants to help more students earn degrees and get through college faster. A much-admired City University of New York support program has done that, some say brilliantly — but a recent \u003ca href=\"https://www.mdrc.org/sites/default/files/CUNY_ASAP_14-Year_Effects_Report.pdf\">14-year study\u003c/a> finds that those additional degrees haven’t translated into higher earnings. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>That’s a puzzle. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>College graduates generally earn more than people without degrees. In New York, even completing a two-year degree is associated with $10,000 to $14,000 more earnings a year. So why didn’t the extra degrees generated by CUNY’s ASAP program produce bigger paychecks?\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>ASAP, short for Accelerated Study in Associate Programs, was created in 2007 to tackle one of community colleges’ biggest and most pernicious problems: a majority of students drop out before graduation, with poor employment prospects and often with debt. The ASAP program surrounds students with unusually intensive support; not only do they have access to extra academic advising and tutoring, they’re required to use these services. And they receive help with expenses such as textbooks and transportation. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>In 2010, CUNY subjected ASAP to a randomized controlled trial, the gold standard for evaluating education interventions. Some 900 low-income students who had enrolled full-time in three of CUNY’s community colleges were randomly assigned either to ASAP or to the regular CUNY experience. After three years, the difference was enormous: 40 percent of the ASAP students had earned a degree versus 22 percent in the control group — an 18-percentage-point difference. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The astounding results were replicated in separate randomized evaluations of similar programs in Ohio and Westchester County, New York, demonstrating that the program also worked for older students and in less urban settings. On the strength of this research, the ASAP program spread rapidly. Today more than 90 colleges are following CUNY’s recipe across 11 states, and an unknown number of copycat programs have sprung up around the nation. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>In the latest follow-up study, released last month and which tracked students through 2024, the degree advantage for ASAP had shrunk at CUNY, as more non-ASAP students had slowly earned degrees, too, but the edge remained substantial. About 58 percent of students offered ASAP had earned at least a two-year degree, compared with 50 percent of students in the control group.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>But when researchers from MDRC, an independent nonprofit research organization, looked at earnings over those 14 years, the advantage completely disappeared. Students who went through ASAP — graduates and drop outs combined — earned about the same income, on average, as those who had the usual CUNY experience, according to New York state employment data\u003cstrong>. \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The former students’ average wages are low — roughly $37,000 a year — because the averages include people who are unemployed or working outside of New York state (counted as earning zero). A future study is expected to include out-of-state earnings, but Michael Weiss, a researcher at MDRC who conducted the evaluation, doesn’t expect out-state earnings to suddenly shift the results in favor of ASAP.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Another possible explanation is that not all associate degrees are highly valued in the labor market. In 2010, the year the study launched, CUNY’s ASAP program excluded many fields of study, including nursing and relatively well-paying health fields such as radiologic technology. Many of the additional two-year degrees documented in this study were earned by students in the liberal arts. Those degrees may not lead to high-paying jobs. Some graduates end up in customer service or childcare. Meanwhile, a student who left college without a degree might have entered the workforce sooner and worked their way up to a better-paying position, such as a retail store manager.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>A liberal arts degree might, of course, be a stepping stone to a bachelor’s degree, which typically carries a bigger earnings premium. But researchers found no discernible long-term effect of ASAP on bachelor’s degree completion. The program did appear to help a small share of students — about 3 percent — earn bachelor’s degrees faster than they otherwise would have.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Steering students toward higher-paying fields has been top of mind at some community colleges that embraced the ASAP program. In North Carolina, for example, the program targets \u003ca href=\"https://www.isothermal.edu/newscenter/2026/03/isothermal-community-college-to-launch-nc-boost-north-carolinas-accelerated-college-to-career-program-in-fall-2026.html\">high-demand, workforce-aligned majors\u003c/a>, often excluding liberal arts.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>But Christine Brongniart, executive director of CUNY’s ASAP program, wants to stick with its ASAP-for-all approach, assisting any full-time student, regardless of field of study. The goal, she said, is to help students complete degrees quickly in the field of their choice. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>CUNY says ASAP’s mission isn’t simply to maximize earnings, and there may be other personal and societal benefits to finishing a degree that wages cannot measure. But if taxpayers are spending tens of millions of dollars on an intensive intervention, earnings are one legitimate outcome to examine.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The cost per student has dropped from $6,000 a year back in 2010 to $3,400 today (thanks to higher caseloads for each advisor), and the program has expanded greatly, now serving more than 22,000 students. The city’s budget for it surpasses \u003ca href=\"https://council.nyc.gov/budget/wp-content/uploads/sites/54/2025/04/Fiscal-2026-Preliminary-Budget-Response-FINAL.pdf?\">$76 million\u003c/a> a year. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>CUNY has also updated ASAP since 2010, adding a stronger career component. Advisers require students to take advantage of career resources such as job fairs and resume workshops, and are more deliberate about helping students find a lucrative Plan B when Plan A fails. For example, a student who can’t get into nursing might be steered toward another healthcare field, rather than defaulting to liberal arts. It’s possible that today’s ASAP students will earn more than their predecessors.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>And there is an important counterexample in Ohio. A separate randomized evaluation of ASAP launched in 2015 found significant earnings gains six to eight years after students enrolled. The Ohio program served a different population, including many older students, in a different, less urban labor market.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>That’s one reason Arnold Ventures, a philanthropy that has helped fund ASAP’s expansion, hasn’t given up hope. Arnold acknowledged that the New York graduation gains did not translate into higher cumulative earnings, while pointing to the positive Ohio findings as evidence that more research is needed. \u003cem>(Arnold Ventures is one of The Hechinger Report’s many funders.)\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“Single studies rarely provide complete answers,” the foundation said in a \u003ca href=\"https://www.arnoldventures.org/newsroom/statement-on-mdrc-study-of-cuny-accelerated-study-in-associate-programs-asap\">post\u003c/a> on its website. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>But student results from CUNY’s ASAP program are providing an important lesson: Getting across that graduation finish line is something to celebrate, but it isn’t the end of the story. It may be just the beginning of a long, complicated path to a good middle-class life. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This story about \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/proof-points-cuny-asap-earnings/\">\u003cem>CUNY’s ASAP program\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem> was produced by \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/special-reports/higher-education/\">The Hechinger Report\u003c/a>\u003cem>, a nonprofit, independent news organization that covers education. Sign up for \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/proofpoints/\">\u003cem>Proof Points\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem> and other \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/newsletters/\">\u003cem>Hechinger newsletters\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Every community college reformer wants to help more students earn degrees and get through college faster. A much-admired City University of New York support program has done that, some say brilliantly — but a recent \u003ca href=\"https://www.mdrc.org/sites/default/files/CUNY_ASAP_14-Year_Effects_Report.pdf\">14-year study\u003c/a> finds that those additional degrees haven’t translated into higher earnings. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>College graduates generally earn more than people without degrees. In New York, even completing a two-year degree is associated with $10,000 to $14,000 more earnings a year. So why didn’t the extra degrees generated by CUNY’s ASAP program produce bigger paychecks?\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>ASAP, short for Accelerated Study in Associate Programs, was created in 2007 to tackle one of community colleges’ biggest and most pernicious problems: a majority of students drop out before graduation, with poor employment prospects and often with debt. The ASAP program surrounds students with unusually intensive support; not only do they have access to extra academic advising and tutoring, they’re required to use these services. And they receive help with expenses such as textbooks and transportation. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>ASAP, short for Accelerated Study in Associate Programs, was created in 2007 to tackle one of community colleges’ biggest and most pernicious problems: a majority of students drop out before graduation, with poor employment prospects and often with debt. The ASAP program surrounds students with unusually intensive support; not only do they have access to extra academic advising and tutoring, they’re required to use these services. And they receive help with expenses such as textbooks and transportation. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>In 2010, CUNY subjected ASAP to a randomized controlled trial, the gold standard for evaluating education interventions. Some 900 low-income students who had enrolled full-time in three of CUNY’s community colleges were randomly assigned either to ASAP or to the regular CUNY experience. After three years, the difference was enormous: 40 percent of the ASAP students had earned a degree versus 22 percent in the control group — an 18-percentage-point difference. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>In 2010, CUNY subjected ASAP to a randomized controlled trial, the gold standard for evaluating education interventions. Some 900 low-income students who had enrolled full-time in three of CUNY’s community colleges were randomly assigned either to ASAP or to the regular CUNY experience. After three years, the difference was enormous: 40 percent of the ASAP students had earned a degree versus 22 percent in the control group — an 18-percentage-point difference. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The astounding results were replicated in separate randomized evaluations of similar programs in Ohio and Westchester County, New York, demonstrating that the program also worked for older students and in less urban settings. On the strength of this research, the ASAP program spread rapidly. Today more than 90 colleges are following CUNY’s recipe across 11 states, and an unknown number of copycat programs have sprung up around the nation. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>In the latest follow-up study, released last month and which tracked students through 2024, the degree advantage for ASAP had shrunk at CUNY, as more non-ASAP students had slowly earned degrees, too, but the edge remained substantial. About 58 percent of students offered ASAP had earned at least a two-year degree, compared with 50 percent of students in the control group.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>But when researchers from MDRC, an independent nonprofit research organization, looked at earnings over those 14 years, the advantage completely disappeared. Students who went through ASAP — graduates and drop outs combined — earned about the same income, on average, as those who had the usual CUNY experience, according to New York state employment data\u003cstrong>. \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The former students’ average wages are low — roughly $37,000 a year — because the averages include people who are unemployed or working outside of New York state (counted as earning zero). A future study is expected to include out-of-state earnings, but Michael Weiss, a researcher at MDRC who conducted the evaluation, doesn’t expect out-state earnings to suddenly shift the results in favor of ASAP.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Another possible explanation is that not all associate degrees are highly valued in the labor market. In 2010, the year the study launched, CUNY’s ASAP program excluded many fields of study, including nursing and relatively well-paying health fields such as radiologic technology. Many of the additional two-year degrees documented in this study were earned by students in the liberal arts. Those degrees may not lead to high-paying jobs. Some graduates end up in customer service or childcare. Meanwhile, a student who left college without a degree might have entered the workforce sooner and worked their way up to a better-paying position, such as a retail store manager.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>A liberal arts degree might, of course, be a stepping stone to a bachelor’s degree, which typically carries a bigger earnings premium. But researchers found no discernible long-term effect of ASAP on bachelor’s degree completion. The program did appear to help a small share of students — about 3 percent — earn bachelor’s degrees faster than they otherwise would have.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Steering students toward higher-paying fields has been top of mind at some community colleges that embraced the ASAP program. In North Carolina, for example, the program targets \u003ca href=\"https://www.isothermal.edu/newscenter/2026/03/isothermal-community-college-to-launch-nc-boost-north-carolinas-accelerated-college-to-career-program-in-fall-2026.html\">high-demand, workforce-aligned majors\u003c/a>, often excluding liberal arts.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>But Christine Brongniart, executive director of CUNY’s ASAP program, wants to stick with its ASAP-for-all approach, assisting any full-time student, regardless of field of study. The goal, she said, is to help students complete degrees quickly in the field of their choice. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>CUNY says ASAP’s mission isn’t simply to maximize earnings, and there may be other personal and societal benefits to finishing a degree that wages cannot measure. But if taxpayers are spending tens of millions of dollars on an intensive intervention, earnings are one legitimate outcome to examine.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>CUNY says ASAP’s mission isn’t simply to maximize earnings, and there may be other personal and societal benefits to finishing a degree that wages cannot measure. But if taxpayers are spending tens of millions of dollars on an intensive intervention, earnings are one legitimate outcome to examine.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The cost per student has dropped from $6,000 a year back in 2010 to $3,400 today (thanks to higher caseloads for each advisor), and the program has expanded greatly, now serving more than 22,000 students. The city’s budget for it surpasses \u003ca href=\"https://council.nyc.gov/budget/wp-content/uploads/sites/54/2025/04/Fiscal-2026-Preliminary-Budget-Response-FINAL.pdf?\">$76 million\u003c/a> a year. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>CUNY has also updated ASAP since 2010, adding a stronger career component. Advisers require students to take advantage of career resources such as job fairs and resume workshops, and are more deliberate about helping students find a lucrative Plan B when Plan A fails. For example, a student who can’t get into nursing might be steered toward another healthcare field, rather than defaulting to liberal arts. It’s possible that today’s ASAP students will earn more than their predecessors.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>CUNY has also updated ASAP since 2010, adding a stronger career component. Advisers require students to take advantage of career resources such as job fairs and resume workshops, and are more deliberate about helping students find a lucrative Plan B when Plan A fails. For example, a student who can’t get into nursing might be steered toward another healthcare field, rather than defaulting to liberal arts. It’s possible that today’s ASAP students will earn more than their predecessors.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>And there is an important counterexample in Ohio. A separate randomized evaluation of ASAP launched in 2015 found significant earnings gains six to eight years after students enrolled. The Ohio program served a different population, including many older students, in a different, less urban labor market.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>And there is an important counterexample in Ohio. A separate randomized evaluation of ASAP launched in 2015 found significant earnings gains six to eight years after students enrolled. The Ohio program served a different population, including many older students, in a different, less urban labor market.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>That’s one reason Arnold Ventures, a philanthropy that has helped fund ASAP’s expansion, hasn’t given up hope. Arnold acknowledged that the New York graduation gains did not translate into higher cumulative earnings, while pointing to the positive Ohio findings as evidence that more research is needed. \u003cem>(Arnold Ventures is one of The Hechinger Report’s many funders.)\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>That’s one reason Arnold Ventures, a philanthropy that has helped fund ASAP’s expansion, hasn’t given up hope. Arnold acknowledged that the New York graduation gains did not translate into higher cumulative earnings, while pointing to the positive Ohio findings as evidence that more research is needed. \u003cem>(Arnold Ventures is one of The Hechinger Report’s many funders.)\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“Single studies rarely provide complete answers,” the foundation said in a \u003ca href=\"https://www.arnoldventures.org/newsroom/statement-on-mdrc-study-of-cuny-accelerated-study-in-associate-programs-asap\">post\u003c/a> on its website. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>“Single studies rarely provide complete answers,” the foundation said in a \u003ca href=\"https://www.arnoldventures.org/newsroom/statement-on-mdrc-study-of-cuny-accelerated-study-in-associate-programs-asap\">post\u003c/a> on its website. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>But student results from CUNY’s ASAP program are providing an important lesson: Getting across that graduation finish line is something to celebrate, but it isn’t the end of the story. It may be just the beginning of a long, complicated path to a good middle-class life. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>But student results from CUNY’s ASAP program are providing an important lesson: Getting across that graduation finish line is something to celebrate, but it isn’t the end of the story. It may be just the beginning of a long, complicated path to a good middle-class life. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This story about \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/proof-points-cuny-asap-earnings/\">\u003cem>CUNY’s ASAP program\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem> was produced by \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/special-reports/higher-education/\">The Hechinger Report\u003c/a>\u003cem>, a nonprofit, independent news organization that covers education. Sign up for \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/proofpoints/\">\u003cem>Proof Points\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem> and other \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/newsletters/\">\u003cem>Hechinger newsletters\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This story about \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/proof-points-cuny-asap-earnings/\">\u003cem>CUNY’s ASAP program\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem> was produced by \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/special-reports/higher-education/\">The Hechinger Report\u003c/a>\u003cem>, a nonprofit, independent news organization that covers education. Sign up for \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/proofpoints/\">\u003cem>Proof Points\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem> and other \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/newsletters/\">\u003cem>Hechinger newsletters\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n"
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\n\u003cp>Every community college reformer wants to help more students earn degrees and get through college faster. A much-admired City University of New York support program has done that, some say brilliantly — but a recent \u003ca href=\"https://www.mdrc.org/sites/default/files/CUNY_ASAP_14-Year_Effects_Report.pdf\">14-year study\u003c/a> finds that those additional degrees haven’t translated into higher earnings. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>That’s a puzzle. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>College graduates generally earn more than people without degrees. In New York, even completing a two-year degree is associated with $10,000 to $14,000 more earnings a year. So why didn’t the extra degrees generated by CUNY’s ASAP program produce bigger paychecks?\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>ASAP, short for Accelerated Study in Associate Programs, was created in 2007 to tackle one of community colleges’ biggest and most pernicious problems: a majority of students drop out before graduation, with poor employment prospects and often with debt. The ASAP program surrounds students with unusually intensive support; not only do they have access to extra academic advising and tutoring, they’re required to use these services. And they receive help with expenses such as textbooks and transportation. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>In 2010, CUNY subjected ASAP to a randomized controlled trial, the gold standard for evaluating education interventions. Some 900 low-income students who had enrolled full-time in three of CUNY’s community colleges were randomly assigned either to ASAP or to the regular CUNY experience. After three years, the difference was enormous: 40 percent of the ASAP students had earned a degree versus 22 percent in the control group — an 18-percentage-point difference. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The astounding results were replicated in separate randomized evaluations of similar programs in Ohio and Westchester County, New York, demonstrating that the program also worked for older students and in less urban settings. On the strength of this research, the ASAP program spread rapidly. Today more than 90 colleges are following CUNY’s recipe across 11 states, and an unknown number of copycat programs have sprung up around the nation. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>In the latest follow-up study, released last month and which tracked students through 2024, the degree advantage for ASAP had shrunk at CUNY, as more non-ASAP students had slowly earned degrees, too, but the edge remained substantial. About 58 percent of students offered ASAP had earned at least a two-year degree, compared with 50 percent of students in the control group.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>But when researchers from MDRC, an independent nonprofit research organization, looked at earnings over those 14 years, the advantage completely disappeared. Students who went through ASAP — graduates and drop outs combined — earned about the same income, on average, as those who had the usual CUNY experience, according to New York state employment data\u003cstrong>. \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The former students’ average wages are low — roughly $37,000 a year — because the averages include people who are unemployed or working outside of New York state (counted as earning zero). A future study is expected to include out-of-state earnings, but Michael Weiss, a researcher at MDRC who conducted the evaluation, doesn’t expect out-state earnings to suddenly shift the results in favor of ASAP.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Another possible explanation is that not all associate degrees are highly valued in the labor market. In 2010, the year the study launched, CUNY’s ASAP program excluded many fields of study, including nursing and relatively well-paying health fields such as radiologic technology. Many of the additional two-year degrees documented in this study were earned by students in the liberal arts. Those degrees may not lead to high-paying jobs. Some graduates end up in customer service or childcare. Meanwhile, a student who left college without a degree might have entered the workforce sooner and worked their way up to a better-paying position, such as a retail store manager.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>A liberal arts degree might, of course, be a stepping stone to a bachelor’s degree, which typically carries a bigger earnings premium. But researchers found no discernible long-term effect of ASAP on bachelor’s degree completion. The program did appear to help a small share of students — about 3 percent — earn bachelor’s degrees faster than they otherwise would have.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Steering students toward higher-paying fields has been top of mind at some community colleges that embraced the ASAP program. In North Carolina, for example, the program targets \u003ca href=\"https://www.isothermal.edu/newscenter/2026/03/isothermal-community-college-to-launch-nc-boost-north-carolinas-accelerated-college-to-career-program-in-fall-2026.html\">high-demand, workforce-aligned majors\u003c/a>, often excluding liberal arts.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>But Christine Brongniart, executive director of CUNY’s ASAP program, wants to stick with its ASAP-for-all approach, assisting any full-time student, regardless of field of study. The goal, she said, is to help students complete degrees quickly in the field of their choice. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>CUNY says ASAP’s mission isn’t simply to maximize earnings, and there may be other personal and societal benefits to finishing a degree that wages cannot measure. But if taxpayers are spending tens of millions of dollars on an intensive intervention, earnings are one legitimate outcome to examine.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The cost per student has dropped from $6,000 a year back in 2010 to $3,400 today (thanks to higher caseloads for each advisor), and the program has expanded greatly, now serving more than 22,000 students. The city’s budget for it surpasses \u003ca href=\"https://council.nyc.gov/budget/wp-content/uploads/sites/54/2025/04/Fiscal-2026-Preliminary-Budget-Response-FINAL.pdf?\">$76 million\u003c/a> a year. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>CUNY has also updated ASAP since 2010, adding a stronger career component. Advisers require students to take advantage of career resources such as job fairs and resume workshops, and are more deliberate about helping students find a lucrative Plan B when Plan A fails. For example, a student who can’t get into nursing might be steered toward another healthcare field, rather than defaulting to liberal arts. It’s possible that today’s ASAP students will earn more than their predecessors.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>And there is an important counterexample in Ohio. A separate randomized evaluation of ASAP launched in 2015 found significant earnings gains six to eight years after students enrolled. The Ohio program served a different population, including many older students, in a different, less urban labor market.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>That’s one reason Arnold Ventures, a philanthropy that has helped fund ASAP’s expansion, hasn’t given up hope. Arnold acknowledged that the New York graduation gains did not translate into higher cumulative earnings, while pointing to the positive Ohio findings as evidence that more research is needed. \u003cem>(Arnold Ventures is one of The Hechinger Report’s many funders.)\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“Single studies rarely provide complete answers,” the foundation said in a \u003ca href=\"https://www.arnoldventures.org/newsroom/statement-on-mdrc-study-of-cuny-accelerated-study-in-associate-programs-asap\">post\u003c/a> on its website. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>But student results from CUNY’s ASAP program are providing an important lesson: Getting across that graduation finish line is something to celebrate, but it isn’t the end of the story. It may be just the beginning of a long, complicated path to a good middle-class life. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This story about \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/proof-points-cuny-asap-earnings/\">\u003cem>CUNY’s ASAP program\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem> was produced by \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/special-reports/higher-education/\">The Hechinger Report\u003c/a>\u003cem>, a nonprofit, independent news organization that covers education. Sign up for \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/proofpoints/\">\u003cem>Proof Points\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem> and other \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/newsletters/\">\u003cem>Hechinger newsletters\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "hands-on-learning-as-college-a-new-school-hopes-to-curb-rising-tuition-and-create-new-pathways",
"title": "Hands-on Learning As College? A New School Hopes to Curb Rising Tuition and Create New Pathways",
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"headTitle": "Hands-on Learning As College? A New School Hopes to Curb Rising Tuition and Create New Pathways | KQED",
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"content": "\n\u003cp>MONTPELIER, Vt. — The buildings that frame a grassy quad on a hill above Vermont’s capital city are all red brick and white trim, dating from as far back as the 1870s.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>This quintessential college campus from the 19th century is where a group of business, college and government leaders is working on the task of reinventing higher education for the 21st century.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>An entirely new college is being planned here to change not only how higher education is delivered, but at what price. It also proposes to highlight ways the current business model no longer works, as evidenced by the \u003ca href=\"https://www.highereddive.com/news/how-many-colleges-and-universities-have-closed-since-2016/539379/\" target=\"_blank\">152 colleges and universities\u003c/a> that have closed or merged since 2016, and the 442 others that a new projection says \u003ca href=\"https://www.huronconsultinggroup.com/en/insights/time-to-act-higher-ed-ma\" target=\"_blank\">are at risk\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>So deeply entrenched are the problems confronting higher education that a growing chorus of innovators says the easiest way to fix them is to begin again from scratch.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The Greenway Institute — “green” as in new — will adopt instructional methods proven to work well, such as real-world training under the supervision of faculty mentors, while stripping away such things as layers of administrators and nonacademic amenities\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>that make college in the United States so expensive.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“It’s not fancy. It’s a place where you do have a meaningful relationship with your faculty members. But you also take out your own trash,” said Mark Somerville, the founding president.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1200\" height=\"800\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2026/09/he-reinventing-college-3.jpg\" alt=\"Man stands in front of whiteboard plastered with sticky notes.\" class=\"wp-image-66598\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2026/09/he-reinventing-college-3.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2026/09/he-reinventing-college-3-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2026/09/he-reinventing-college-3-768x512.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Mark Somerville, founding president of the Greenway Institute, stands in front of a whiteboard covered with tasks the new college needs to complete before it opens. “We need new models in higher ed,” Somerville says. \u003ccite> (Oliver Parini for The Hechinger Report)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Even more unexpected than the location of this startup is that it comes at a time when so many colleges are closing. In Vermont alone, \u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/more-than-a-quarter-of-private-colleges-are-at-risk-of-closing-new-projection-shows/\" target=\"_blank\">seven private colleges have shut down\u003c/a> in the last 10 years.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>But Somerville, the former provost of Olin College of Engineering in Massachusetts, said this “moment of mass extinction” makes it clearer than ever that “we need new models in higher ed.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Enough of these experimental higher education institutions are in the planning stages that they have been organized by Duke University into a \u003ca href=\"https://provost.duke.edu/programs-initiatives/future-universities-alliance/innovation-sandbox/\" target=\"_blank\">Future Universities Alliance\u003c/a>. Greenway is a member.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://polymath.org/\" target=\"_blank\">Polymath University\u003c/a>, for instance — founded by Dan Futrell, former CEO of the Pat Tillman Foundation, which gives scholarships to military veterans — proposes to mentor bachelor’s degree students beginning in 2028. Each student will take three majors and then be placed in an apprenticeship with an employer for two years.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>There is “broad agreement that something has to change and also recognition that changing legacy institutions from within is agonizingly difficult,” said Brian Rosenberg, former president of Macalester College in Minnesota. He is also author of the book \u003cem>“Whatever It Is, I’m Against It”: Resistance to Change in Higher Education\u003c/em> and a member of both the Greenway and Polymath advisory boards.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Greenway bought its campus in 2023 from the Vermont College of Fine Arts, which had mostly gone remote by then and would be acquired a year later by the California Institute of the Arts after enrollment declines and \u003ca href=\"https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/208384273\" target=\"_blank\">multimillion-dollar deficits\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1200\" height=\"800\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2026/09/he-reinventing-college-4.jpg\" alt=\"Aerial photo of a college campus.\" class=\"wp-image-66599\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2026/09/he-reinventing-college-4.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2026/09/he-reinventing-college-4-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2026/09/he-reinventing-college-4-768x512.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">The Greenway Institute, which proposes to reinvent higher education for the 21st century, is being founded on a campus in Montpelier, Vt., that dates back to the 19th century. \u003ccite> (Oliver Parini for The Hechinger Report)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Many renovations are complete, including the transformation of one building into shop rooms full of tools that students will use to work on real-world projects under faculty supervision.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Inside another building at the center of the campus — four stories of iconic, red-brick, Second Empire-style architecture, with big arched windows and a mansard roof — the Greenway team has arranged on a whiteboard color-coded sticky notes listing the many steps it takes to start a college.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The new school tentatively plans to open in the fall of 2027. It has raised $4.5 million toward a goal of $30 million by 2031, Somerville said — including a \u003ca href=\"https://news.etown.edu/index.php/2022/09/07/elizabethtown-college-awarded-1-2-million-grant-for-center-for-sustainability-and-equity-in-engineering/?doing_wp_cron=1784457184.4695720672607421875000\" target=\"_blank\">grant from the National Science Foundation\u003c/a>, which it shares with an existing traditional partner institution, Elizabethtown College in Pennsylvania. It’s also \u003ca href=\"https://www.greenwaycampus.com/housing\" target=\"_blank\">making money by renting out space\u003c/a> it doesn’t need.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Greenway’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.greenwayinstitute.org/team\" target=\"_blank\">founders and advisers\u003c/a> include tech executives, CEOs, a onetime Vermont secretary of education, a NASA engineer and current and former administrators from Harvard University, Dartmouth College, Tufts University and other schools. It will teach one subject: engineering.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The project tested its model in the spring semester of 2025 on four college sophomores from other schools, which gave them academic credit for coming to the Greenway campus and doing hands-on work with faculty supervisors in a prototype semester. Instead of sitting in conventional classes and lectures, the students designed wind turbines and solar-powered traffic signals.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“Basically, they learned electrical, mechanical and some controls by doing, versus somebody standing at the front and saying, ‘All right, you know, this is Norton’s equivalent theorem [of electronic circuits]’ that you’ll never use in your life,” said Troy McBride, co-founder of a Vermont-based solar panel manufacturer and chair of Greenway’s board of directors.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>New research by scholars at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the Strada Education Foundation shows that work-based learning \u003ca href=\"https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11162-026-09888-4\" target=\"_blank\">improves students’ likelihood\u003c/a> of getting jobs, advancing in their careers and earning more than classmates who studied in other ways. But \u003ca href=\"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/6777c52f82e5471a3732ea25/6a188d169fd2cbe17965e2ba_Work-Based-Learning-Who-Gets-Paid.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">fewer than half of students\u003c/a> at public four-year universities get the experience of\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>paid work-based learning, a separate Strada study shows. (Strada is among the funders of The Hechinger Report, which co-produced this story.)\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“We’re stuck in the 1950s,” McBride said of traditional instruction. “We haven’t responded to the internet, let alone AI. We’re still memorizing things that don’t need to be memorized, and we’re not teaching skills and tools. We’re teaching facts, which is the least useful thing in these times.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Jazz Gonzalez, who was part of Greenway’s prototype semester, said conventional lectures in his previous years at Elizabethtown College left him wanting more.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1200\" height=\"800\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2026/09/he-reinventing-college-2.jpg\" alt=\"Room with a a wall of tools and other craft-making equipment\" class=\"wp-image-66600\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2026/09/he-reinventing-college-2.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2026/09/he-reinventing-college-2-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2026/09/he-reinventing-college-2-768x512.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">This shop room at the Greenway Institute was nicknamed “the sandbox” by students during a prototype semester in which they worked on real-world projects under the supervision of faculty mentors. \u003ccite> (Oliver Parini for The Hechinger Report)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“I would always say, ‘OK, but how do I dig deeper into this? How do I use this, and how do I actually apply it to what I’m going to be doing in the future?'” said Gonzalez, a Pennsylvania native who graduated this past spring.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>When Greenway is operating fully, students are expected to live on campus for two years doing projects and then go on to real-world workplaces for an additional two years while continuing to get support from faculty.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>That lowers the cost to the college of providing housing. It’s also part of the educational strategy: Research from the Association of College and University Housing Officers shows that \u003ca href=\"https://www.acuho-i.org/news/data-highlights-positive-impact-of-residential-campus-experience/\" target=\"_blank\">students who live on campus benefit\u003c/a> from a communal setting for the first two years, with lower dropout rates than classmates who live off campus. But “by the time a student is in their junior year at most colleges, they’re, like, ‘Could I go study abroad now?'” Somerville said.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Greenway students will also shop for their own food and cook it for themselves in communal kitchens with utensils provided, plan their own extracurricular activities and, if they want to go to the gym, sign up for the nearby Planet Fitness or other off-campus options.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“It goes right to the point,” said Emmanuel Attah, an engineering major at Elizabethtown who was also part of Greenway’s prototype semester.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Not having climbing walls or football games “really didn’t matter to us,” Gonzalez said.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Those kinds of amenities are part of what’s driving up the cost of college. In the 10 years leading up to the COVID-19 pandemic, the consulting firm McKinsey found, spending on noninstructional services \u003ca href=\"https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/week-in-charts/before-the-pandemic-many-us-universities-were-in-a-student-amenities-spending-arms-race\" target=\"_blank\">grew four times faster\u003c/a> than spending on teaching.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“You see tuition going up and up and up and up, and not necessarily for the reasons that a student would want them to go up, like a better educational experience,” McBride said. “A lot of it is for amenities, extras and for space sitting empty.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Increasingly, said Somerville, “young people and their parents are looking at [college] and saying, ‘Does this actually make sense?'”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>There’s another reason to make students responsible for cooking their own meals and scheduling their free time, said Annick Dewald, Greenway’s first faculty member: so they learn how.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“We assume that they can’t balance cooking for themselves and cleaning up for themselves, in addition to being college students, and I’m not totally sure why,” said Dewald, who teaches engineering.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“Employers have told me the hardest thing about fresh-from-college undergrads is getting them to show up on time or sleep eight hours at night or to figure out how to feed themselves,” she said. “That to me is a product of how we view college or what services we provide.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Hannah Root, Greenway’s chief of staff, recounted taking the college’s “test” students on their first food-shopping excursion, which she called one of the most challenging moments of the prototype semester. There were “just so many real decisions that they were having to make that it was clear they hadn’t really experienced before,” such as whether to buy organic produce.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Without the frills, Greenway expects to charge tuition of $25,000 or less per year, offset by what students would be paid during their third and fourth years for their in-person work — generally called “co-op” jobs by other universities and colleges that offer them. The average full-time co-op pays more than $25 an hour for juniors and seniors, according to the National Association of Colleges and Employers. That comes to more than $50,000 a year.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"https://research.collegeboard.org/media/pdf/Trends-in-College-Pricing-and-Student-Aid-2025-final_1.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">average published total cost\u003c/a> of attendance at private, nonprofit four-year universities is $65,470, the College Board reports.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Greenway has to wait until it formally opens to apply for accreditation, a process that then takes at least four years. That’s one of the many examples of red tape that makes innovation challenging, its founders say. It also means students won’t be eligible for federal grants or loans for a while. Greenway’s founders said they expect the money they raise will offset that, and that accreditation would be retroactively applied to graduates’ degrees.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The plan is to grow to 500 students in Montpelier, half of them on campus at any given time, and to add other locations nationwide, Somerville said. For now, he said, Greenway needs about 370 students by 2031 to break even.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Greenway may not be for everyone, said Vermont state Rep. Rebecca Holcombe, a former Vermont secretary of education and onetime candidate for governor, and another founder.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>It’s “for kids who really know what they want to do,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1200\" height=\"800\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2026/09/he-reinventing-college-5.jpg\" alt=\"Woman seated in front of a fountain\" class=\"wp-image-66601\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2026/09/he-reinventing-college-5.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2026/09/he-reinventing-college-5-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2026/09/he-reinventing-college-5-768x512.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Vermont state Rep. Rebecca Holcombe, a former Vermont secretary of education and onetime candidate for governor, is a co-founder of the Greenway Institute. “We’re ready to start saying, ‘OK, if not this, then what?'” she says. \u003ccite> (Oliver Parini for The Hechinger Report)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>While the particularly large number of closing colleges in Vermont may seem a bad omen for an effort to open a new one, Holcombe said experiencing the problem has made the state that much more focused on it.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“We’re ready to start saying, ‘OK, if not this, then what?'”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This story was produced by\u003c/em> \u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/special-reports/higher-education/\" target=\"_blank\">\u003cem>The Hechinger Report\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem>, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Additional reporting by Liam Elder-Connors.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Edited by \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/people/g-s1-123933/nirvi-shah\" target=\"_blank\">\u003cem>Nirvi Shah\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem> and \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/people/6576424/steve-drummond\" target=\"_blank\">\u003cem>Steve Drummond\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\u003cem>Visual design and development by \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/people/348775569/la-johnson\" target=\"_blank\">\u003cem>LA Johnson\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-embed npr-correction\">\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\u003ch3>Corrections:\u003c/h3>\n\n\u003cul>\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>September 2, 2026\u003c/em>\u003c/strong>\u003c/b>An earlier version misstated the name of another new experimental higher education institution. Its name is Polymath University.\u003c/li>\u003c/ul>\u003c/div>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
"blocks": [
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>MONTPELIER, Vt. — The buildings that frame a grassy quad on a hill above Vermont’s capital city are all red brick and white trim, dating from as far back as the 1870s.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>MONTPELIER, Vt. — The buildings that frame a grassy quad on a hill above Vermont’s capital city are all red brick and white trim, dating from as far back as the 1870s.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>This quintessential college campus from the 19th century is where a group of business, college and government leaders is working on the task of reinventing higher education for the 21st century.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>This quintessential college campus from the 19th century is where a group of business, college and government leaders is working on the task of reinventing higher education for the 21st century.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>An entirely new college is being planned here to change not only how higher education is delivered, but at what price. It also proposes to highlight ways the current business model no longer works, as evidenced by the \u003ca href=\"https://www.highereddive.com/news/how-many-colleges-and-universities-have-closed-since-2016/539379/\" target=\"_blank\">152 colleges and universities\u003c/a> that have closed or merged since 2016, and the 442 others that a new projection says \u003ca href=\"https://www.huronconsultinggroup.com/en/insights/time-to-act-higher-ed-ma\" target=\"_blank\">are at risk\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>An entirely new college is being planned here to change not only how higher education is delivered, but at what price. It also proposes to highlight ways the current business model no longer works, as evidenced by the \u003ca href=\"https://www.highereddive.com/news/how-many-colleges-and-universities-have-closed-since-2016/539379/\" target=\"_blank\">152 colleges and universities\u003c/a> that have closed or merged since 2016, and the 442 others that a new projection says \u003ca href=\"https://www.huronconsultinggroup.com/en/insights/time-to-act-higher-ed-ma\" target=\"_blank\">are at risk\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>So deeply entrenched are the problems confronting higher education that a growing chorus of innovators says the easiest way to fix them is to begin again from scratch.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>So deeply entrenched are the problems confronting higher education that a growing chorus of innovators says the easiest way to fix them is to begin again from scratch.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The Greenway Institute — “green” as in new — will adopt instructional methods proven to work well, such as real-world training under the supervision of faculty mentors, while stripping away such things as layers of administrators and nonacademic amenities\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>that make college in the United States so expensive.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>The Greenway Institute — “green” as in new — will adopt instructional methods proven to work well, such as real-world training under the supervision of faculty mentors, while stripping away such things as layers of administrators and nonacademic amenities\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>that make college in the United States so expensive.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“It’s not fancy. It’s a place where you do have a meaningful relationship with your faculty members. But you also take out your own trash,” said Mark Somerville, the founding president.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>“It’s not fancy. It’s a place where you do have a meaningful relationship with your faculty members. But you also take out your own trash,” said Mark Somerville, the founding president.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2026/09/he-reinventing-college-3.jpg\" alt=\"Man stands in front of whiteboard plastered with sticky notes.\" class=\"wp-image-66598\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2026/09/he-reinventing-college-3.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2026/09/he-reinventing-college-3-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2026/09/he-reinventing-college-3-768x512.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 992px) min(100vw, 1536px), (min-width: 768px) min(100vw, 1280px), min(100vw, 1020px)\"/>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Mark Somerville, founding president of the Greenway Institute, stands in front of a whiteboard covered with tasks the new college needs to complete before it opens. “We need new models in higher ed,” Somerville says. \u003ccite> (Oliver Parini for The Hechinger Report)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n",
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"\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2026/09/he-reinventing-college-3.jpg\" alt=\"Man stands in front of whiteboard plastered with sticky notes.\" class=\"wp-image-66598\"/>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Mark Somerville, founding president of the Greenway Institute, stands in front of a whiteboard covered with tasks the new college needs to complete before it opens. “We need new models in higher ed,” Somerville says. \u003ccite> (Oliver Parini for The Hechinger Report)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Even more unexpected than the location of this startup is that it comes at a time when so many colleges are closing. In Vermont alone, \u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/more-than-a-quarter-of-private-colleges-are-at-risk-of-closing-new-projection-shows/\" target=\"_blank\">seven private colleges have shut down\u003c/a> in the last 10 years.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Even more unexpected than the location of this startup is that it comes at a time when so many colleges are closing. In Vermont alone, \u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/more-than-a-quarter-of-private-colleges-are-at-risk-of-closing-new-projection-shows/\" target=\"_blank\">seven private colleges have shut down\u003c/a> in the last 10 years.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>But Somerville, the former provost of Olin College of Engineering in Massachusetts, said this “moment of mass extinction” makes it clearer than ever that “we need new models in higher ed.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Enough of these experimental higher education institutions are in the planning stages that they have been organized by Duke University into a \u003ca href=\"https://provost.duke.edu/programs-initiatives/future-universities-alliance/innovation-sandbox/\" target=\"_blank\">Future Universities Alliance\u003c/a>. Greenway is a member.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Enough of these experimental higher education institutions are in the planning stages that they have been organized by Duke University into a \u003ca href=\"https://provost.duke.edu/programs-initiatives/future-universities-alliance/innovation-sandbox/\" target=\"_blank\">Future Universities Alliance\u003c/a>. Greenway is a member.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://polymath.org/\" target=\"_blank\">Polymath University\u003c/a>, for instance — founded by Dan Futrell, former CEO of the Pat Tillman Foundation, which gives scholarships to military veterans — proposes to mentor bachelor’s degree students beginning in 2028. Each student will take three majors and then be placed in an apprenticeship with an employer for two years.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://polymath.org/\" target=\"_blank\">Polymath University\u003c/a>, for instance — founded by Dan Futrell, former CEO of the Pat Tillman Foundation, which gives scholarships to military veterans — proposes to mentor bachelor’s degree students beginning in 2028. Each student will take three majors and then be placed in an apprenticeship with an employer for two years.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>There is “broad agreement that something has to change and also recognition that changing legacy institutions from within is agonizingly difficult,” said Brian Rosenberg, former president of Macalester College in Minnesota. He is also author of the book \u003cem>“Whatever It Is, I’m Against It”: Resistance to Change in Higher Education\u003c/em> and a member of both the Greenway and Polymath advisory boards.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>There is “broad agreement that something has to change and also recognition that changing legacy institutions from within is agonizingly difficult,” said Brian Rosenberg, former president of Macalester College in Minnesota. He is also author of the book \u003cem>“Whatever It Is, I’m Against It”: Resistance to Change in Higher Education\u003c/em> and a member of both the Greenway and Polymath advisory boards.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Greenway bought its campus in 2023 from the Vermont College of Fine Arts, which had mostly gone remote by then and would be acquired a year later by the California Institute of the Arts after enrollment declines and \u003ca href=\"https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/208384273\" target=\"_blank\">multimillion-dollar deficits\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Greenway bought its campus in 2023 from the Vermont College of Fine Arts, which had mostly gone remote by then and would be acquired a year later by the California Institute of the Arts after enrollment declines and \u003ca href=\"https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/208384273\" target=\"_blank\">multimillion-dollar deficits\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2026/09/he-reinventing-college-4.jpg\" alt=\"Aerial photo of a college campus.\" class=\"wp-image-66599\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2026/09/he-reinventing-college-4.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2026/09/he-reinventing-college-4-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2026/09/he-reinventing-college-4-768x512.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 992px) min(100vw, 1536px), (min-width: 768px) min(100vw, 1280px), min(100vw, 1020px)\"/>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">The Greenway Institute, which proposes to reinvent higher education for the 21st century, is being founded on a campus in Montpelier, Vt., that dates back to the 19th century. \u003ccite> (Oliver Parini for The Hechinger Report)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n",
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"\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2026/09/he-reinventing-college-4.jpg\" alt=\"Aerial photo of a college campus.\" class=\"wp-image-66599\"/>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">The Greenway Institute, which proposes to reinvent higher education for the 21st century, is being founded on a campus in Montpelier, Vt., that dates back to the 19th century. \u003ccite> (Oliver Parini for The Hechinger Report)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Many renovations are complete, including the transformation of one building into shop rooms full of tools that students will use to work on real-world projects under faculty supervision.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Many renovations are complete, including the transformation of one building into shop rooms full of tools that students will use to work on real-world projects under faculty supervision.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Inside another building at the center of the campus — four stories of iconic, red-brick, Second Empire-style architecture, with big arched windows and a mansard roof — the Greenway team has arranged on a whiteboard color-coded sticky notes listing the many steps it takes to start a college.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Inside another building at the center of the campus — four stories of iconic, red-brick, Second Empire-style architecture, with big arched windows and a mansard roof — the Greenway team has arranged on a whiteboard color-coded sticky notes listing the many steps it takes to start a college.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The new school tentatively plans to open in the fall of 2027. It has raised $4.5 million toward a goal of $30 million by 2031, Somerville said — including a \u003ca href=\"https://news.etown.edu/index.php/2022/09/07/elizabethtown-college-awarded-1-2-million-grant-for-center-for-sustainability-and-equity-in-engineering/?doing_wp_cron=1784457184.4695720672607421875000\" target=\"_blank\">grant from the National Science Foundation\u003c/a>, which it shares with an existing traditional partner institution, Elizabethtown College in Pennsylvania. It’s also \u003ca href=\"https://www.greenwaycampus.com/housing\" target=\"_blank\">making money by renting out space\u003c/a> it doesn’t need.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>The new school tentatively plans to open in the fall of 2027. It has raised $4.5 million toward a goal of $30 million by 2031, Somerville said — including a \u003ca href=\"https://news.etown.edu/index.php/2022/09/07/elizabethtown-college-awarded-1-2-million-grant-for-center-for-sustainability-and-equity-in-engineering/?doing_wp_cron=1784457184.4695720672607421875000\" target=\"_blank\">grant from the National Science Foundation\u003c/a>, which it shares with an existing traditional partner institution, Elizabethtown College in Pennsylvania. It’s also \u003ca href=\"https://www.greenwaycampus.com/housing\" target=\"_blank\">making money by renting out space\u003c/a> it doesn’t need.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Greenway’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.greenwayinstitute.org/team\" target=\"_blank\">founders and advisers\u003c/a> include tech executives, CEOs, a onetime Vermont secretary of education, a NASA engineer and current and former administrators from Harvard University, Dartmouth College, Tufts University and other schools. It will teach one subject: engineering.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Greenway’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.greenwayinstitute.org/team\" target=\"_blank\">founders and advisers\u003c/a> include tech executives, CEOs, a onetime Vermont secretary of education, a NASA engineer and current and former administrators from Harvard University, Dartmouth College, Tufts University and other schools. It will teach one subject: engineering.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The project tested its model in the spring semester of 2025 on four college sophomores from other schools, which gave them academic credit for coming to the Greenway campus and doing hands-on work with faculty supervisors in a prototype semester. Instead of sitting in conventional classes and lectures, the students designed wind turbines and solar-powered traffic signals.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>The project tested its model in the spring semester of 2025 on four college sophomores from other schools, which gave them academic credit for coming to the Greenway campus and doing hands-on work with faculty supervisors in a prototype semester. Instead of sitting in conventional classes and lectures, the students designed wind turbines and solar-powered traffic signals.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“Basically, they learned electrical, mechanical and some controls by doing, versus somebody standing at the front and saying, ‘All right, you know, this is Norton’s equivalent theorem [of electronic circuits]’ that you’ll never use in your life,” said Troy McBride, co-founder of a Vermont-based solar panel manufacturer and chair of Greenway’s board of directors.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>“Basically, they learned electrical, mechanical and some controls by doing, versus somebody standing at the front and saying, ‘All right, you know, this is Norton’s equivalent theorem [of electronic circuits]’ that you’ll never use in your life,” said Troy McBride, co-founder of a Vermont-based solar panel manufacturer and chair of Greenway’s board of directors.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>New research by scholars at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the Strada Education Foundation shows that work-based learning \u003ca href=\"https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11162-026-09888-4\" target=\"_blank\">improves students’ likelihood\u003c/a> of getting jobs, advancing in their careers and earning more than classmates who studied in other ways. But \u003ca href=\"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/6777c52f82e5471a3732ea25/6a188d169fd2cbe17965e2ba_Work-Based-Learning-Who-Gets-Paid.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">fewer than half of students\u003c/a> at public four-year universities get the experience of\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>paid work-based learning, a separate Strada study shows. (Strada is among the funders of The Hechinger Report, which co-produced this story.)\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>New research by scholars at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the Strada Education Foundation shows that work-based learning \u003ca href=\"https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11162-026-09888-4\" target=\"_blank\">improves students’ likelihood\u003c/a> of getting jobs, advancing in their careers and earning more than classmates who studied in other ways. But \u003ca href=\"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/6777c52f82e5471a3732ea25/6a188d169fd2cbe17965e2ba_Work-Based-Learning-Who-Gets-Paid.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">fewer than half of students\u003c/a> at public four-year universities get the experience of\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>paid work-based learning, a separate Strada study shows. (Strada is among the funders of The Hechinger Report, which co-produced this story.)\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“We’re stuck in the 1950s,” McBride said of traditional instruction. “We haven’t responded to the internet, let alone AI. We’re still memorizing things that don’t need to be memorized, and we’re not teaching skills and tools. We’re teaching facts, which is the least useful thing in these times.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>“We’re stuck in the 1950s,” McBride said of traditional instruction. “We haven’t responded to the internet, let alone AI. We’re still memorizing things that don’t need to be memorized, and we’re not teaching skills and tools. We’re teaching facts, which is the least useful thing in these times.”\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Jazz Gonzalez, who was part of Greenway’s prototype semester, said conventional lectures in his previous years at Elizabethtown College left him wanting more.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Jazz Gonzalez, who was part of Greenway’s prototype semester, said conventional lectures in his previous years at Elizabethtown College left him wanting more.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2026/09/he-reinventing-college-2.jpg\" alt=\"Room with a a wall of tools and other craft-making equipment\" class=\"wp-image-66600\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2026/09/he-reinventing-college-2.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2026/09/he-reinventing-college-2-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2026/09/he-reinventing-college-2-768x512.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 992px) min(100vw, 1536px), (min-width: 768px) min(100vw, 1280px), min(100vw, 1020px)\"/>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">This shop room at the Greenway Institute was nicknamed “the sandbox” by students during a prototype semester in which they worked on real-world projects under the supervision of faculty mentors. \u003ccite> (Oliver Parini for The Hechinger Report)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n",
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"\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2026/09/he-reinventing-college-2.jpg\" alt=\"Room with a a wall of tools and other craft-making equipment\" class=\"wp-image-66600\"/>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">This shop room at the Greenway Institute was nicknamed “the sandbox” by students during a prototype semester in which they worked on real-world projects under the supervision of faculty mentors. \u003ccite> (Oliver Parini for The Hechinger Report)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“I would always say, ‘OK, but how do I dig deeper into this? How do I use this, and how do I actually apply it to what I’m going to be doing in the future?'” said Gonzalez, a Pennsylvania native who graduated this past spring.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>When Greenway is operating fully, students are expected to live on campus for two years doing projects and then go on to real-world workplaces for an additional two years while continuing to get support from faculty.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>That lowers the cost to the college of providing housing. It’s also part of the educational strategy: Research from the Association of College and University Housing Officers shows that \u003ca href=\"https://www.acuho-i.org/news/data-highlights-positive-impact-of-residential-campus-experience/\" target=\"_blank\">students who live on campus benefit\u003c/a> from a communal setting for the first two years, with lower dropout rates than classmates who live off campus. But “by the time a student is in their junior year at most colleges, they’re, like, ‘Could I go study abroad now?'” Somerville said.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>That lowers the cost to the college of providing housing. It’s also part of the educational strategy: Research from the Association of College and University Housing Officers shows that \u003ca href=\"https://www.acuho-i.org/news/data-highlights-positive-impact-of-residential-campus-experience/\" target=\"_blank\">students who live on campus benefit\u003c/a> from a communal setting for the first two years, with lower dropout rates than classmates who live off campus. But “by the time a student is in their junior year at most colleges, they’re, like, ‘Could I go study abroad now?'” Somerville said.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Greenway students will also shop for their own food and cook it for themselves in communal kitchens with utensils provided, plan their own extracurricular activities and, if they want to go to the gym, sign up for the nearby Planet Fitness or other off-campus options.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Greenway students will also shop for their own food and cook it for themselves in communal kitchens with utensils provided, plan their own extracurricular activities and, if they want to go to the gym, sign up for the nearby Planet Fitness or other off-campus options.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“It goes right to the point,” said Emmanuel Attah, an engineering major at Elizabethtown who was also part of Greenway’s prototype semester.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Those kinds of amenities are part of what’s driving up the cost of college. In the 10 years leading up to the COVID-19 pandemic, the consulting firm McKinsey found, spending on noninstructional services \u003ca href=\"https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/week-in-charts/before-the-pandemic-many-us-universities-were-in-a-student-amenities-spending-arms-race\" target=\"_blank\">grew four times faster\u003c/a> than spending on teaching.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Those kinds of amenities are part of what’s driving up the cost of college. In the 10 years leading up to the COVID-19 pandemic, the consulting firm McKinsey found, spending on noninstructional services \u003ca href=\"https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/week-in-charts/before-the-pandemic-many-us-universities-were-in-a-student-amenities-spending-arms-race\" target=\"_blank\">grew four times faster\u003c/a> than spending on teaching.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“You see tuition going up and up and up and up, and not necessarily for the reasons that a student would want them to go up, like a better educational experience,” McBride said. “A lot of it is for amenities, extras and for space sitting empty.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>“You see tuition going up and up and up and up, and not necessarily for the reasons that a student would want them to go up, like a better educational experience,” McBride said. “A lot of it is for amenities, extras and for space sitting empty.”\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Increasingly, said Somerville, “young people and their parents are looking at [college] and saying, ‘Does this actually make sense?'”\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>There’s another reason to make students responsible for cooking their own meals and scheduling their free time, said Annick Dewald, Greenway’s first faculty member: so they learn how.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“We assume that they can’t balance cooking for themselves and cleaning up for themselves, in addition to being college students, and I’m not totally sure why,” said Dewald, who teaches engineering.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>“We assume that they can’t balance cooking for themselves and cleaning up for themselves, in addition to being college students, and I’m not totally sure why,” said Dewald, who teaches engineering.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“Employers have told me the hardest thing about fresh-from-college undergrads is getting them to show up on time or sleep eight hours at night or to figure out how to feed themselves,” she said. “That to me is a product of how we view college or what services we provide.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Hannah Root, Greenway’s chief of staff, recounted taking the college’s “test” students on their first food-shopping excursion, which she called one of the most challenging moments of the prototype semester. There were “just so many real decisions that they were having to make that it was clear they hadn’t really experienced before,” such as whether to buy organic produce.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Hannah Root, Greenway’s chief of staff, recounted taking the college’s “test” students on their first food-shopping excursion, which she called one of the most challenging moments of the prototype semester. There were “just so many real decisions that they were having to make that it was clear they hadn’t really experienced before,” such as whether to buy organic produce.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Without the frills, Greenway expects to charge tuition of $25,000 or less per year, offset by what students would be paid during their third and fourth years for their in-person work — generally called “co-op” jobs by other universities and colleges that offer them. The average full-time co-op pays more than $25 an hour for juniors and seniors, according to the National Association of Colleges and Employers. That comes to more than $50,000 a year.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Without the frills, Greenway expects to charge tuition of $25,000 or less per year, offset by what students would be paid during their third and fourth years for their in-person work — generally called “co-op” jobs by other universities and colleges that offer them. The average full-time co-op pays more than $25 an hour for juniors and seniors, according to the National Association of Colleges and Employers. That comes to more than $50,000 a year.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"https://research.collegeboard.org/media/pdf/Trends-in-College-Pricing-and-Student-Aid-2025-final_1.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">average published total cost\u003c/a> of attendance at private, nonprofit four-year universities is $65,470, the College Board reports.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Greenway has to wait until it formally opens to apply for accreditation, a process that then takes at least four years. That’s one of the many examples of red tape that makes innovation challenging, its founders say. It also means students won’t be eligible for federal grants or loans for a while. Greenway’s founders said they expect the money they raise will offset that, and that accreditation would be retroactively applied to graduates’ degrees.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Greenway has to wait until it formally opens to apply for accreditation, a process that then takes at least four years. That’s one of the many examples of red tape that makes innovation challenging, its founders say. It also means students won’t be eligible for federal grants or loans for a while. Greenway’s founders said they expect the money they raise will offset that, and that accreditation would be retroactively applied to graduates’ degrees.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The plan is to grow to 500 students in Montpelier, half of them on campus at any given time, and to add other locations nationwide, Somerville said. For now, he said, Greenway needs about 370 students by 2031 to break even.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>The plan is to grow to 500 students in Montpelier, half of them on campus at any given time, and to add other locations nationwide, Somerville said. For now, he said, Greenway needs about 370 students by 2031 to break even.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Greenway may not be for everyone, said Vermont state Rep. Rebecca Holcombe, a former Vermont secretary of education and onetime candidate for governor, and another founder.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Greenway may not be for everyone, said Vermont state Rep. Rebecca Holcombe, a former Vermont secretary of education and onetime candidate for governor, and another founder.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>It’s “for kids who really know what they want to do,” she said.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2026/09/he-reinventing-college-5.jpg\" alt=\"Woman seated in front of a fountain\" class=\"wp-image-66601\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2026/09/he-reinventing-college-5.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2026/09/he-reinventing-college-5-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2026/09/he-reinventing-college-5-768x512.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 992px) min(100vw, 1536px), (min-width: 768px) min(100vw, 1280px), min(100vw, 1020px)\"/>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Vermont state Rep. Rebecca Holcombe, a former Vermont secretary of education and onetime candidate for governor, is a co-founder of the Greenway Institute. “We’re ready to start saying, ‘OK, if not this, then what?'” she says. \u003ccite> (Oliver Parini for The Hechinger Report)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>While the particularly large number of closing colleges in Vermont may seem a bad omen for an effort to open a new one, Holcombe said experiencing the problem has made the state that much more focused on it.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This story was produced by\u003c/em> \u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/special-reports/higher-education/\" target=\"_blank\">\u003cem>The Hechinger Report\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem>, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Additional reporting by Liam Elder-Connors.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This story was produced by\u003c/em> \u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/special-reports/higher-education/\" target=\"_blank\">\u003cem>The Hechinger Report\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem>, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Additional reporting by Liam Elder-Connors.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Edited by \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/people/g-s1-123933/nirvi-shah\" target=\"_blank\">\u003cem>Nirvi Shah\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem> and \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/people/6576424/steve-drummond\" target=\"_blank\">\u003cem>Steve Drummond\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\u003cem>Visual design and development by \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/people/348775569/la-johnson\" target=\"_blank\">\u003cem>LA Johnson\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Edited by \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/people/g-s1-123933/nirvi-shah\" target=\"_blank\">\u003cem>Nirvi Shah\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem> and \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/people/6576424/steve-drummond\" target=\"_blank\">\u003cem>Steve Drummond\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\u003cem>Visual design and development by \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/people/348775569/la-johnson\" target=\"_blank\">\u003cem>LA Johnson\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-embed npr-correction\">\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\u003ch3>Corrections:\u003c/h3>\n\n\u003cul>\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>September 2, 2026\u003c/em>\u003c/strong>\u003c/b>An earlier version misstated the name of another new experimental higher education institution. Its name is Polymath University.\u003c/li>\u003c/ul>\u003c/div>\u003c/figure>\n",
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"\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-embed npr-correction\">\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\u003ch3>Corrections:\u003c/h3>\n\n\u003cul>\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>September 2, 2026\u003c/em>\u003c/strong>\u003c/b>An earlier version misstated the name of another new experimental higher education institution. Its name is Polymath University.\u003c/li>\u003c/ul>\u003c/div>\u003c/figure>\n"
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"excerpt": "A new model in Vermont emphasizes hands-on learning while stripping away frills like gyms and meal plans that increase costs. Other newly created institutions are also reimagining college.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\n\u003cp>MONTPELIER, Vt. — The buildings that frame a grassy quad on a hill above Vermont’s capital city are all red brick and white trim, dating from as far back as the 1870s.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>This quintessential college campus from the 19th century is where a group of business, college and government leaders is working on the task of reinventing higher education for the 21st century.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>An entirely new college is being planned here to change not only how higher education is delivered, but at what price. It also proposes to highlight ways the current business model no longer works, as evidenced by the \u003ca href=\"https://www.highereddive.com/news/how-many-colleges-and-universities-have-closed-since-2016/539379/\" target=\"_blank\">152 colleges and universities\u003c/a> that have closed or merged since 2016, and the 442 others that a new projection says \u003ca href=\"https://www.huronconsultinggroup.com/en/insights/time-to-act-higher-ed-ma\" target=\"_blank\">are at risk\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>So deeply entrenched are the problems confronting higher education that a growing chorus of innovators says the easiest way to fix them is to begin again from scratch.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The Greenway Institute — “green” as in new — will adopt instructional methods proven to work well, such as real-world training under the supervision of faculty mentors, while stripping away such things as layers of administrators and nonacademic amenities\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>that make college in the United States so expensive.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“It’s not fancy. It’s a place where you do have a meaningful relationship with your faculty members. But you also take out your own trash,” said Mark Somerville, the founding president.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1200\" height=\"800\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2026/09/he-reinventing-college-3.jpg\" alt=\"Man stands in front of whiteboard plastered with sticky notes.\" class=\"wp-image-66598\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2026/09/he-reinventing-college-3.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2026/09/he-reinventing-college-3-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2026/09/he-reinventing-college-3-768x512.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Mark Somerville, founding president of the Greenway Institute, stands in front of a whiteboard covered with tasks the new college needs to complete before it opens. “We need new models in higher ed,” Somerville says. \u003ccite> (Oliver Parini for The Hechinger Report)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Even more unexpected than the location of this startup is that it comes at a time when so many colleges are closing. In Vermont alone, \u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/more-than-a-quarter-of-private-colleges-are-at-risk-of-closing-new-projection-shows/\" target=\"_blank\">seven private colleges have shut down\u003c/a> in the last 10 years.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>But Somerville, the former provost of Olin College of Engineering in Massachusetts, said this “moment of mass extinction” makes it clearer than ever that “we need new models in higher ed.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Enough of these experimental higher education institutions are in the planning stages that they have been organized by Duke University into a \u003ca href=\"https://provost.duke.edu/programs-initiatives/future-universities-alliance/innovation-sandbox/\" target=\"_blank\">Future Universities Alliance\u003c/a>. Greenway is a member.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://polymath.org/\" target=\"_blank\">Polymath University\u003c/a>, for instance — founded by Dan Futrell, former CEO of the Pat Tillman Foundation, which gives scholarships to military veterans — proposes to mentor bachelor’s degree students beginning in 2028. Each student will take three majors and then be placed in an apprenticeship with an employer for two years.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>There is “broad agreement that something has to change and also recognition that changing legacy institutions from within is agonizingly difficult,” said Brian Rosenberg, former president of Macalester College in Minnesota. He is also author of the book \u003cem>“Whatever It Is, I’m Against It”: Resistance to Change in Higher Education\u003c/em> and a member of both the Greenway and Polymath advisory boards.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Greenway bought its campus in 2023 from the Vermont College of Fine Arts, which had mostly gone remote by then and would be acquired a year later by the California Institute of the Arts after enrollment declines and \u003ca href=\"https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/208384273\" target=\"_blank\">multimillion-dollar deficits\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1200\" height=\"800\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2026/09/he-reinventing-college-4.jpg\" alt=\"Aerial photo of a college campus.\" class=\"wp-image-66599\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2026/09/he-reinventing-college-4.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2026/09/he-reinventing-college-4-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2026/09/he-reinventing-college-4-768x512.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">The Greenway Institute, which proposes to reinvent higher education for the 21st century, is being founded on a campus in Montpelier, Vt., that dates back to the 19th century. \u003ccite> (Oliver Parini for The Hechinger Report)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Many renovations are complete, including the transformation of one building into shop rooms full of tools that students will use to work on real-world projects under faculty supervision.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Inside another building at the center of the campus — four stories of iconic, red-brick, Second Empire-style architecture, with big arched windows and a mansard roof — the Greenway team has arranged on a whiteboard color-coded sticky notes listing the many steps it takes to start a college.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The new school tentatively plans to open in the fall of 2027. It has raised $4.5 million toward a goal of $30 million by 2031, Somerville said — including a \u003ca href=\"https://news.etown.edu/index.php/2022/09/07/elizabethtown-college-awarded-1-2-million-grant-for-center-for-sustainability-and-equity-in-engineering/?doing_wp_cron=1784457184.4695720672607421875000\" target=\"_blank\">grant from the National Science Foundation\u003c/a>, which it shares with an existing traditional partner institution, Elizabethtown College in Pennsylvania. It’s also \u003ca href=\"https://www.greenwaycampus.com/housing\" target=\"_blank\">making money by renting out space\u003c/a> it doesn’t need.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Greenway’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.greenwayinstitute.org/team\" target=\"_blank\">founders and advisers\u003c/a> include tech executives, CEOs, a onetime Vermont secretary of education, a NASA engineer and current and former administrators from Harvard University, Dartmouth College, Tufts University and other schools. It will teach one subject: engineering.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The project tested its model in the spring semester of 2025 on four college sophomores from other schools, which gave them academic credit for coming to the Greenway campus and doing hands-on work with faculty supervisors in a prototype semester. Instead of sitting in conventional classes and lectures, the students designed wind turbines and solar-powered traffic signals.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“Basically, they learned electrical, mechanical and some controls by doing, versus somebody standing at the front and saying, ‘All right, you know, this is Norton’s equivalent theorem [of electronic circuits]’ that you’ll never use in your life,” said Troy McBride, co-founder of a Vermont-based solar panel manufacturer and chair of Greenway’s board of directors.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>New research by scholars at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the Strada Education Foundation shows that work-based learning \u003ca href=\"https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11162-026-09888-4\" target=\"_blank\">improves students’ likelihood\u003c/a> of getting jobs, advancing in their careers and earning more than classmates who studied in other ways. But \u003ca href=\"https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/6777c52f82e5471a3732ea25/6a188d169fd2cbe17965e2ba_Work-Based-Learning-Who-Gets-Paid.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">fewer than half of students\u003c/a> at public four-year universities get the experience of\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>paid work-based learning, a separate Strada study shows. (Strada is among the funders of The Hechinger Report, which co-produced this story.)\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“We’re stuck in the 1950s,” McBride said of traditional instruction. “We haven’t responded to the internet, let alone AI. We’re still memorizing things that don’t need to be memorized, and we’re not teaching skills and tools. We’re teaching facts, which is the least useful thing in these times.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Jazz Gonzalez, who was part of Greenway’s prototype semester, said conventional lectures in his previous years at Elizabethtown College left him wanting more.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1200\" height=\"800\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2026/09/he-reinventing-college-2.jpg\" alt=\"Room with a a wall of tools and other craft-making equipment\" class=\"wp-image-66600\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2026/09/he-reinventing-college-2.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2026/09/he-reinventing-college-2-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2026/09/he-reinventing-college-2-768x512.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">This shop room at the Greenway Institute was nicknamed “the sandbox” by students during a prototype semester in which they worked on real-world projects under the supervision of faculty mentors. \u003ccite> (Oliver Parini for The Hechinger Report)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“I would always say, ‘OK, but how do I dig deeper into this? How do I use this, and how do I actually apply it to what I’m going to be doing in the future?'” said Gonzalez, a Pennsylvania native who graduated this past spring.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>When Greenway is operating fully, students are expected to live on campus for two years doing projects and then go on to real-world workplaces for an additional two years while continuing to get support from faculty.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>That lowers the cost to the college of providing housing. It’s also part of the educational strategy: Research from the Association of College and University Housing Officers shows that \u003ca href=\"https://www.acuho-i.org/news/data-highlights-positive-impact-of-residential-campus-experience/\" target=\"_blank\">students who live on campus benefit\u003c/a> from a communal setting for the first two years, with lower dropout rates than classmates who live off campus. But “by the time a student is in their junior year at most colleges, they’re, like, ‘Could I go study abroad now?'” Somerville said.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Greenway students will also shop for their own food and cook it for themselves in communal kitchens with utensils provided, plan their own extracurricular activities and, if they want to go to the gym, sign up for the nearby Planet Fitness or other off-campus options.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“It goes right to the point,” said Emmanuel Attah, an engineering major at Elizabethtown who was also part of Greenway’s prototype semester.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Not having climbing walls or football games “really didn’t matter to us,” Gonzalez said.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Those kinds of amenities are part of what’s driving up the cost of college. In the 10 years leading up to the COVID-19 pandemic, the consulting firm McKinsey found, spending on noninstructional services \u003ca href=\"https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/week-in-charts/before-the-pandemic-many-us-universities-were-in-a-student-amenities-spending-arms-race\" target=\"_blank\">grew four times faster\u003c/a> than spending on teaching.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“You see tuition going up and up and up and up, and not necessarily for the reasons that a student would want them to go up, like a better educational experience,” McBride said. “A lot of it is for amenities, extras and for space sitting empty.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Increasingly, said Somerville, “young people and their parents are looking at [college] and saying, ‘Does this actually make sense?'”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>There’s another reason to make students responsible for cooking their own meals and scheduling their free time, said Annick Dewald, Greenway’s first faculty member: so they learn how.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“We assume that they can’t balance cooking for themselves and cleaning up for themselves, in addition to being college students, and I’m not totally sure why,” said Dewald, who teaches engineering.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“Employers have told me the hardest thing about fresh-from-college undergrads is getting them to show up on time or sleep eight hours at night or to figure out how to feed themselves,” she said. “That to me is a product of how we view college or what services we provide.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Hannah Root, Greenway’s chief of staff, recounted taking the college’s “test” students on their first food-shopping excursion, which she called one of the most challenging moments of the prototype semester. There were “just so many real decisions that they were having to make that it was clear they hadn’t really experienced before,” such as whether to buy organic produce.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Without the frills, Greenway expects to charge tuition of $25,000 or less per year, offset by what students would be paid during their third and fourth years for their in-person work — generally called “co-op” jobs by other universities and colleges that offer them. The average full-time co-op pays more than $25 an hour for juniors and seniors, according to the National Association of Colleges and Employers. That comes to more than $50,000 a year.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"https://research.collegeboard.org/media/pdf/Trends-in-College-Pricing-and-Student-Aid-2025-final_1.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">average published total cost\u003c/a> of attendance at private, nonprofit four-year universities is $65,470, the College Board reports.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Greenway has to wait until it formally opens to apply for accreditation, a process that then takes at least four years. That’s one of the many examples of red tape that makes innovation challenging, its founders say. It also means students won’t be eligible for federal grants or loans for a while. Greenway’s founders said they expect the money they raise will offset that, and that accreditation would be retroactively applied to graduates’ degrees.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The plan is to grow to 500 students in Montpelier, half of them on campus at any given time, and to add other locations nationwide, Somerville said. For now, he said, Greenway needs about 370 students by 2031 to break even.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Greenway may not be for everyone, said Vermont state Rep. Rebecca Holcombe, a former Vermont secretary of education and onetime candidate for governor, and another founder.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>It’s “for kids who really know what they want to do,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1200\" height=\"800\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2026/09/he-reinventing-college-5.jpg\" alt=\"Woman seated in front of a fountain\" class=\"wp-image-66601\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2026/09/he-reinventing-college-5.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2026/09/he-reinventing-college-5-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2026/09/he-reinventing-college-5-768x512.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Vermont state Rep. Rebecca Holcombe, a former Vermont secretary of education and onetime candidate for governor, is a co-founder of the Greenway Institute. “We’re ready to start saying, ‘OK, if not this, then what?'” she says. \u003ccite> (Oliver Parini for The Hechinger Report)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>While the particularly large number of closing colleges in Vermont may seem a bad omen for an effort to open a new one, Holcombe said experiencing the problem has made the state that much more focused on it.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“We’re ready to start saying, ‘OK, if not this, then what?'”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This story was produced by\u003c/em> \u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/special-reports/higher-education/\" target=\"_blank\">\u003cem>The Hechinger Report\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem>, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Additional reporting by Liam Elder-Connors.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Edited by \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/people/g-s1-123933/nirvi-shah\" target=\"_blank\">\u003cem>Nirvi Shah\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem> and \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/people/6576424/steve-drummond\" target=\"_blank\">\u003cem>Steve Drummond\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\u003cem>Visual design and development by \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/people/348775569/la-johnson\" target=\"_blank\">\u003cem>LA Johnson\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-embed npr-correction\">\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\u003ch3>Corrections:\u003c/h3>\n\n\u003cul>\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>September 2, 2026\u003c/em>\u003c/strong>\u003c/b>An earlier version misstated the name of another new experimental higher education institution. Its name is Polymath University.\u003c/li>\u003c/ul>\u003c/div>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "under-a-new-federal-rule-colleges-must-leave-grads-better-off-or-lose-financial-aid",
"title": "Under a New Federal Rule, Colleges Must Leave Grads Better Off or Lose Financial Aid",
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"headTitle": "Under a New Federal Rule, Colleges Must Leave Grads Better Off or Lose Financial Aid | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>This month, the U.S. Department of Education began rolling out a new accountability test that most colleges and universities will soon have to pass.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The test itself is simple: If an undergraduate program’s graduates don’t earn more than workers who never went to college, that program could be cut off from federal student loans. The same goes for any graduate program whose graduates earn less than someone with only a bachelor’s degree.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If a program cannot show that it leaves its graduates financially better off than if they had never enrolled, it should not be underwritten by federal taxpayers,” said Under Secretary of Education Nicholas Kent in a \u003ca href=\"https://www.ed.gov/about/news/press-release/us-department-of-education-issues-final-rule-hold-all-colleges-and-universities-accountable-low-earning-programs\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">recent statement\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But this new test, known as “do no harm,” raises some thorny questions about the \u003cem>purpose \u003c/em>of college. Like: Is it \u003cem>just \u003c/em>about making more money?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some advocates for postsecondary arts education think not.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Earnings is only a small piece of that puzzle,” said Lee Ann Scotto Adams, executive director of the Strategic National Arts Alumni Project (SNAAP), a nonprofit that studies the careers of arts graduates.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She and Doug Dempster, the president of SNAAP, worry the new test might lead colleges and universities to preemptively slash low-earning creative arts programs in music, theater, studio art and design. Dempster says \u003cem>that\u003c/em> could lead to a further devaluing of jobs that are critical to a well-functioning society.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We know we need nurses. We know we need journalists. We know we need early childhood educators,” he said. “We don’t know how many artists we need, but I can guarantee that if you eliminate access, we will impoverish our cultural life nationally.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>How the new standard will work\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The new earnings test comes courtesy of last year’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which included a \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2026/06/10/nx-s1-5835633/student-loans-guide-education-changes-repayment-plan\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">slew of big higher education policy changes\u003c/a> meant to address rising concerns over the cost and value of college.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Higher education experts across the political spectrum told NPR the test sets a pretty reasonable expectation: In many states, federal data shows, graduates of bachelor programs will have to earn a minimum of about $30,000 to $41,000 a year for their program to pass.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-embed npr-promo-card insettwocolumn\">\n\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\u003c/div>\n\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“This is really a very low floor,” said Christopher Madaio, a senior adviser at the nonprofit The Institute for College Access & Success. “I mean, high school earnings is not an exceedingly high metric for a program to meet.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Programs fail the test when they don’t meet the earnings requirement for two out of three consecutive years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The current test does not take student loan debt into account, which means there’s no way to distinguish between a graduate who is struggling with low pay while being debt-free and a graduate who is struggling with low pay while also paying off tens of thousands of dollars in loans.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Education Department says \u003ca href=\"https://www.ed.gov/media/document/fact-sheet-trump-administration-implements-accountability-provisions-of-working-families-tax-cuts-act-june-29-2026-114288.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">it will begin calculating\u003c/a> the first year of graduate earnings in early 2027, and “some programs could be designated as low-earning outcome programs beginning in the 2028-2029 [financial aid] award year.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>The kinds of programs that are likely to fail\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>According to Education Department estimates, the vast majority of undergraduate and graduate programs should easily pass the new earnings test.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But more than 800,000 students attend a program that would likely fail the measure, according to department data. Roughly half of those students are enrolled in for-profit schools, which already \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2022/11/17/1135615520/student-loan-forgiveness-borrower-defense\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">have a reputation\u003c/a> for shortchanging students.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Other takeaways from the department’s data:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul class=\"rte2-style-ul\" style=\"margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; padding-inline-start: 48px;\">\n\u003cli>About 18% of undergraduate certificate programs, which often bill themselves as career-focused fast tracks, would fail the earnings test. Specifically, certificate programs in cosmetology and somatic body work have the highest predicted failure rates.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Two-year associate degree programs have the next highest failure rate, at 6%. Associate programs that train specialized educators, including early childhood educators, are the most likely to fail.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cul class=\"rte2-style-ul\" style=\"margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; padding-inline-start: 48px;\">\n\u003cli>Most traditional, four-year bachelor programs fare well, with roughly 1% failing the earnings test. When these programs do fail, it’s often in areas like theater, music and studio art.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>About 4% of master’s degree programs would fail, with the highest failure rates for programs teaching mental and social health services.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003ch2>For one music teacher, it was “never about the money”\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Some of the United States’ most prestigious music programs — known for training the country’s most talented young musicians — are among the 14% of bachelor music programs predicted to fail the new earnings test, according to Education Department data. That includes The Juilliard School in New York City, the New England Conservatory in Boston and Indiana University Bloomington’s Jacobs School of Music.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The undergraduate music program that Cindy Flores attended at Portland State University (PSU) also wouldn’t pass. Flores teaches mariachi music to middle and high school students at Salem-Keizer Public Schools in Oregon’s Willamette Valley.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/3000x2000+0+0/resize/1200/quality/75/format/jpeg/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F12%2Fe5%2Fafb6393b409fab7cdf3421daa40e%2F20260310-ezi-mariachi-teacher-10.jpg\" alt=\"Cindy Flores smiles as she teaches mariachi to students at McKay High School in Salem, Oregon. 'If it wasn't for PSU and the loans I could get … I wouldn't be a Mexican American mariachi teacher for my Mexican American students,' she said.\">\u003cfigcaption>Cindy Flores smiles as she teaches mariachi to students at McKay High School in Salem, Oregon. “If it wasn’t for PSU and the loans I could get … I wouldn’t be a Mexican American mariachi teacher for my Mexican American students,” she said. \u003ccite> (Eli Imadali | OPB)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Her path to becoming a full-time music teacher started with studying music education at PSU; then she got an educators license from Western Oregon University — and she used federal student loans to help pay for all of it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She now holds close to $55,000 in federal student loan debt.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Flores said she wouldn’t be where she is now without that access to federal aid.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If it wasn’t for PSU and the loans I could get … I wouldn’t be a Mexican American mariachi teacher for my Mexican American students,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But given the new federal test, future PSU music students might not have the same access to federal student loans that Flores did.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She said she feels lucky to have found a job that she’s passionate about and that pays a living wage. But, for her, a career in music was about much more than a paycheck.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It is never about the money,” she said. “I realized I wanted to have a career in music when I was in the eighth grade, because every music teacher I had were such good role models in my life and I wanted to be part of that community.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Defining success in the arts\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>SNAAP’s Lee Ann Scotto Adams said the federal government’s one-size-fits-all accountability approach doesn’t make sense for students graduating from creative arts programs because wages aren’t the only measure of success for studio artists, musicians and designers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Yes, you need to earn money to make a living, but we see our creative workers want the ability to have independence in their work. They want jobs that are socially conscious. They want to make an impact culturally,” Scotto Adams said. “These are all metrics that fall outside of just straightforward earnings metrics.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She also takes issue with looking at earnings in the first few years after graduation. Scotto Adams points to \u003ca href=\"https://snaaparts.org/findings/databriefs/measuring-early-career-earnings-for-arts-design-graduates-evidence-from-snaap-alumni-data-on-income-volatility-advanced-degree-pursuit-and-long-term-career-trajectories\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">SNAAP survey data\u003c/a> that shows arts graduates often have unpredictable incomes at the beginning of their careers, but their pay tends to stabilize and increase over time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Looking at earnings as the sole metric of success is very limited, and that’s because artists have nonlinear careers,” Scotto Adams said. “For the most part, people who graduate from these programs move into careers that they’re personally satisfied with.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Students considering any of the at-risk programs won’t immediately lose access to federal aid. While the accountability test is being rolled out this month, its implementation will be phased in over the next couple of years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"npr-transcript\">\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Transcript:\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The U.S. Department of Education is rolling out a new federal test, one that most colleges and universities will eventually have to pass. The test is known as Do No Harm, and it’s pretty simple. If a program’s graduates don’t earn more than someone who never went to college, that program and its students could lose access to federal student loans. To better explain how this will all work and the impact it might have, I’m joined by NPR education correspondent Cory Turner. Hi there.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>CORY TURNER, BYLINE: Hey, Juana.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>SUMMERS: So, Cory, losing access to federal student loans sounds like a really big deal. So tell us how exactly this Do No Harm test is going to work.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>TURNER: Yeah. So this new test, it comes courtesy of Republicans’ One Big Beautiful Bill Act from last year. And, I mean, really, as you said in the intro, it’s pretty straightforward. For undergraduate programs, their students four years after they graduate are going to need to earn more than working high school grads who did not go to college. And it’s a pretty similar test for graduate schools, right? So a program’s graduates need to earn more on average than those who finished college but did not go on to grad school. If a program dips below this earnings threshold for 2 years out of 3, then students will no longer be able to take out federal loans to attend that program.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Earlier this week, the Under Secretary of Education, Nicholas Kent, said of this change, quote, “if a program can’t show that it leaves its graduates financially better off than if they had never enrolled, it should not be underwritten by federal taxpayers.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I have also heard, though, Juana, from lots of folks – really a bipartisan collection of folks across higher ed – who say, look, this is a pretty reasonable expectation. Here’s Chris Madaio with the nonprofit Institute for College Access & Success.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>CHRIS MADAIO: I mean, this is really a very low floor, right? I mean, high school earnings is not a exceedingly high metric for a program to meet.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>SUMMERS: And, Cory, what can you tell us about the types of programs that might not be able to pass this new test?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>TURNER: Well, fortunately, earlier this year, the U.S. Department of Education released a trove of data that give us a pretty good idea of where the hammer’s going to be dropping. Broadly speaking, the data show that more than 800,000 students attend a program that would likely fail this Do No Harm test. We also know roughly half of them attend private for-profit schools, which already have a reputation for shortchanging students.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>SUMMERS: Right.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>TURNER: One more really big red flag in the department’s data – undergraduate certificate programs. You know, the kind that bill themselves as a – like a short term, fast track into a specific career. Well, a quarter of all of those students in those programs are in one that would likely fail. And the program with the highest predicted failure rate is an undergrad certificate in cosmetology, with more than 90% of all of those programs leaving their students worse off.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>SUMMERS: Oh, interesting. I’m really curious, though, about more traditional bachelor’s and master’s programs. How might they fare?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>TURNER: Really well. According to the department’s data, only about 1% of bachelor’s degree programs would fail the test. And it’s a bit higher for master’s degrees, about 4%, but still not bad. There are, though, some interesting patterns in the kinds of programs that fail more often. At the master’s level, we’re talking about mental and social health services. And then at the four-year bachelor’s degree level, it’s programs focused on theater, fine arts, music.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>SUMMERS: I mean, I could imagine that some people might stop studying subjects like the ones you just mentioned because of this rule as well as a lack of access to student loans, which, I mean, that kind of calls into question what higher education’s supposed to be all about.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>TURNER: Totally. I – this is what I find so fascinating about this whole idea, Juana. Like, do these numbers mean that these programs are bad? In some cases, yes. But in some cases, I think it also means that the U.S. economy just doesn’t value the arts. So we’re actually going to poke at this for a few more minutes with a colleague of mine. Her name is Tiffany Camhi. She’s an education reporter with Oregon Public Broadcasting, and she has the story of a young teacher who graduated from a music program that would likely fail the government’s new earnings test. Let’s take a listen.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>CINDY FLORES: Oh, one, two, three. One…\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>TIFFANY CAMHI, BYLINE: Cindy Flores loves teaching mariachi music to middle and high school students in Oregon’s Salem-Keizer School District.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>FLORES: Their part goes like this…\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>FLORES: …Two, three, beat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>FLORES: Two, three.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>CAMHI: To get this dream job, she first had to study music at Portland State University and then get a teaching license. She took out federal student loans to pay for it all.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>FLORES: I don’t know. I feel like there’s good side to it, really bad side to it. The good side is I was able to complete my degree. Like, that was the whole reason why I wanted to go to college was so I can get a music degree.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>CAMHI: The bad side was that by the time she got her license, she was $55,000 in debt. Still, she says it was worth it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>FLORES: You know, it’s – if it wasn’t for PSU and the loans I could get, I wouldn’t a Mexican-American mariachi teacher for my Mexican-American students.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>CAMHI: But future music students at PSU might not have the same access to federal financial aid. That’s because the school’s undergraduate music students often don’t earn as much as high school grads. Education department data shows the university’s program would likely fail the new federal earnings test. But do students really go to music school to make money?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>LEE ANN SCOTTO ADAMS: And earnings is only a small piece of that puzzle.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>CAMHI: Lee Ann Scotto Adams heads the Strategic National Arts Alumni Project. The nonprofit studies what happens to arts graduates. And Adams has a problem with this new federal earnings test. She says it’s a one-size-fits-all measure of student success.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>SCOTTO ADAMS: Yes, you need to make money and earn money to make a living to survive, but we see our creative workers, they want to make an impact culturally. They want to make an impact on their community. And these are all metrics that fall outside of just straightforward earnings metrics.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>CAMHI: Adams also takes issue with measuring earnings four years after graduation. She points to survey data that shows arts graduates often have unpredictable incomes at first, but their pay tends to stabilize and increase over time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>CAMHI: Back in Oregon, Cindy Flores feels lucky to have full-time work teaching music.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>FLORES: You get it?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>UNIDENTIFIED STUDENT: I get it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>FLORES: It’s easy. We’re going to play it this time…\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>CAMHI: That’s in spite of all her student loan debt.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>FLORES: It is never about the money. I realized I wanted to have a career in music when I was in the eighth grade because every music teacher I’ve had in the past was such good role models in my life, and I want to be part of that community.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>CAMHI: And to be that kind of role model for her own students.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For NPR News, I’m Tiffany Camhi in Salem, Oregon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>FLORES: Oh, one, two, three. One…\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>SUMMERS: And NPR’s Cory Turner is still with me here in the studio. And, Cory, as we just heard in that reporting, there’s not a simple formula to calculate a career’s worth. And as you pointed out earlier, this Do No Harm provision, it’s not a particularly high bar, but it doesn’t take into account what we heard from Cindy Flores, that she’s wanted to do this since she was in eighth grade, that she’s passionate about teaching kids music. Is there anything else that you think this new rule misses?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>TURNER: Yeah. I think there’s one big wildcard that’s not in the formula, and that is student loan debt. There was a lot of debate about whether debt should be included in this new test. They decided against it. But, you know, there’s a huge difference, using music as an example, between a graduate struggling with low pay and being debt free and a graduate struggling with low pay and also paying off 50- or $60,000 in debt. And I wonder if they had included this in the formula, you know, how many more programs out there – especially at more prestigious, expensive schools – would start to look like a bad deal?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>SUMMERS: NPR education correspondent Cory Turner. Thanks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>TURNER: You’re welcome.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>(SOUNDBITE OF KAYTRANADA SONG, “SNAP MY FINGER (FEAT. PINKPANTHERESS)”)\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>This month, the U.S. Department of Education began rolling out a new accountability test that most colleges and universities will soon have to pass.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The test itself is simple: If an undergraduate program’s graduates don’t earn more than workers who never went to college, that program could be cut off from federal student loans. The same goes for any graduate program whose graduates earn less than someone with only a bachelor’s degree.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If a program cannot show that it leaves its graduates financially better off than if they had never enrolled, it should not be underwritten by federal taxpayers,” said Under Secretary of Education Nicholas Kent in a \u003ca href=\"https://www.ed.gov/about/news/press-release/us-department-of-education-issues-final-rule-hold-all-colleges-and-universities-accountable-low-earning-programs\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">recent statement\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But this new test, known as “do no harm,” raises some thorny questions about the \u003cem>purpose \u003c/em>of college. Like: Is it \u003cem>just \u003c/em>about making more money?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some advocates for postsecondary arts education think not.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Earnings is only a small piece of that puzzle,” said Lee Ann Scotto Adams, executive director of the Strategic National Arts Alumni Project (SNAAP), a nonprofit that studies the careers of arts graduates.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She and Doug Dempster, the president of SNAAP, worry the new test might lead colleges and universities to preemptively slash low-earning creative arts programs in music, theater, studio art and design. Dempster says \u003cem>that\u003c/em> could lead to a further devaluing of jobs that are critical to a well-functioning society.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We know we need nurses. We know we need journalists. We know we need early childhood educators,” he said. “We don’t know how many artists we need, but I can guarantee that if you eliminate access, we will impoverish our cultural life nationally.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>How the new standard will work\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The new earnings test comes courtesy of last year’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which included a \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2026/06/10/nx-s1-5835633/student-loans-guide-education-changes-repayment-plan\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">slew of big higher education policy changes\u003c/a> meant to address rising concerns over the cost and value of college.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Higher education experts across the political spectrum told NPR the test sets a pretty reasonable expectation: In many states, federal data shows, graduates of bachelor programs will have to earn a minimum of about $30,000 to $41,000 a year for their program to pass.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-embed npr-promo-card insettwocolumn\">\n\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\u003c/div>\n\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“This is really a very low floor,” said Christopher Madaio, a senior adviser at the nonprofit The Institute for College Access & Success. “I mean, high school earnings is not an exceedingly high metric for a program to meet.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Programs fail the test when they don’t meet the earnings requirement for two out of three consecutive years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The current test does not take student loan debt into account, which means there’s no way to distinguish between a graduate who is struggling with low pay while being debt-free and a graduate who is struggling with low pay while also paying off tens of thousands of dollars in loans.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Education Department says \u003ca href=\"https://www.ed.gov/media/document/fact-sheet-trump-administration-implements-accountability-provisions-of-working-families-tax-cuts-act-june-29-2026-114288.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">it will begin calculating\u003c/a> the first year of graduate earnings in early 2027, and “some programs could be designated as low-earning outcome programs beginning in the 2028-2029 [financial aid] award year.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>The kinds of programs that are likely to fail\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>According to Education Department estimates, the vast majority of undergraduate and graduate programs should easily pass the new earnings test.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But more than 800,000 students attend a program that would likely fail the measure, according to department data. Roughly half of those students are enrolled in for-profit schools, which already \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2022/11/17/1135615520/student-loan-forgiveness-borrower-defense\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">have a reputation\u003c/a> for shortchanging students.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Other takeaways from the department’s data:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul class=\"rte2-style-ul\" style=\"margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; padding-inline-start: 48px;\">\n\u003cli>About 18% of undergraduate certificate programs, which often bill themselves as career-focused fast tracks, would fail the earnings test. Specifically, certificate programs in cosmetology and somatic body work have the highest predicted failure rates.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Two-year associate degree programs have the next highest failure rate, at 6%. Associate programs that train specialized educators, including early childhood educators, are the most likely to fail.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cul class=\"rte2-style-ul\" style=\"margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; padding-inline-start: 48px;\">\n\u003cli>Most traditional, four-year bachelor programs fare well, with roughly 1% failing the earnings test. When these programs do fail, it’s often in areas like theater, music and studio art.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>About 4% of master’s degree programs would fail, with the highest failure rates for programs teaching mental and social health services.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003ch2>For one music teacher, it was “never about the money”\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Some of the United States’ most prestigious music programs — known for training the country’s most talented young musicians — are among the 14% of bachelor music programs predicted to fail the new earnings test, according to Education Department data. That includes The Juilliard School in New York City, the New England Conservatory in Boston and Indiana University Bloomington’s Jacobs School of Music.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The undergraduate music program that Cindy Flores attended at Portland State University (PSU) also wouldn’t pass. Flores teaches mariachi music to middle and high school students at Salem-Keizer Public Schools in Oregon’s Willamette Valley.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/3000x2000+0+0/resize/1200/quality/75/format/jpeg/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F12%2Fe5%2Fafb6393b409fab7cdf3421daa40e%2F20260310-ezi-mariachi-teacher-10.jpg\" alt=\"Cindy Flores smiles as she teaches mariachi to students at McKay High School in Salem, Oregon. 'If it wasn't for PSU and the loans I could get … I wouldn't be a Mexican American mariachi teacher for my Mexican American students,' she said.\">\u003cfigcaption>Cindy Flores smiles as she teaches mariachi to students at McKay High School in Salem, Oregon. “If it wasn’t for PSU and the loans I could get … I wouldn’t be a Mexican American mariachi teacher for my Mexican American students,” she said. \u003ccite> (Eli Imadali | OPB)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Her path to becoming a full-time music teacher started with studying music education at PSU; then she got an educators license from Western Oregon University — and she used federal student loans to help pay for all of it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She now holds close to $55,000 in federal student loan debt.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Flores said she wouldn’t be where she is now without that access to federal aid.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If it wasn’t for PSU and the loans I could get … I wouldn’t be a Mexican American mariachi teacher for my Mexican American students,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But given the new federal test, future PSU music students might not have the same access to federal student loans that Flores did.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She said she feels lucky to have found a job that she’s passionate about and that pays a living wage. But, for her, a career in music was about much more than a paycheck.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It is never about the money,” she said. “I realized I wanted to have a career in music when I was in the eighth grade, because every music teacher I had were such good role models in my life and I wanted to be part of that community.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Defining success in the arts\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>SNAAP’s Lee Ann Scotto Adams said the federal government’s one-size-fits-all accountability approach doesn’t make sense for students graduating from creative arts programs because wages aren’t the only measure of success for studio artists, musicians and designers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Yes, you need to earn money to make a living, but we see our creative workers want the ability to have independence in their work. They want jobs that are socially conscious. They want to make an impact culturally,” Scotto Adams said. “These are all metrics that fall outside of just straightforward earnings metrics.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She also takes issue with looking at earnings in the first few years after graduation. Scotto Adams points to \u003ca href=\"https://snaaparts.org/findings/databriefs/measuring-early-career-earnings-for-arts-design-graduates-evidence-from-snaap-alumni-data-on-income-volatility-advanced-degree-pursuit-and-long-term-career-trajectories\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">SNAAP survey data\u003c/a> that shows arts graduates often have unpredictable incomes at the beginning of their careers, but their pay tends to stabilize and increase over time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Looking at earnings as the sole metric of success is very limited, and that’s because artists have nonlinear careers,” Scotto Adams said. “For the most part, people who graduate from these programs move into careers that they’re personally satisfied with.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Students considering any of the at-risk programs won’t immediately lose access to federal aid. While the accountability test is being rolled out this month, its implementation will be phased in over the next couple of years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"npr-transcript\">\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Transcript:\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The U.S. Department of Education is rolling out a new federal test, one that most colleges and universities will eventually have to pass. The test is known as Do No Harm, and it’s pretty simple. If a program’s graduates don’t earn more than someone who never went to college, that program and its students could lose access to federal student loans. To better explain how this will all work and the impact it might have, I’m joined by NPR education correspondent Cory Turner. Hi there.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>CORY TURNER, BYLINE: Hey, Juana.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>SUMMERS: So, Cory, losing access to federal student loans sounds like a really big deal. So tell us how exactly this Do No Harm test is going to work.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>TURNER: Yeah. So this new test, it comes courtesy of Republicans’ One Big Beautiful Bill Act from last year. And, I mean, really, as you said in the intro, it’s pretty straightforward. For undergraduate programs, their students four years after they graduate are going to need to earn more than working high school grads who did not go to college. And it’s a pretty similar test for graduate schools, right? So a program’s graduates need to earn more on average than those who finished college but did not go on to grad school. If a program dips below this earnings threshold for 2 years out of 3, then students will no longer be able to take out federal loans to attend that program.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Earlier this week, the Under Secretary of Education, Nicholas Kent, said of this change, quote, “if a program can’t show that it leaves its graduates financially better off than if they had never enrolled, it should not be underwritten by federal taxpayers.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I have also heard, though, Juana, from lots of folks – really a bipartisan collection of folks across higher ed – who say, look, this is a pretty reasonable expectation. Here’s Chris Madaio with the nonprofit Institute for College Access & Success.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>CHRIS MADAIO: I mean, this is really a very low floor, right? I mean, high school earnings is not a exceedingly high metric for a program to meet.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>SUMMERS: And, Cory, what can you tell us about the types of programs that might not be able to pass this new test?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>TURNER: Well, fortunately, earlier this year, the U.S. Department of Education released a trove of data that give us a pretty good idea of where the hammer’s going to be dropping. Broadly speaking, the data show that more than 800,000 students attend a program that would likely fail this Do No Harm test. We also know roughly half of them attend private for-profit schools, which already have a reputation for shortchanging students.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>SUMMERS: Right.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>TURNER: One more really big red flag in the department’s data – undergraduate certificate programs. You know, the kind that bill themselves as a – like a short term, fast track into a specific career. Well, a quarter of all of those students in those programs are in one that would likely fail. And the program with the highest predicted failure rate is an undergrad certificate in cosmetology, with more than 90% of all of those programs leaving their students worse off.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>SUMMERS: Oh, interesting. I’m really curious, though, about more traditional bachelor’s and master’s programs. How might they fare?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>TURNER: Really well. According to the department’s data, only about 1% of bachelor’s degree programs would fail the test. And it’s a bit higher for master’s degrees, about 4%, but still not bad. There are, though, some interesting patterns in the kinds of programs that fail more often. At the master’s level, we’re talking about mental and social health services. And then at the four-year bachelor’s degree level, it’s programs focused on theater, fine arts, music.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>SUMMERS: I mean, I could imagine that some people might stop studying subjects like the ones you just mentioned because of this rule as well as a lack of access to student loans, which, I mean, that kind of calls into question what higher education’s supposed to be all about.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>TURNER: Totally. I – this is what I find so fascinating about this whole idea, Juana. Like, do these numbers mean that these programs are bad? In some cases, yes. But in some cases, I think it also means that the U.S. economy just doesn’t value the arts. So we’re actually going to poke at this for a few more minutes with a colleague of mine. Her name is Tiffany Camhi. She’s an education reporter with Oregon Public Broadcasting, and she has the story of a young teacher who graduated from a music program that would likely fail the government’s new earnings test. Let’s take a listen.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>CINDY FLORES: Oh, one, two, three. One…\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>TIFFANY CAMHI, BYLINE: Cindy Flores loves teaching mariachi music to middle and high school students in Oregon’s Salem-Keizer School District.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>FLORES: Their part goes like this…\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>FLORES: …Two, three, beat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>FLORES: Two, three.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>CAMHI: To get this dream job, she first had to study music at Portland State University and then get a teaching license. She took out federal student loans to pay for it all.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>FLORES: I don’t know. I feel like there’s good side to it, really bad side to it. The good side is I was able to complete my degree. Like, that was the whole reason why I wanted to go to college was so I can get a music degree.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>CAMHI: The bad side was that by the time she got her license, she was $55,000 in debt. Still, she says it was worth it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>FLORES: You know, it’s – if it wasn’t for PSU and the loans I could get, I wouldn’t a Mexican-American mariachi teacher for my Mexican-American students.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>CAMHI: But future music students at PSU might not have the same access to federal financial aid. That’s because the school’s undergraduate music students often don’t earn as much as high school grads. Education department data shows the university’s program would likely fail the new federal earnings test. But do students really go to music school to make money?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>LEE ANN SCOTTO ADAMS: And earnings is only a small piece of that puzzle.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>CAMHI: Lee Ann Scotto Adams heads the Strategic National Arts Alumni Project. The nonprofit studies what happens to arts graduates. And Adams has a problem with this new federal earnings test. She says it’s a one-size-fits-all measure of student success.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>SCOTTO ADAMS: Yes, you need to make money and earn money to make a living to survive, but we see our creative workers, they want to make an impact culturally. They want to make an impact on their community. And these are all metrics that fall outside of just straightforward earnings metrics.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>CAMHI: Adams also takes issue with measuring earnings four years after graduation. She points to survey data that shows arts graduates often have unpredictable incomes at first, but their pay tends to stabilize and increase over time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>CAMHI: Back in Oregon, Cindy Flores feels lucky to have full-time work teaching music.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>FLORES: You get it?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>UNIDENTIFIED STUDENT: I get it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>FLORES: It’s easy. We’re going to play it this time…\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>CAMHI: That’s in spite of all her student loan debt.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>FLORES: It is never about the money. I realized I wanted to have a career in music when I was in the eighth grade because every music teacher I’ve had in the past was such good role models in my life, and I want to be part of that community.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>CAMHI: And to be that kind of role model for her own students.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For NPR News, I’m Tiffany Camhi in Salem, Oregon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>FLORES: Oh, one, two, three. One…\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>SUMMERS: And NPR’s Cory Turner is still with me here in the studio. And, Cory, as we just heard in that reporting, there’s not a simple formula to calculate a career’s worth. And as you pointed out earlier, this Do No Harm provision, it’s not a particularly high bar, but it doesn’t take into account what we heard from Cindy Flores, that she’s wanted to do this since she was in eighth grade, that she’s passionate about teaching kids music. Is there anything else that you think this new rule misses?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>TURNER: Yeah. I think there’s one big wildcard that’s not in the formula, and that is student loan debt. There was a lot of debate about whether debt should be included in this new test. They decided against it. But, you know, there’s a huge difference, using music as an example, between a graduate struggling with low pay and being debt free and a graduate struggling with low pay and also paying off 50- or $60,000 in debt. And I wonder if they had included this in the formula, you know, how many more programs out there – especially at more prestigious, expensive schools – would start to look like a bad deal?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>SUMMERS: NPR education correspondent Cory Turner. Thanks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>TURNER: You’re welcome.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>(SOUNDBITE OF KAYTRANADA SONG, “SNAP MY FINGER (FEAT. PINKPANTHERESS)”)\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>In the fall of 1918, Edward Kidder Graham, the president of the University of North Carolina, tried to reassure anxious parents. The Spanish flu was spreading rapidly, but Graham insisted the university was doing all it could to keep students safe. Weeks later, Graham himself contracted the virus and died. His successor, Marvin Hendrix Stacy, promptly succumbed to the epidemic two months later.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many universities endured similar chaos during the Spanish flu, as I learned from reading a chapter in a forthcoming book on higher education, “\u003ca href=\"https://www.press.jhu.edu/books/title/53895/upheaval-action\">From Upheaval to Action: What Works in Changing Higher Ed\u003c/a>,” by sociologist and Brandeis University President Arthur Levine and University of Pennsylvania administrator Scott Van Pelt. (\u003cem>Disclosure: Levine was the president of Teachers College, Columbia University from 1994 to 2006, during which he launched The Hechinger Institute, the precursor to The Hechinger Report.\u003c/em>)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But what really struck me was how many colleges’ experiences resembled those of the Covid-19 era.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During the 1918 pandemic, Harvard canceled lectures with more than 50 students. Yale shut down its campus after partial measures failed to contain the spread. Many urban colleges closed temporarily. Orientations, commencements and large public gatherings were canceled or postponed. At Iowa State University, gymnasiums were converted into makeshift hospitals as cases surged. At the University of Michigan, dormitories transformed into quarantine facilities after infirmaries overflowed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And then came a second wave — deadlier than the first.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"mceTemp\">\u003c/div>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_66098\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 780px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-66098\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2026/02/Signatures-2.jpg\" alt=\"Signatures on a sheet of paper\" width=\"780\" height=\"1006\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2026/02/Signatures-2.jpg 780w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2026/02/Signatures-2-160x206.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2026/02/Signatures-2-768x991.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 780px) 100vw, 780px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The first page of a signed petition from the students of the University of Idaho requesting cancellation of studies, school functions, and other duties until after the Thanksgiving Holiday due to the pandemic quarantine, ca. 1918. Credit: University of Idaho Library Digital Collections\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The Spanish flu ultimately killed about 675,000 Americans at a time when the U.S. population was roughly 100 million — nearly twice the proportional death rate of Covid-19, which has claimed about 1.2 million lives in a country more than three times as large. Unlike Covid, the Spanish flu struck hardest at young adults in their 20s and 30s, the very ages colleges relied on to fill their classrooms and new faculty seats. Yet, Levine argues, higher education never managed to help that generation recover — academically, socially or psychologically.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Instead, institutions moved on.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We essentially aged out of it,” said Levine, speaking at the American Enterprise Institute in January about \u003ca href=\"https://www.aei.org/events/tackling-higher-educations-challenges-a-conversation-with-frederick-m-hess-and-brandeis-university-president-arthur-levine/\">higher education’s challenges\u003c/a>. “Pretty soon the people who were home weren’t in college anymore. It’s a relatively short number of years.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There were innovations. In what we would now call remote learning, colleges expanded correspondence courses. In 1922, Penn State became the first institution to use radio for instruction. Female enrollment grew, particularly in nursing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But there was little evidence of repair or recovery. Students who had seen their education disrupted by both World War I and the pandemic were depleted in number and altered in outlook. They would come to be known as the lost generation: disillusioned, cynical, psychologically scarred and searching for meaning in a world that had failed to make sense.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What prevented this loss from registering as a lasting crisis was scale. In the late 1910s and early 1920s, only about 5 percent of young Americans attended college. There were far fewer colleges and universities. And higher education was not yet central to economic and social life in the way it is today. When one cohort faltered, institutions simply admitted the next. Replacement took the place of recovery.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, the cultural effects were visible. Writers like Ernest Hemingway, Gertrude Stein and F. Scott Fitzgerald chronicled the lingering disillusionment of a generation shaped by war and disease. The Roaring Twenties, Levine argues, were less a sign of healing than a counterreaction that would be followed, a decade later, by the Great Depression.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Levine doesn’t romanticize the past. “Everything I’ve read makes it sound like the Spanish flu combined with World War I may have been a harder slog,” he said in an interview. “So many lives were lost — not only students but faculty and staff. Mental health resources were primitive.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The parallels to the present are unsettling, but the differences may matter even more. Today, well over 60 percent of young adults attend college immediately or shortly after high school. Higher education has become a mass institution, deeply intertwined with economic mobility and social identity. And Covid did not just disrupt schooling; it imposed prolonged social isolation at a formative stage of development for teens and young adults. Levine notes that it is impossible to disentangle the effects of the pandemic from the rise of smartphones and social media, which were already reshaping how young people relate to one another.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Enrollment declines following Covid echo those of the Spanish flu era. But replacement may no longer be a viable strategy. When higher education serves a small elite, institutions can absorb loss quietly. When it serves a majority, the consequences of disruption are broader, more visible, and harder to outrun.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The lesson of the Spanish flu is not that young people inevitably bounce back. It is that institutions endured by waiting. A century ago, that carried limited cost. Today, with a far larger and more psychologically vulnerable young adult population, the price may be far higher.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This story about how the \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/proof-points-spanish-flu-universities/\">\u003cem>Spanish flu\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem> affected universities was produced by \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/special-reports/higher-education/\">The Hechinger Report\u003c/a>\u003cem>, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/proofpoints/\">\u003cem>Proof Points\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem> and other \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/newsletters/\">\u003cem>Hechinger newsletters\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>In the fall of 1918, Edward Kidder Graham, the president of the University of North Carolina, tried to reassure anxious parents. The Spanish flu was spreading rapidly, but Graham insisted the university was doing all it could to keep students safe. Weeks later, Graham himself contracted the virus and died. His successor, Marvin Hendrix Stacy, promptly succumbed to the epidemic two months later.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many universities endured similar chaos during the Spanish flu, as I learned from reading a chapter in a forthcoming book on higher education, “\u003ca href=\"https://www.press.jhu.edu/books/title/53895/upheaval-action\">From Upheaval to Action: What Works in Changing Higher Ed\u003c/a>,” by sociologist and Brandeis University President Arthur Levine and University of Pennsylvania administrator Scott Van Pelt. (\u003cem>Disclosure: Levine was the president of Teachers College, Columbia University from 1994 to 2006, during which he launched The Hechinger Institute, the precursor to The Hechinger Report.\u003c/em>)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But what really struck me was how many colleges’ experiences resembled those of the Covid-19 era.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During the 1918 pandemic, Harvard canceled lectures with more than 50 students. Yale shut down its campus after partial measures failed to contain the spread. Many urban colleges closed temporarily. Orientations, commencements and large public gatherings were canceled or postponed. At Iowa State University, gymnasiums were converted into makeshift hospitals as cases surged. At the University of Michigan, dormitories transformed into quarantine facilities after infirmaries overflowed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And then came a second wave — deadlier than the first.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"mceTemp\">\u003c/div>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_66098\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 780px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-66098\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2026/02/Signatures-2.jpg\" alt=\"Signatures on a sheet of paper\" width=\"780\" height=\"1006\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2026/02/Signatures-2.jpg 780w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2026/02/Signatures-2-160x206.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2026/02/Signatures-2-768x991.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 780px) 100vw, 780px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The first page of a signed petition from the students of the University of Idaho requesting cancellation of studies, school functions, and other duties until after the Thanksgiving Holiday due to the pandemic quarantine, ca. 1918. Credit: University of Idaho Library Digital Collections\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The Spanish flu ultimately killed about 675,000 Americans at a time when the U.S. population was roughly 100 million — nearly twice the proportional death rate of Covid-19, which has claimed about 1.2 million lives in a country more than three times as large. Unlike Covid, the Spanish flu struck hardest at young adults in their 20s and 30s, the very ages colleges relied on to fill their classrooms and new faculty seats. Yet, Levine argues, higher education never managed to help that generation recover — academically, socially or psychologically.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Instead, institutions moved on.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We essentially aged out of it,” said Levine, speaking at the American Enterprise Institute in January about \u003ca href=\"https://www.aei.org/events/tackling-higher-educations-challenges-a-conversation-with-frederick-m-hess-and-brandeis-university-president-arthur-levine/\">higher education’s challenges\u003c/a>. “Pretty soon the people who were home weren’t in college anymore. It’s a relatively short number of years.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There were innovations. In what we would now call remote learning, colleges expanded correspondence courses. In 1922, Penn State became the first institution to use radio for instruction. Female enrollment grew, particularly in nursing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But there was little evidence of repair or recovery. Students who had seen their education disrupted by both World War I and the pandemic were depleted in number and altered in outlook. They would come to be known as the lost generation: disillusioned, cynical, psychologically scarred and searching for meaning in a world that had failed to make sense.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What prevented this loss from registering as a lasting crisis was scale. In the late 1910s and early 1920s, only about 5 percent of young Americans attended college. There were far fewer colleges and universities. And higher education was not yet central to economic and social life in the way it is today. When one cohort faltered, institutions simply admitted the next. Replacement took the place of recovery.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, the cultural effects were visible. Writers like Ernest Hemingway, Gertrude Stein and F. Scott Fitzgerald chronicled the lingering disillusionment of a generation shaped by war and disease. The Roaring Twenties, Levine argues, were less a sign of healing than a counterreaction that would be followed, a decade later, by the Great Depression.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Levine doesn’t romanticize the past. “Everything I’ve read makes it sound like the Spanish flu combined with World War I may have been a harder slog,” he said in an interview. “So many lives were lost — not only students but faculty and staff. Mental health resources were primitive.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The parallels to the present are unsettling, but the differences may matter even more. Today, well over 60 percent of young adults attend college immediately or shortly after high school. Higher education has become a mass institution, deeply intertwined with economic mobility and social identity. And Covid did not just disrupt schooling; it imposed prolonged social isolation at a formative stage of development for teens and young adults. Levine notes that it is impossible to disentangle the effects of the pandemic from the rise of smartphones and social media, which were already reshaping how young people relate to one another.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Enrollment declines following Covid echo those of the Spanish flu era. But replacement may no longer be a viable strategy. When higher education serves a small elite, institutions can absorb loss quietly. When it serves a majority, the consequences of disruption are broader, more visible, and harder to outrun.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The lesson of the Spanish flu is not that young people inevitably bounce back. It is that institutions endured by waiting. A century ago, that carried limited cost. Today, with a far larger and more psychologically vulnerable young adult population, the price may be far higher.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This story about how the \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/proof-points-spanish-flu-universities/\">\u003cem>Spanish flu\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem> affected universities was produced by \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/special-reports/higher-education/\">The Hechinger Report\u003c/a>\u003cem>, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/proofpoints/\">\u003cem>Proof Points\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem> and other \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/newsletters/\">\u003cem>Hechinger newsletters\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>College enrollment in the U.S. continued to rise last fall, surpassing prepandemic levels, new figures out on Thursday show.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Across undergraduate and graduate programs, total enrollment reached 19.4 million students, growing 1.0% compared with the fall of 2024, according to the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center, a nonprofit that studies higher education.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Higher education has stabilized and is growing again,” says Matthew Holsapple, senior director of research at the center.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-embed npr-promo-card insettwocolumn\">\n\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\u003c/div>\n\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>That growth, Holsapple says, is uneven this academic year: Enrollment at private four-year colleges is down, and fewer people are getting master’s degrees. But enrollment rose at four-year public universities and at community colleges, where short-term credentials tied to the workforce grew by 28% when compared with a year ago.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re continuing to see students shifting out of some of the more traditional pathways into these shorter-term, these more flexible, perhaps more job- and career-oriented fields,” explains Holsapple.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Gains and shifts, despite concerns about value\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The numbers provide welcome news and some clear insights to college leaders worried about reports showing many Americans questioning the value of a college degree.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Confidence in college is coming back, but it is conditional,” says Courtney Brown, who studies public opinion on colleges for the Lumina Foundation, an Indianapolis-based nonprofit aimed at improving higher education.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The public’s been telling us that cost, flexibility and career relevance shape their view of college’s worth,” Brown says. “So people aren’t turning away from education — they’re just getting more precise about what kind of education they want.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That could reflect uncertainty in the economy and news about hiring slowdowns, says Jeff Strohl, director of the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce. He says when job prospects feel shaky and the economy is struggling, people return to college, especially community college.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If we think about what’s going on in the U.S. economy as of late, especially a growing economic uncertainty, this kind of follows that pattern,” he says. “It’s easier to test the waters at a local community college than it is necessarily to go through the steps of enrolling in a four-year program, especially if a student doesn’t really know what they want to do.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>A big drop in international students at the graduate level\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>While the number of international students enrolling in undergraduate programs grew this academic year by 3.2%, it was overshadowed by a significant drop at the graduate level, by about 10,000 students.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That graduate-level drop — mostly in master’s programs — followed several years of strong growth in which the number of international graduate students had risen by about 50%. The downturn reflects federal policies that limited or disrupted the student visa process and the billions of dollars in canceled federal dollars flowing to research universities, disrupting the pipeline.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Another key finding from the latest enrollment data was a big decline in students studying computer and information sciences. The drop in both graduate and undergraduate programs came after years of steady expansion.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In addition to a consequence of fewer international students, Holsapple, at the Clearinghouse, explains that the shift away from CS majors is also influenced by the rise of artificial intelligence.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Students are seeing the same trends that we all are seeing,” he says. “They see the same news reports of layoffs in the tech field. They see the rise of AI like we do.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But he’s encouraged by these trends. “Students are making different choices, which I think is a real positive for the field and particularly for students because they have those options.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He says the colleges that are rising to the occasion — offering nontraditional pathways and more-affordable degrees — will continue to be the ones seeing growth in future years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"npr-transcript\">\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Transcript:\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>College enrollment in the U.S. is up overall compared with last year. That’s because more Americans are going to community college and four-year public universities, even as polling shows people are losing confidence in higher education. Here’s NPR’s Elissa Nadworny.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>ELISSA NADWORNY, BYLINE: The latest fall enrollment data shows a slight increase overall – up by about 200,000 students, according to the research center at the National Student Clearinghouse.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>JEFF STROHL: These findings might catch people a little bit by surprise.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>NADWORNY: Jeff Strohl is the director of the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>STROHL: But if we think about what’s going on in the U.S. economy as of late, especially growing economic uncertainty, a lot of news about hiring slowdowns, the whole freezing of the labor market, it makes a lot of sense if people are returning back to college.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>NADWORNY: While overall more people are choosing college, there are important shifts happening in where students are going and where they’re not. Enrollment at private four-year colleges is down. Fewer people are enrolled in master’s degree programs. But enrollment is up at four-year public universities and at community colleges. There, it’s driven by students choosing short-term credentials tied to the workforce. Courtney Brown is with the Lumina Foundation, which focuses on improving higher education. She’s been studying public opinion on college.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>COURTNEY BROWN: The public’s been telling us that cost, flexibility and career relevance shape their view of college’s worth. So people aren’t turning away from education. They’re just getting more precise about what kind of education they want.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>NADWORNY: There were also big declines in international students enrolled in graduate programs – down by about 10,000 students. This may reflect billions in canceled federal dollars flowing to research universities disrupting the pipeline, plus federal policies that limited the student visa process. Another finding – a huge drop in students enrolled in computer science programs. Here’s how Matthew Holsapple, the senior director of research at the clearinghouse, explains it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>MATTHEW HOLSAPPLE: Students are – they’re seeing the same trends that we all are seeing. They see the same news reports of layoffs in the tech field. They see the rise of AI like we do.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>NADWORNY: Still, the biggest takeaway is that overall enrollment has continued to surpass prepandemic levels. Students are simply making different choices about where to go.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Elissa Nadworny, NPR News.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>(SOUNDBITE OF BRASSTRACKS’ “IN MY FEELINGS”)\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>College enrollment in the U.S. continued to rise last fall, surpassing prepandemic levels, new figures out on Thursday show.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Across undergraduate and graduate programs, total enrollment reached 19.4 million students, growing 1.0% compared with the fall of 2024, according to the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center, a nonprofit that studies higher education.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Higher education has stabilized and is growing again,” says Matthew Holsapple, senior director of research at the center.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-embed npr-promo-card insettwocolumn\">\n\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\u003c/div>\n\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>That growth, Holsapple says, is uneven this academic year: Enrollment at private four-year colleges is down, and fewer people are getting master’s degrees. But enrollment rose at four-year public universities and at community colleges, where short-term credentials tied to the workforce grew by 28% when compared with a year ago.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re continuing to see students shifting out of some of the more traditional pathways into these shorter-term, these more flexible, perhaps more job- and career-oriented fields,” explains Holsapple.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Gains and shifts, despite concerns about value\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The numbers provide welcome news and some clear insights to college leaders worried about reports showing many Americans questioning the value of a college degree.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Confidence in college is coming back, but it is conditional,” says Courtney Brown, who studies public opinion on colleges for the Lumina Foundation, an Indianapolis-based nonprofit aimed at improving higher education.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The public’s been telling us that cost, flexibility and career relevance shape their view of college’s worth,” Brown says. “So people aren’t turning away from education — they’re just getting more precise about what kind of education they want.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That could reflect uncertainty in the economy and news about hiring slowdowns, says Jeff Strohl, director of the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce. He says when job prospects feel shaky and the economy is struggling, people return to college, especially community college.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If we think about what’s going on in the U.S. economy as of late, especially a growing economic uncertainty, this kind of follows that pattern,” he says. “It’s easier to test the waters at a local community college than it is necessarily to go through the steps of enrolling in a four-year program, especially if a student doesn’t really know what they want to do.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>A big drop in international students at the graduate level\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>While the number of international students enrolling in undergraduate programs grew this academic year by 3.2%, it was overshadowed by a significant drop at the graduate level, by about 10,000 students.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That graduate-level drop — mostly in master’s programs — followed several years of strong growth in which the number of international graduate students had risen by about 50%. The downturn reflects federal policies that limited or disrupted the student visa process and the billions of dollars in canceled federal dollars flowing to research universities, disrupting the pipeline.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Another key finding from the latest enrollment data was a big decline in students studying computer and information sciences. The drop in both graduate and undergraduate programs came after years of steady expansion.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In addition to a consequence of fewer international students, Holsapple, at the Clearinghouse, explains that the shift away from CS majors is also influenced by the rise of artificial intelligence.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Students are seeing the same trends that we all are seeing,” he says. “They see the same news reports of layoffs in the tech field. They see the rise of AI like we do.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But he’s encouraged by these trends. “Students are making different choices, which I think is a real positive for the field and particularly for students because they have those options.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He says the colleges that are rising to the occasion — offering nontraditional pathways and more-affordable degrees — will continue to be the ones seeing growth in future years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"npr-transcript\">\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Transcript:\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>College enrollment in the U.S. is up overall compared with last year. That’s because more Americans are going to community college and four-year public universities, even as polling shows people are losing confidence in higher education. Here’s NPR’s Elissa Nadworny.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>ELISSA NADWORNY, BYLINE: The latest fall enrollment data shows a slight increase overall – up by about 200,000 students, according to the research center at the National Student Clearinghouse.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>JEFF STROHL: These findings might catch people a little bit by surprise.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>NADWORNY: Jeff Strohl is the director of the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>STROHL: But if we think about what’s going on in the U.S. economy as of late, especially growing economic uncertainty, a lot of news about hiring slowdowns, the whole freezing of the labor market, it makes a lot of sense if people are returning back to college.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>NADWORNY: While overall more people are choosing college, there are important shifts happening in where students are going and where they’re not. Enrollment at private four-year colleges is down. Fewer people are enrolled in master’s degree programs. But enrollment is up at four-year public universities and at community colleges. There, it’s driven by students choosing short-term credentials tied to the workforce. Courtney Brown is with the Lumina Foundation, which focuses on improving higher education. She’s been studying public opinion on college.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>COURTNEY BROWN: The public’s been telling us that cost, flexibility and career relevance shape their view of college’s worth. So people aren’t turning away from education. They’re just getting more precise about what kind of education they want.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>NADWORNY: There were also big declines in international students enrolled in graduate programs – down by about 10,000 students. This may reflect billions in canceled federal dollars flowing to research universities disrupting the pipeline, plus federal policies that limited the student visa process. Another finding – a huge drop in students enrolled in computer science programs. Here’s how Matthew Holsapple, the senior director of research at the clearinghouse, explains it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>MATTHEW HOLSAPPLE: Students are – they’re seeing the same trends that we all are seeing. They see the same news reports of layoffs in the tech field. They see the rise of AI like we do.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>NADWORNY: Still, the biggest takeaway is that overall enrollment has continued to surpass prepandemic levels. Students are simply making different choices about where to go.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Elissa Nadworny, NPR News.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>(SOUNDBITE OF BRASSTRACKS’ “IN MY FEELINGS”)\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>The U.S. Department of Education \u003ca href=\"https://www.ed.gov/about/news/press-release/us-department-of-education-announces-agreement-missouri-end-biden-administrations-illegal-save-plan\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">announced Tuesday\u003c/a> that it had reached a proposed settlement agreement to end a popular, yet controversial Biden-era student loan repayment plan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Saving on a Valuable Education plan, better known as SAVE, was the \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2023/07/14/1187545921/student-loan-forgiveness-save-repayment\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">most flexible and generous\u003c/a> of all income-driven repayment plans, promising expedited loan forgiveness and monthly payments as low as $0 for low-income borrowers. Republican state attorneys general, led by Missouri, sued the Biden administration, arguing in court that SAVE was too generous.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-embed npr-promo-card insettwocolumn\">\n\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\u003c/div>\n\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The legal challenges put all SAVE borrowers in limbo for months, during which they were not required to make payments on their loans – even after many had already spent years in a pandemic payment pause. \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2025/07/24/nx-s1-5477646/student-loan-repayment-forgiveness-trump\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Interest resumed accruing\u003c/a> on SAVE loans in August.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The law is clear: if you take out a loan, you must pay it back,” Under Secretary of Education Nicholas Kent said in a statement announcing the proposed agreement. “Thanks to the State of Missouri and other states fighting against this egregious federal overreach, American taxpayers can now rest assured they will no longer be forced to serve as collateral for illegal and irresponsible student loan policies.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tuesday’s agreement, pending court approval, would end the long legal battle over SAVE by ending SAVE itself. The Education Department would commit not to enroll more borrowers in SAVE, to deny all pending SAVE applications and to move the roughly 7 million borrowers still enrolled in SAVE into other repayment plans – though some of those plans \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2025/07/24/nx-s1-5477646/student-loan-repayment-forgiveness-trump\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">are also in flux\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The department also said student loan borrowers would have “a limited time to select a new, legal repayment plan.” Borrowers will have to choose between two types of plans: 1.) \u003ca href=\"https://studentaid.gov/manage-loans/repayment/plans#fixed\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">fixed payment plans\u003c/a> or 2.) plans with \u003ca href=\"https://studentaid.gov/manage-loans/repayment/plans#income-driven\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">payments based on a borrower’s income\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2025/07/24/nx-s1-5477646/student-loan-repayment-forgiveness-trump\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">two new plans\u003c/a> created by Republicans’ One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) will roll out in July 2026, and will include a revised standard plan and a new income-driven plan called the Repayment Assistance Plan. Though SAVE borrowers will likely be expected to change plans before then.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The SAVE plan’s days were already numbered. Under the OBBBA, borrowers would have had to change plans by July 1, 2028. Tuesday’s news would move that deadline up, though the administration has not provided a timeframe for the changes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If the proposal is approved by the court, transitioning millions of borrowers to other plans will be a Herculean feat for loan servicing companies that handle day-to-day loan operations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s gonna be bumpy,” says Scott Buchanan, head of the Student Loan Servicing Alliance. “Remember, SAVE borrowers have not been in repayment for years. They’re gonna have a ton of questions and will need a ton of hand-holding to get back into repayment.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The settlement arrives as millions of borrowers are struggling to keep up with their payments.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We are sitting on the precipice of millions of borrowers defaulting on their loans,” says Persis Yu, of Protect Borrowers. “And instead of choosing to defend a plan that would have been affordable for these borrowers, this Department of Education has capitulated to the AGs and is going to make life much more expensive.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The American Enterprise Institute, AEI, \u003ca href=\"https://www.aei.org/education/new-student-loan-data-show-a-historic-spike-in-borrowers-falling-behind/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">recently published an analysis\u003c/a> of the latest federal student loan data: In addition to the 5.5 million borrowers who are currently in default, another 3.7 million are more than 270 days late on their payments and on the edge of default. Another 2.7 million borrowers are in the earlier stages of delinquency. In all, some 12 million borrowers are worryingly behind.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"npr-transcript\">\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Transcript:\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>SCOTT DETROW, HOST:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There’s big news today for millions of federal student loan borrowers. The U.S. Department of Education says it’s reached a proposed settlement. It would end a Biden-era repayment plan that has been tied up in the courts for more than a year. NPR’s Cory Turner has been following the story and joins us now. Hi, Cory.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>CORY TURNER, BYLINE: Hello.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>DETROW: Before we get to the news of the settlement, remind us what this repayment plan was and why it ended up in court.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>TURNER: Yeah. It’s the Saving on a Valuable Education plan, but it’s better known as SAVE. It was the most flexible and generous of all the income-driven repayment plans. It promised fast-tracked loan forgiveness, monthly payments as low as $0 for low-income borrowers. But it turns out, Scott, it was so generous that Republican state attorneys general sued the Biden administration, arguing in court it was too generous and that if Congress had wanted to create a plan like this, it would have.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And so SAVE has been in legal limbo ever since. Now though, you know, President Trump’s Education Department agrees with those Republican AGs, and so they appear to have cut a deal. Under Secretary of Education Nicholas Kent said in a statement announcing the proposed settlement today, quote, “American taxpayers can now rest assured they will no longer be forced to serve as collateral for illegal and irresponsible student loan policies.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>DETROW: There’s probably a lot of people listening who are enrolled in the SAVE plan. What do they need to know?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>TURNER: Well, they’re in good company. There are about 7 million borrowers still in SAVE. So this agreement is a big deal, pending court approval. It’s also worth saying many of these borrowers haven’t had to make payments in years because of the legal limbo I just mentioned, during which they didn’t have to make payments. But that followed on the heels of the long pandemic payment pause. Not only, though, is this going to be a financial stretch for many borrowers, it’s going to be a huge logistical challenge for the servicing companies that manage the federal student loan portfolio.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I was talking earlier today with Scott Buchanan. He’s head of the Student Loan Servicing Alliance, and he told me it’s going to be bumpy. That was his word. He said SAVE borrowers are going to have a ton of questions. They will need a ton of handholding to get back into repayment. And part of the problem here is the options available to them are a little murky. Republicans’ One Big Beautiful Bill Act created two new repayment plans, but they’re not going to roll out till July, which is too late for the purposes of SAVE borrowers now. Meanwhile, borrower advocates were sounding in the alarm today. Here’s Persis Yu with the group Protect Borrowers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>PERSIS YU: The reality is, is that the SAVE plan was created because the other plans were unaffordable for millions of borrowers. So many borrowers are going to be in the difficult spot of making this decision about whether or not to stay current on their loans or feed their families and keep a roof over their head.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>TURNER: And Scott, this settlement lands at a time when millions of other borrowers are already way behind on their loan payments.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>DETROW: Yeah. Do we have a sense of what exactly is going on there?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>TURNER: Yeah. According to the latest tranche of data from the Education Department, some 12 million borrowers are either really behind on their payments or already in default. That’s at least a quarter of all federal student loan borrowers. And everybody I talk to on both sides of the aisle here say this is a crisis. And now we’re talking about how to get these 7 million SAVE borrowers, many of whom are low-income, back into repayment. This is going to be an incredible test for the department and obviously for these borrowers. And my best advice right now to these borrowers is to go to studentaid.gov and start reading up on the other repayment plans out there so you know what your options are.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>DETROW: That is NPR education correspondent Cory Turner. Thank you so much.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>TURNER: You’re welcome.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>(SOUNDBITE OF FREDDIE GIBBS AND MADLIB SONG, “GAT D***”)\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>The U.S. Department of Education \u003ca href=\"https://www.ed.gov/about/news/press-release/us-department-of-education-announces-agreement-missouri-end-biden-administrations-illegal-save-plan\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">announced Tuesday\u003c/a> that it had reached a proposed settlement agreement to end a popular, yet controversial Biden-era student loan repayment plan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Saving on a Valuable Education plan, better known as SAVE, was the \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2023/07/14/1187545921/student-loan-forgiveness-save-repayment\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">most flexible and generous\u003c/a> of all income-driven repayment plans, promising expedited loan forgiveness and monthly payments as low as $0 for low-income borrowers. Republican state attorneys general, led by Missouri, sued the Biden administration, arguing in court that SAVE was too generous.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-embed npr-promo-card insettwocolumn\">\n\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\u003c/div>\n\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The legal challenges put all SAVE borrowers in limbo for months, during which they were not required to make payments on their loans – even after many had already spent years in a pandemic payment pause. \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2025/07/24/nx-s1-5477646/student-loan-repayment-forgiveness-trump\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Interest resumed accruing\u003c/a> on SAVE loans in August.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The law is clear: if you take out a loan, you must pay it back,” Under Secretary of Education Nicholas Kent said in a statement announcing the proposed agreement. “Thanks to the State of Missouri and other states fighting against this egregious federal overreach, American taxpayers can now rest assured they will no longer be forced to serve as collateral for illegal and irresponsible student loan policies.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tuesday’s agreement, pending court approval, would end the long legal battle over SAVE by ending SAVE itself. The Education Department would commit not to enroll more borrowers in SAVE, to deny all pending SAVE applications and to move the roughly 7 million borrowers still enrolled in SAVE into other repayment plans – though some of those plans \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2025/07/24/nx-s1-5477646/student-loan-repayment-forgiveness-trump\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">are also in flux\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The department also said student loan borrowers would have “a limited time to select a new, legal repayment plan.” Borrowers will have to choose between two types of plans: 1.) \u003ca href=\"https://studentaid.gov/manage-loans/repayment/plans#fixed\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">fixed payment plans\u003c/a> or 2.) plans with \u003ca href=\"https://studentaid.gov/manage-loans/repayment/plans#income-driven\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">payments based on a borrower’s income\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2025/07/24/nx-s1-5477646/student-loan-repayment-forgiveness-trump\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">two new plans\u003c/a> created by Republicans’ One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) will roll out in July 2026, and will include a revised standard plan and a new income-driven plan called the Repayment Assistance Plan. Though SAVE borrowers will likely be expected to change plans before then.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The SAVE plan’s days were already numbered. Under the OBBBA, borrowers would have had to change plans by July 1, 2028. Tuesday’s news would move that deadline up, though the administration has not provided a timeframe for the changes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If the proposal is approved by the court, transitioning millions of borrowers to other plans will be a Herculean feat for loan servicing companies that handle day-to-day loan operations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s gonna be bumpy,” says Scott Buchanan, head of the Student Loan Servicing Alliance. “Remember, SAVE borrowers have not been in repayment for years. They’re gonna have a ton of questions and will need a ton of hand-holding to get back into repayment.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The settlement arrives as millions of borrowers are struggling to keep up with their payments.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We are sitting on the precipice of millions of borrowers defaulting on their loans,” says Persis Yu, of Protect Borrowers. “And instead of choosing to defend a plan that would have been affordable for these borrowers, this Department of Education has capitulated to the AGs and is going to make life much more expensive.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The American Enterprise Institute, AEI, \u003ca href=\"https://www.aei.org/education/new-student-loan-data-show-a-historic-spike-in-borrowers-falling-behind/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">recently published an analysis\u003c/a> of the latest federal student loan data: In addition to the 5.5 million borrowers who are currently in default, another 3.7 million are more than 270 days late on their payments and on the edge of default. Another 2.7 million borrowers are in the earlier stages of delinquency. In all, some 12 million borrowers are worryingly behind.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"npr-transcript\">\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Transcript:\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>SCOTT DETROW, HOST:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There’s big news today for millions of federal student loan borrowers. The U.S. Department of Education says it’s reached a proposed settlement. It would end a Biden-era repayment plan that has been tied up in the courts for more than a year. NPR’s Cory Turner has been following the story and joins us now. Hi, Cory.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>CORY TURNER, BYLINE: Hello.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>DETROW: Before we get to the news of the settlement, remind us what this repayment plan was and why it ended up in court.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>TURNER: Yeah. It’s the Saving on a Valuable Education plan, but it’s better known as SAVE. It was the most flexible and generous of all the income-driven repayment plans. It promised fast-tracked loan forgiveness, monthly payments as low as $0 for low-income borrowers. But it turns out, Scott, it was so generous that Republican state attorneys general sued the Biden administration, arguing in court it was too generous and that if Congress had wanted to create a plan like this, it would have.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And so SAVE has been in legal limbo ever since. Now though, you know, President Trump’s Education Department agrees with those Republican AGs, and so they appear to have cut a deal. Under Secretary of Education Nicholas Kent said in a statement announcing the proposed settlement today, quote, “American taxpayers can now rest assured they will no longer be forced to serve as collateral for illegal and irresponsible student loan policies.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>DETROW: There’s probably a lot of people listening who are enrolled in the SAVE plan. What do they need to know?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>TURNER: Well, they’re in good company. There are about 7 million borrowers still in SAVE. So this agreement is a big deal, pending court approval. It’s also worth saying many of these borrowers haven’t had to make payments in years because of the legal limbo I just mentioned, during which they didn’t have to make payments. But that followed on the heels of the long pandemic payment pause. Not only, though, is this going to be a financial stretch for many borrowers, it’s going to be a huge logistical challenge for the servicing companies that manage the federal student loan portfolio.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I was talking earlier today with Scott Buchanan. He’s head of the Student Loan Servicing Alliance, and he told me it’s going to be bumpy. That was his word. He said SAVE borrowers are going to have a ton of questions. They will need a ton of handholding to get back into repayment. And part of the problem here is the options available to them are a little murky. Republicans’ One Big Beautiful Bill Act created two new repayment plans, but they’re not going to roll out till July, which is too late for the purposes of SAVE borrowers now. Meanwhile, borrower advocates were sounding in the alarm today. Here’s Persis Yu with the group Protect Borrowers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>PERSIS YU: The reality is, is that the SAVE plan was created because the other plans were unaffordable for millions of borrowers. So many borrowers are going to be in the difficult spot of making this decision about whether or not to stay current on their loans or feed their families and keep a roof over their head.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>TURNER: And Scott, this settlement lands at a time when millions of other borrowers are already way behind on their loan payments.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>DETROW: Yeah. Do we have a sense of what exactly is going on there?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>TURNER: Yeah. According to the latest tranche of data from the Education Department, some 12 million borrowers are either really behind on their payments or already in default. That’s at least a quarter of all federal student loan borrowers. And everybody I talk to on both sides of the aisle here say this is a crisis. And now we’re talking about how to get these 7 million SAVE borrowers, many of whom are low-income, back into repayment. This is going to be an incredible test for the department and obviously for these borrowers. And my best advice right now to these borrowers is to go to studentaid.gov and start reading up on the other repayment plans out there so you know what your options are.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>DETROW: That is NPR education correspondent Cory Turner. Thank you so much.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>TURNER: You’re welcome.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>(SOUNDBITE OF FREDDIE GIBBS AND MADLIB SONG, “GAT D***”)\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Public Workers Could Be Denied Loan Forgiveness if Cities Defy Trump, Lawsuit Alleges",
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"content": "\u003cp>The cities of Albuquerque, N.M., Boston, Chicago and San Francisco are suing the Trump administration over changes it plans to make to the popular Public Service Loan Forgiveness program, or PSLF.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The lawsuit, which also includes the nation’s two largest teachers unions and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, comes less than a week after the U.S. Department of Education \u003ca href=\"https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2025/10/31/2025-19729/william-d-ford-federal-direct-loan-direct-loan-program\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">published a rule change\u003c/a> to PSLF.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Effective July 1, 2026, the department says the change will allow it to deny loan forgiveness to workers whose government or nonprofit employers engage in activities with a “substantial illegal purpose.” The job of defining “substantial illegal purpose” will fall not to the courts but to the education secretary.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>PSLF was created by Congress in 2007, and signed by then-President George W. Bush, to cancel the federal student loan debts of borrowers who spend a decade working in public service, including teaching, nursing and policing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to the lawsuit, filed Monday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, the plaintiffs fear that a city or county government’s resistance to the administration’s immigration actions, for example, or anti-DEI policies, could lead the secretary to exclude that government’s public workers from loan forgiveness. They worry that a local nurse or first responder could be denied loan forgiveness because their local leaders defied the Trump administration.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The complaint argues the rule is “an attempt to target organizations and jurisdictions whose missions and policies do not align with [the Trump administration’s] political positions on immigration, race, gender, free speech, and public protest.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Politically motivated retaliation, like what the administration has done here, should have no place in America,” said Skye Perryman, president and CEO of Democracy Forward, one of the organizations representing the plaintiffs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The plaintiff group also includes the National Council of Nonprofits, which \u003ca href=\"https://www.councilofnonprofits.org/pressreleases/nonprofits-oppose-unlawful-public-service-loan-forgiveness-final-rule-limiting\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">said in a statement\u003c/a> upon the rule’s release:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Nonprofits operate food banks, serve veterans, assist domestic violence survivors, deliver meals to seniors, respond to disasters, and much more. Nonprofits must be able to identify and meet those needs without political interference, fear of retribution, or exclusion from a program designed to support their employees.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Under Secretary of Education Nicholas Kent denounced the lawsuit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It is unconscionable that the plaintiffs are standing up for criminal activity,” Kent said in a statement to NPR. “This is a commonsense reform that will stop taxpayer dollars from subsidizing organizations involved in terrorism, child trafficking, and transgender procedures that are doing irreversible harm to children.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In response to plaintiffs’ concerns that the administration could use PSLF as a weapon to punish political opponents, Kent insisted “the Department will enforce [the rule] neutrally, without consideration of the employer’s mission, ideology, or the population they serve.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The complaint says PSLF has allowed local governments to retain employees, including lawyers and engineers, who could earn more in the private sector. Albuquerque’s leaders say that losing access to PSLF “would likely create an untenable staffing crisis.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a statement, Boston Mayor Michelle Wu added: “The City is joining with cities, unions, and nonprofits across the country to protect a program that helps Boston’s workforce and millions of Americans in public service careers pay for college.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>What activities does the administration consider to be illegal?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>One key question raised by this rule change, and the lawsuit, is: How will the Education Department define activities with “substantial illegal purpose”?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to the rule itself, such activities could include:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul class=\"rte2-style-ul\" style=\"margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; padding-inline-start: 48px;\">\n\u003cli>“aiding and abetting violations of Federal immigration laws”\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>“supporting terrorism or engaging in violence for the purpose of obstructing or influencing Federal Government policy”\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>“engaging in the chemical and surgical castration or mutilation of children in violation of Federal or state law”\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>“engaging in the trafficking of children to another State for purposes of emancipation from their lawful parents in violation of Federal or State law”\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>“engaging in a pattern of aiding and abetting illegal discrimination”\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>“and engaging in a pattern of violating State laws.”\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>If the secretary determines that an employer has behaved with “substantial illegal purpose,” according to the rule, the employer can either engage with the department and accept a corrective action plan or risk losing access to PSLF for its employees for 10 years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In response to public comments, the Education Department \u003ca href=\"https://public-inspection.federalregister.gov/2025-19729.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">has said\u003c/a>, “[it] would have no basis to remove eligibility from nonprofits engaged in work related to immigrant communities, LGBTQ+ individuals, or racial justice if those organizations are following the law.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the plaintiff cities, which sit on the U.S. Justice Department’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-publishes-list-sanctuary-jurisdictions\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">“sanctuary jurisdictions”\u003c/a> list, say the Trump administration has already accused them of impeding the enforcement of federal law, and that this rule “represents yet another attack on politically disfavored local governments and nonprofits that have local laws, policies, and missions that are anathemas to the Administration.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The actions of these cities are legal,” says Persis Yu, of Protect Borrowers, another organization representing the plaintiffs. What’s more, she says, “whether or not these activities are legal, is not a [determination] that the secretary of education has either the right or the expertise to be making.”\u003cem> \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The new rule is the culmination of \u003ca href=\"https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/03/restoring-public-service-loan-forgiveness/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">a presidential action\u003c/a>, issued in March, in which President Trump accused the Biden administration of abusing PSLF, and said the program “has misdirected tax dollars into activist organizations that not only fail to serve the public interest, but actually harm our national security and American values, sometimes through criminal means.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>What did Congress intend when it created PSLF?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The plaintiffs argue Congress was clear about what should qualify as “public service” when it wrote the law, and that this new rule goes against lawmakers’ intent.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The Higher Education Act defines public service jobs as including government or a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt nonprofit organization. It does not provide any discretion or wiggle room within that definition,” Yu says. “Congress has said that this is who is entitled to public service loan forgiveness. The secretary doesn’t have the authority to change that.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In response to public comments, the Education Department has \u003ca href=\"https://public-inspection.federalregister.gov/2025-19729.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">disagreed\u003c/a>, writing that “[it] rejects the suggestion that this rule exceeds its legal authority. The [Higher Education Act] grants the Secretary explicit power to regulate title IV programs. PSLF is a title IV program, and its proper administration requires clear, enforceable standards.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Another lawsuit was filed in tandem Monday, by a coalition of 21 state attorneys general, arguing on behalf of Democratic-leaning state governments that worry their public employees could likewise be denied loan forgiveness because of state leaders’ decisions to support immigrants, promote DEI or provide gender affirming care.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The coalition of attorneys general warned in a press release that the rule would result in “widespread confusion, fear, and instability in the public workforce, forcing states to confront severe staffing shortages, higher turnover, and skyrocketing costs to maintain essential services.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to federal data, more than 1.1 million public service workers have thus far had their federal student loan debts discharged under PSLF.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This story was updated to include comment from the U.S. Department of Education.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"npr-transcript\">\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Transcript:\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>More than a million Americans have had their student loan debts erased because they’ve worked in public service. Many teachers, nurses, government and nonprofit workers have stayed in their jobs in hopes of benefiting from the federal Public Service Loan Forgiveness program. Now, though, the Trump administration is changing the rules around who can qualify. Today, a host of cities and 21 states led by Democrats filed a pair of lawsuits saying they fear their public workers could soon be excluded. NPR’s Cory Turner is here in the studio with more. Hey.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>CORY TURNER, BYLINE: Hey, Juana.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>SUMMERS: So Cory, let’s just start with a quick reminder of the PSLF program. How is it supposed to work?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>TURNER: Yeah, it was created by Congress in 2007, signed by then-President George W. Bush. And the law offers what is essentially a quid pro quo to federal student loan borrowers. If you work for 10 years in public service, the government agrees to erase whatever is left of your student loan debts. The idea was to help nonprofits and state and local governments hire and retain good people even if they can’t pay private sector wages. And Congress, we should say, defined public service really broadly in the law to include anyone working in government or a 501(c)(3) nonprofit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>SUMMERS: Right, OK. So help me understand, then, how does the Trump administration hope to change this program?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>TURNER: Yeah, they released a final rule change last week that will go into effect in July, and it allows the education secretary to deny loan forgiveness if employers engage in activities with, quote, “substantial illegal purpose,” Juana.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>SUMMERS: OK.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>TURNER: There, the department includes, quote, “aiding and abetting violations of federal immigration laws,” also engaging in, quote, “the chemical and surgical castration or mutilation of children in violation of federal or state law.” The concern among these states and cities with this lawsuit is that by being what the Justice Department has called sanctuary jurisdictions, for example, or by following state or local laws that promote diversity or protect the rights of transgender people, the secretary of education could say to them, look, I think your leaders are acting with illegal purpose, and then bar any of that state or local government’s employees from getting loan forgiveness. These suits accuse the administration, essentially, of trying to weaponize PSLF and they argue the secretary doesn’t have the authority, let alone the expertise, to decide what is illegal purpose or to add restrictions that Congress never intended in the law.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>SUMMERS: Cory, what’s the Trump administration had to say about those accusations?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>TURNER: Yeah, in a statement today from the undersecretary of education, Nicholas Kent, he called it – opposition to the rule unconscionable. Kent also said, quote, “this is a commonsense reform that will stop taxpayer dollars from subsidizing organizations involved in terrorism, child trafficking and transgender procedures that are doing irreversible harm.” He also insisted the rule would be enforced, quote, “without consideration of the employer’s mission, ideology or the population they serve.” One last thing, Juana. Employers at risk of failing this new standard will have two options. They can risk being excluded from loan forgiveness for 10 years or they can change their policies as part of a corrective action plan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>SUMMERS: NPR education correspondent Cory Turner, thank you.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>TURNER: You’re welcome.\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>The cities of Albuquerque, N.M., Boston, Chicago and San Francisco are suing the Trump administration over changes it plans to make to the popular Public Service Loan Forgiveness program, or PSLF.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The lawsuit, which also includes the nation’s two largest teachers unions and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, comes less than a week after the U.S. Department of Education \u003ca href=\"https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2025/10/31/2025-19729/william-d-ford-federal-direct-loan-direct-loan-program\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">published a rule change\u003c/a> to PSLF.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Effective July 1, 2026, the department says the change will allow it to deny loan forgiveness to workers whose government or nonprofit employers engage in activities with a “substantial illegal purpose.” The job of defining “substantial illegal purpose” will fall not to the courts but to the education secretary.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>PSLF was created by Congress in 2007, and signed by then-President George W. Bush, to cancel the federal student loan debts of borrowers who spend a decade working in public service, including teaching, nursing and policing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to the lawsuit, filed Monday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, the plaintiffs fear that a city or county government’s resistance to the administration’s immigration actions, for example, or anti-DEI policies, could lead the secretary to exclude that government’s public workers from loan forgiveness. They worry that a local nurse or first responder could be denied loan forgiveness because their local leaders defied the Trump administration.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The complaint argues the rule is “an attempt to target organizations and jurisdictions whose missions and policies do not align with [the Trump administration’s] political positions on immigration, race, gender, free speech, and public protest.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Politically motivated retaliation, like what the administration has done here, should have no place in America,” said Skye Perryman, president and CEO of Democracy Forward, one of the organizations representing the plaintiffs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The plaintiff group also includes the National Council of Nonprofits, which \u003ca href=\"https://www.councilofnonprofits.org/pressreleases/nonprofits-oppose-unlawful-public-service-loan-forgiveness-final-rule-limiting\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">said in a statement\u003c/a> upon the rule’s release:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Nonprofits operate food banks, serve veterans, assist domestic violence survivors, deliver meals to seniors, respond to disasters, and much more. Nonprofits must be able to identify and meet those needs without political interference, fear of retribution, or exclusion from a program designed to support their employees.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Under Secretary of Education Nicholas Kent denounced the lawsuit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It is unconscionable that the plaintiffs are standing up for criminal activity,” Kent said in a statement to NPR. “This is a commonsense reform that will stop taxpayer dollars from subsidizing organizations involved in terrorism, child trafficking, and transgender procedures that are doing irreversible harm to children.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In response to plaintiffs’ concerns that the administration could use PSLF as a weapon to punish political opponents, Kent insisted “the Department will enforce [the rule] neutrally, without consideration of the employer’s mission, ideology, or the population they serve.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The complaint says PSLF has allowed local governments to retain employees, including lawyers and engineers, who could earn more in the private sector. Albuquerque’s leaders say that losing access to PSLF “would likely create an untenable staffing crisis.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a statement, Boston Mayor Michelle Wu added: “The City is joining with cities, unions, and nonprofits across the country to protect a program that helps Boston’s workforce and millions of Americans in public service careers pay for college.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>What activities does the administration consider to be illegal?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>One key question raised by this rule change, and the lawsuit, is: How will the Education Department define activities with “substantial illegal purpose”?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to the rule itself, such activities could include:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul class=\"rte2-style-ul\" style=\"margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; padding-inline-start: 48px;\">\n\u003cli>“aiding and abetting violations of Federal immigration laws”\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>“supporting terrorism or engaging in violence for the purpose of obstructing or influencing Federal Government policy”\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>“engaging in the chemical and surgical castration or mutilation of children in violation of Federal or state law”\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>“engaging in the trafficking of children to another State for purposes of emancipation from their lawful parents in violation of Federal or State law”\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>“engaging in a pattern of aiding and abetting illegal discrimination”\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>“and engaging in a pattern of violating State laws.”\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>If the secretary determines that an employer has behaved with “substantial illegal purpose,” according to the rule, the employer can either engage with the department and accept a corrective action plan or risk losing access to PSLF for its employees for 10 years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In response to public comments, the Education Department \u003ca href=\"https://public-inspection.federalregister.gov/2025-19729.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">has said\u003c/a>, “[it] would have no basis to remove eligibility from nonprofits engaged in work related to immigrant communities, LGBTQ+ individuals, or racial justice if those organizations are following the law.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the plaintiff cities, which sit on the U.S. Justice Department’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-publishes-list-sanctuary-jurisdictions\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">“sanctuary jurisdictions”\u003c/a> list, say the Trump administration has already accused them of impeding the enforcement of federal law, and that this rule “represents yet another attack on politically disfavored local governments and nonprofits that have local laws, policies, and missions that are anathemas to the Administration.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The actions of these cities are legal,” says Persis Yu, of Protect Borrowers, another organization representing the plaintiffs. What’s more, she says, “whether or not these activities are legal, is not a [determination] that the secretary of education has either the right or the expertise to be making.”\u003cem> \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The new rule is the culmination of \u003ca href=\"https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/03/restoring-public-service-loan-forgiveness/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">a presidential action\u003c/a>, issued in March, in which President Trump accused the Biden administration of abusing PSLF, and said the program “has misdirected tax dollars into activist organizations that not only fail to serve the public interest, but actually harm our national security and American values, sometimes through criminal means.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>What did Congress intend when it created PSLF?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The plaintiffs argue Congress was clear about what should qualify as “public service” when it wrote the law, and that this new rule goes against lawmakers’ intent.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The Higher Education Act defines public service jobs as including government or a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt nonprofit organization. It does not provide any discretion or wiggle room within that definition,” Yu says. “Congress has said that this is who is entitled to public service loan forgiveness. The secretary doesn’t have the authority to change that.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In response to public comments, the Education Department has \u003ca href=\"https://public-inspection.federalregister.gov/2025-19729.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">disagreed\u003c/a>, writing that “[it] rejects the suggestion that this rule exceeds its legal authority. The [Higher Education Act] grants the Secretary explicit power to regulate title IV programs. PSLF is a title IV program, and its proper administration requires clear, enforceable standards.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Another lawsuit was filed in tandem Monday, by a coalition of 21 state attorneys general, arguing on behalf of Democratic-leaning state governments that worry their public employees could likewise be denied loan forgiveness because of state leaders’ decisions to support immigrants, promote DEI or provide gender affirming care.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The coalition of attorneys general warned in a press release that the rule would result in “widespread confusion, fear, and instability in the public workforce, forcing states to confront severe staffing shortages, higher turnover, and skyrocketing costs to maintain essential services.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to federal data, more than 1.1 million public service workers have thus far had their federal student loan debts discharged under PSLF.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This story was updated to include comment from the U.S. Department of Education.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"npr-transcript\">\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Transcript:\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>More than a million Americans have had their student loan debts erased because they’ve worked in public service. Many teachers, nurses, government and nonprofit workers have stayed in their jobs in hopes of benefiting from the federal Public Service Loan Forgiveness program. Now, though, the Trump administration is changing the rules around who can qualify. Today, a host of cities and 21 states led by Democrats filed a pair of lawsuits saying they fear their public workers could soon be excluded. NPR’s Cory Turner is here in the studio with more. Hey.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>CORY TURNER, BYLINE: Hey, Juana.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>SUMMERS: So Cory, let’s just start with a quick reminder of the PSLF program. How is it supposed to work?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>TURNER: Yeah, it was created by Congress in 2007, signed by then-President George W. Bush. And the law offers what is essentially a quid pro quo to federal student loan borrowers. If you work for 10 years in public service, the government agrees to erase whatever is left of your student loan debts. The idea was to help nonprofits and state and local governments hire and retain good people even if they can’t pay private sector wages. And Congress, we should say, defined public service really broadly in the law to include anyone working in government or a 501(c)(3) nonprofit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>SUMMERS: Right, OK. So help me understand, then, how does the Trump administration hope to change this program?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>TURNER: Yeah, they released a final rule change last week that will go into effect in July, and it allows the education secretary to deny loan forgiveness if employers engage in activities with, quote, “substantial illegal purpose,” Juana.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>SUMMERS: OK.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>TURNER: There, the department includes, quote, “aiding and abetting violations of federal immigration laws,” also engaging in, quote, “the chemical and surgical castration or mutilation of children in violation of federal or state law.” The concern among these states and cities with this lawsuit is that by being what the Justice Department has called sanctuary jurisdictions, for example, or by following state or local laws that promote diversity or protect the rights of transgender people, the secretary of education could say to them, look, I think your leaders are acting with illegal purpose, and then bar any of that state or local government’s employees from getting loan forgiveness. These suits accuse the administration, essentially, of trying to weaponize PSLF and they argue the secretary doesn’t have the authority, let alone the expertise, to decide what is illegal purpose or to add restrictions that Congress never intended in the law.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>SUMMERS: Cory, what’s the Trump administration had to say about those accusations?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>TURNER: Yeah, in a statement today from the undersecretary of education, Nicholas Kent, he called it – opposition to the rule unconscionable. Kent also said, quote, “this is a commonsense reform that will stop taxpayer dollars from subsidizing organizations involved in terrorism, child trafficking and transgender procedures that are doing irreversible harm.” He also insisted the rule would be enforced, quote, “without consideration of the employer’s mission, ideology or the population they serve.” One last thing, Juana. Employers at risk of failing this new standard will have two options. They can risk being excluded from loan forgiveness for 10 years or they can change their policies as part of a corrective action plan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>SUMMERS: NPR education correspondent Cory Turner, thank you.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>TURNER: You’re welcome.\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>In a new \u003ca href=\"https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/69753739/44/american-federation-of-teachers-v-us-department-of-education/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">court filing\u003c/a>, the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) is asking a federal judge to force the U.S. Department of Education to follow the law and cancel the debts of borrowers who have met longstanding requirements for loan forgiveness.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The AFT argues the department is delaying cancellation for many borrowers in a way that is “unwarranted and unlawful” and will have “real and significant consequences.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s because the clock is ticking. With the American Rescue Plan, Congress temporarily stopped treating loan cancellation as taxable income until Jan. 1, 2026. Soon, many borrowers will again be expected to pay taxes on those cancelled debts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The AFT is seeking an injunction to force the department to do a few things, including:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul class=\"rte2-style-ul\" style=\"margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; padding-inline-start: 48px;\">\n\u003cli>Cancel the debts of borrowers on income-dependent repayment plans \u003ca href=\"https://studentaid.gov/manage-loans/repayment/plans/income-driven\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">like IBR, ICR and PAYE\u003c/a> when those borrowers have met the requirement that they be in repayment for 20 or 25 years.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Process thousands of outstanding requests for Public Service Loan Forgiveness from borrowers who “buy back” time that did not previously count.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003ch2>The trouble started with the SAVE Plan\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The Education Department largely blames these delays in debt cancellation on the Biden administration and the federal courts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Congress designed these [plans] to ensure that borrowers repay their loans, yet the Biden Administration tried to illegally force taxpayers to foot the bill,” Education Secretary Linda McMahon \u003ca href=\"https://www.ed.gov/about/news/press-release/us-department-of-education-continues-improve-federal-student-loan-repayment-options-addresses-illegal-biden-administration-actions\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">said in a July statement\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>McMahon is referring to the income-driven SAVE repayment plan, which was created by the Biden administration and was so generous in its terms that the courts forced the department to put the plan on ice, throwing much of the loan program into confusion.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Education Department has used the legal uncertainty around SAVE to justify halting cancellation under ICR, PAYE and IBR.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>IBR was created by Congress and is not being challenged legally. But the department told NPR in July that questions about SAVE’s legality had made it difficult to determine eligibility for cancellation under IBR. As a result, many borrowers who are likely eligible for cancellation are still having to make payments.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“For any borrower that makes a payment after they became eligible for forgiveness, the Department will refund overpayments when the discharges resume,” the department told NPR in a statement this week. As for when that might be?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The department would not commit to a timetable: “IBR discharges will resume as soon as the Department is able to establish the correct payment count.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>PSLF troubles\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Borrowers enrolled in Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) have also encountered delays. According to court records, by the end of last month, the department had a backlog of nearly 75,000 applications for cancellation under the PSLF “Buyback” program. That allows borrowers with 10 years of verified public service to make qualifying payments for months they spent in forbearance or deferment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In its amended suit, the AFT says, from May to August, the department received far more buyback applications than it processed. Each month, “the Department received an average of 9,902 new applications, but only processed an average of 3,604.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a statement, Education Department Deputy Press Secretary Ellen Keast says, with the PSLF “Buyback” program, the Biden administration was guilty of “weaponizing a legal discharge plan for political purposes. The Department is working its way through this backlog while ensuring that borrowers have submitted the required 120 payments of qualifying employment.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Processing these buyback applications can be time-consuming, and the Trump administration’s move to \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2025/03/12/nx-s1-5325854/trump-education-department-layoffs-civil-rights-student-loans\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">cut the Office of Federal Student Aid’s staff by half\u003c/a> may have slowed its efforts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-embed npr-promo-card insettwocolumn\">\n\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\u003c/div>\n\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The Jan. 1, 2026, tax changes will not apply to Public Service Loan Forgiveness.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Many borrowers are at risk of default\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>More than 7 million borrowers are enrolled in SAVE and have not been required to make payments, but the Trump administration \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2025/07/24/nx-s1-5477646/student-loan-repayment-forgiveness-trump\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">recently resumed interest accrual\u003c/a> on these loans, looking to \u003ca href=\"https://www.ed.gov/about/news/press-release/us-department-of-education-continues-improve-federal-student-loan-repayment-options-addresses-illegal-biden-administration-actions\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">nudge borrowers\u003c/a> into alternative plans.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But \u003ca href=\"https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.dcd.278527/gov.uscourts.dcd.278527.42.0.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">court records show\u003c/a> enrolling in an alternative has been slow-going for months. In February, the department temporarily stopped accepting applications for all income-dependent repayment plans, and though it has resumed, more than a million were still pending as of the end of August.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Education Department’s Keast tells NPR this backlog began during the previous administration, and that the department “is actively working with federal student loan servicers and hopes to clear the Biden backlog over the next few months.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Amidst all this confusion and uncertainty, data suggest many federal student loan borrowers \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2025/09/05/nx-s1-5521317/millions-of-student-loan-borrowers-are-at-risk-of-defaulting-data-shows\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">are failing to repay their loans\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“One in three federal student loan borrowers that are in repayment right now are in some stage of delinquency,” says Daniel Mangrum, a research economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meaning millions of borrowers are now at serious risk of default.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>In a new \u003ca href=\"https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/69753739/44/american-federation-of-teachers-v-us-department-of-education/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">court filing\u003c/a>, the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) is asking a federal judge to force the U.S. Department of Education to follow the law and cancel the debts of borrowers who have met longstanding requirements for loan forgiveness.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The AFT argues the department is delaying cancellation for many borrowers in a way that is “unwarranted and unlawful” and will have “real and significant consequences.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s because the clock is ticking. With the American Rescue Plan, Congress temporarily stopped treating loan cancellation as taxable income until Jan. 1, 2026. Soon, many borrowers will again be expected to pay taxes on those cancelled debts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The AFT is seeking an injunction to force the department to do a few things, including:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul class=\"rte2-style-ul\" style=\"margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; padding-inline-start: 48px;\">\n\u003cli>Cancel the debts of borrowers on income-dependent repayment plans \u003ca href=\"https://studentaid.gov/manage-loans/repayment/plans/income-driven\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">like IBR, ICR and PAYE\u003c/a> when those borrowers have met the requirement that they be in repayment for 20 or 25 years.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Process thousands of outstanding requests for Public Service Loan Forgiveness from borrowers who “buy back” time that did not previously count.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003ch2>The trouble started with the SAVE Plan\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The Education Department largely blames these delays in debt cancellation on the Biden administration and the federal courts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Congress designed these [plans] to ensure that borrowers repay their loans, yet the Biden Administration tried to illegally force taxpayers to foot the bill,” Education Secretary Linda McMahon \u003ca href=\"https://www.ed.gov/about/news/press-release/us-department-of-education-continues-improve-federal-student-loan-repayment-options-addresses-illegal-biden-administration-actions\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">said in a July statement\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>McMahon is referring to the income-driven SAVE repayment plan, which was created by the Biden administration and was so generous in its terms that the courts forced the department to put the plan on ice, throwing much of the loan program into confusion.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Education Department has used the legal uncertainty around SAVE to justify halting cancellation under ICR, PAYE and IBR.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>IBR was created by Congress and is not being challenged legally. But the department told NPR in July that questions about SAVE’s legality had made it difficult to determine eligibility for cancellation under IBR. As a result, many borrowers who are likely eligible for cancellation are still having to make payments.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“For any borrower that makes a payment after they became eligible for forgiveness, the Department will refund overpayments when the discharges resume,” the department told NPR in a statement this week. As for when that might be?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The department would not commit to a timetable: “IBR discharges will resume as soon as the Department is able to establish the correct payment count.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>PSLF troubles\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Borrowers enrolled in Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) have also encountered delays. According to court records, by the end of last month, the department had a backlog of nearly 75,000 applications for cancellation under the PSLF “Buyback” program. That allows borrowers with 10 years of verified public service to make qualifying payments for months they spent in forbearance or deferment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In its amended suit, the AFT says, from May to August, the department received far more buyback applications than it processed. Each month, “the Department received an average of 9,902 new applications, but only processed an average of 3,604.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a statement, Education Department Deputy Press Secretary Ellen Keast says, with the PSLF “Buyback” program, the Biden administration was guilty of “weaponizing a legal discharge plan for political purposes. The Department is working its way through this backlog while ensuring that borrowers have submitted the required 120 payments of qualifying employment.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Processing these buyback applications can be time-consuming, and the Trump administration’s move to \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2025/03/12/nx-s1-5325854/trump-education-department-layoffs-civil-rights-student-loans\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">cut the Office of Federal Student Aid’s staff by half\u003c/a> may have slowed its efforts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-embed npr-promo-card insettwocolumn\">\n\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\u003c/div>\n\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The Jan. 1, 2026, tax changes will not apply to Public Service Loan Forgiveness.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Many borrowers are at risk of default\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>More than 7 million borrowers are enrolled in SAVE and have not been required to make payments, but the Trump administration \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2025/07/24/nx-s1-5477646/student-loan-repayment-forgiveness-trump\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">recently resumed interest accrual\u003c/a> on these loans, looking to \u003ca href=\"https://www.ed.gov/about/news/press-release/us-department-of-education-continues-improve-federal-student-loan-repayment-options-addresses-illegal-biden-administration-actions\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">nudge borrowers\u003c/a> into alternative plans.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But \u003ca href=\"https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.dcd.278527/gov.uscourts.dcd.278527.42.0.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">court records show\u003c/a> enrolling in an alternative has been slow-going for months. In February, the department temporarily stopped accepting applications for all income-dependent repayment plans, and though it has resumed, more than a million were still pending as of the end of August.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Education Department’s Keast tells NPR this backlog began during the previous administration, and that the department “is actively working with federal student loan servicers and hopes to clear the Biden backlog over the next few months.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Amidst all this confusion and uncertainty, data suggest many federal student loan borrowers \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2025/09/05/nx-s1-5521317/millions-of-student-loan-borrowers-are-at-risk-of-defaulting-data-shows\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">are failing to repay their loans\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“One in three federal student loan borrowers that are in repayment right now are in some stage of delinquency,” says Daniel Mangrum, a research economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meaning millions of borrowers are now at serious risk of default.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "These Programs Help Poor Students with College. Trump Wants to Pull the Funding",
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"headTitle": "These Programs Help Poor Students with College. Trump Wants to Pull the Funding | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>MOREHEAD, Ky. — The summer after ninth grade, Zoey Griffith found herself in an unfamiliar setting: a dorm on the Morehead State University campus.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There, she’d spend the months before her sophomore year taking classes in core subjects like math and biology, as well as electives like oil painting.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For Griffith, it was an opportunity, but a scary one. “It was a big deal for me to live on campus at the age of 14,” she said. Morehead State is about an hour from her hometown of Maysville. “I was nervous, and I remember that I cried the first time that my dad left me on move-in day.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Her mother became a parent as a teenager and urged her daughter to avoid the same experience. Griffith’s father works as a mechanic, and he frowns upon the idea of higher education, she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And so college back then seemed a distant and unlikely dream.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Griffith’s stepsister had introduced her to a federal program called Upward Bound. It places high school students in college dorms during the summer, where they can take classes and participate in workshops on preparing for the SAT and financial literacy. During the school year, students get tutoring and work on what are called “individual success plans.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s part of a group of federal programs, known as TRIO, aimed at helping low-income and first-generation students earn a college degree, often becoming the first in their families to do so.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So thanks to that advice from her stepsister, Kirsty Beckett, who’s now 27 and pursuing a doctorate in psychology, Griffith signed up and found herself in that summer program at Morehead State. Now, Griffith is enrolled at Maysville Community and Technical College, with plans to become an ultrasound technician.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>TRIO, once a group of three programs — giving it a name that stuck — is now the umbrella over eight, \u003ca href=\"https://www.ed.gov/sites/ed/files/about/offices/list/ope/trio/trio50anniv-factsheet.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">some dating back to 1965\u003c/a>. Together they serve roughly 870,000 students nationwide a year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It has worked with millions of students and has \u003ca href=\"https://coenet.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/TRIO-Caucus-List_061825.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">bipartisan support\u003c/a> in Congress. Now, some in this part of the Appalachian region of Kentucky and across the country worry about students who won’t get the same assistance if President Trump ends federal spending on the program.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A White House \u003ca href=\"https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Fiscal-Year-2026-Discretionary-Budget-Request.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">budget proposal\u003c/a> would eliminate spending on TRIO. The document says “access to college is not the obstacle it was for students of limited means,” and it puts the onus on colleges to recruit and support students.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Advocates note that the programs, which cost roughly $1.2 billion each year, have a proven track record. Students in Upward Bound, for example, are more than twice as likely to earn a bachelor’s degree by age 24 than other students from some of the United States’ poorest households, \u003ca href=\"https://coenet.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/COE_Overview-One-Pager_Advocacy_May-2025_v3.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">according to the Council for Opportunity in Education\u003c/a>. COE is a nonprofit that represents TRIO programs nationwide and advocates for expanded opportunities for first-generation, low-income students.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For the high school class of 2022, 74% of Upward Bound students enrolled immediately in college — compared with only 56% of high school graduates in the bottom income quartile.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/2877x3821+0+0/resize/1200/quality/75/format/jpeg/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F65%2F2d%2F25daaf874cf0ba2bdcc32d0e292f%2Fhe-trio-6.jpg\" alt=\"Students Zoey Griffith (left) and Aniyah Caldwell say the Upward Bound program has been life-changing for them. Upward Bound is one of eight federal programs under the TRIO umbrella.\">\u003cfigcaption>Students Zoey Griffith (left) and Aniyah Caldwell say the Upward Bound program has been life-changing for them. Upward Bound is one of eight federal programs under the TRIO umbrella. \u003ccite> (Michael Vasquez | The Hechinger Report)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Upward Bound is for high school students. Another TRIO program, Talent Search, helps middle and high school students, without the residential component. One program called Student Support Services (SSS) provides tutoring, advising and other assistance to at-risk college students. Another program prepares students for graduate school and doctoral degrees, and yet another trains TRIO staff.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A \u003ca href=\"https://www.ed.gov/sites/ed/files/about/offices/list/ope/trio/sssparticpantsinbpsls.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">2019 study\u003c/a> found that after four years of college, students in SSS were 48% more likely to complete an associate’s degree or certificate, or transfer to a four-year institution, than a comparable group of students with similar backgrounds and similar levels of high school achievement who were not in the program.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“TRIO has been around for 60 years,” said Kimberly Jones, the president of COE. “We’ve produced millions of college graduates. We know it works.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yet Education Secretary Linda McMahon and the White House refer to the programs as a “\u003ca href=\"https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Fiscal-Year-2026-Discretionary-Budget-Request.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">relic of the past\u003c/a>.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jones countered that census data shows that “students from the poorest families still earn college degrees at rates far below that of students from the highest-income families,” demonstrating continued need for TRIO.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>McMahon is challenging that and pushing for further study of those TRIO success rates. In 2020, the \u003ca href=\"https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-21-5\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">U.S. Government Accountability Office found\u003c/a> that even though the Education Department collects data on TRIO participants, the agency “has gaps in its evidence on program effectiveness.” The GAO criticized the Education Department for having “outdated” studies on some TRIO programs and no studies at all for others. Since then, the department has expanded its evaluations of TRIO.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During a Senate subcommittee hearing in June, McMahon acknowledged that “there is some effectiveness of the programs, in many circumstances.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, she said there is not enough research to justify TRIO’s total cost. “That’s a real drawback in these programs,” McMahon said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now, she is asking lawmakers to eliminate TRIO spending after this year and has already canceled some previously approved TRIO grants.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Opening a door into a broader world\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>“What are we supposed to do, especially here in eastern Kentucky?” asks David Green, a former Upward Bound participant who is now marketing director for a pair of Kentucky hospitals.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/1366x768+0+0/resize/1200/quality/75/format/jpeg/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Ff8%2F69%2F4771cf194e918cbc91c3f5a9e242%2Fhe-trio-4.jpg\" alt=\"East Main Street in Morehead, Ky., just outside Morehead State University's campus.\">\u003cfigcaption>East Main Street in Morehead, Ky., just outside Morehead State University’s campus. \u003ccite> (Michael Vasquez | The Hechinger Report)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Green lives in a region that has some of the nation’s highest rates of unemployment, cancer and opioid addiction. “I mean, these people have big hearts — they want to grow,” he adds. Cutting these programs amounts to “stifling us even more than we’re already stifled.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Green described his experience with TRIO at Morehead State in the mid-1980s as “one of the best things that ever happened to me.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He grew up in a home without running water in Maysville, a city of about 8,000 people. It was on a TRIO trip to Washington, D.C., he recalled, that he stayed in a hotel for the first time. Green remembers bringing two suitcases so he could pack a pillow, sheets and a comforter — unaware the hotel room would have its own.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He met students from other towns and with different backgrounds. Some became lifelong friends. Green learned table manners, the kind of thing often required in business settings. After college, he was so grateful for TRIO that he became one of its tutors, working with the next generation of students.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Uncertain future in Congress\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Jones, of the Council for Opportunity in Education, said she is cautiously optimistic that Congress will continue funding TRIO, despite the Trump administration’s request. The programs serve students in all 50 states. According to the COE, about 34% are white, 32% are Black, 23% are Hispanic, 5% are Asian and 3% are Native American.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In May, Rep. Mike Simpson, an Idaho Republican, called TRIO “one of the most effective programs in the federal government,” which, he said, is supported by “many, many members of Congress.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In June, Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, a Republican from West Virginia and a former TRIO employee, spoke about its importance to her state. TRIO helps “a student that really needs the extra push, the camaraderie, the community,” she said. “I’ve gone to their graduations, and been their speaker, and it’s really quite delightful to see how far they’ve come in a short period of time.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>TRIO survived, with its funding intact, when the Senate Appropriations Committee approved its budget last month. The House is expected to take up its version of the annual appropriations bill for education in early September. Both chambers ultimately have to agree on federal spending, a process that could drag on until December, leaving TRIO’s fate in Congress uncertain.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While lawmakers debate its future, the Trump administration could also delay or halt TRIO funding on its own. This year, the administration took the unprecedented step of unilaterally \u003ca href=\"https://www.insidehighered.com/news/government/politics-elections/2025/06/11/trio-advocates-worry-after-upward-bound-grants\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">canceling about 20\u003c/a> previously approved new and continuing TRIO grants.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>A big impact on young lives\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>At Morehead State, leaders there say the university and the region it serves need the boost received from TRIO: While roughly 38% of American adults have earned at least a bachelor’s degree, in Kentucky that figure is only 16%. And locally, it’s 7%, according to Summer Fawn Bryant, the director of TRIO’s Talent Search programs at the university.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>TRIO works to counter the stigma of attending college that still exists in parts of eastern Kentucky, Bryant said, where a student from a humble background who is considering college might be scolded with the phrase: \u003cem>Don’t get above your raisin’\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“A parent may say it,” Bryant said. “A teacher may say it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She added that she’s seen time and again how these programs can turn around the lives of young students from poor families.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-embed npr-promo-card insettwocolumn\">\n\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\u003c/div>\n\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Students like Beth Cockrell, an Upward Bound alum from Pineville, Ky., who said her mom struggled with parenting. “Upward Bound stepped in as that kind of co-parent and helped me decide what my major was going to be.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cockrell went on to earn three degrees at Morehead State and has worked as a teacher for the past 19 years. She now works with students at her alma mater and teaches third grade at Conkwright Elementary School, about an hour away.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Long-term benefits\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Sherry Adkins, an eastern Kentucky native who attended TRIO more than 50 years ago and went on to become a registered nurse, said efforts to cut TRIO spending ignore the long-term benefits. “Do you want all of these people that are disadvantaged to continue like that? Where they’re taking money from society? Or do you want to help prepare us to become successful people who pay lots of taxes?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As Washington considers TRIO’s future, program directors like Bryant, at Morehead State, press forward. She has saved a text message that a former student sent her two years ago to remind her of what’s at stake.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After finishing college, the student was attending a conference on child abuse when a presenter showed a slide that included the quote: “Every child who winds up doing well has had at least one stable and committed relationship with a supportive adult.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Forever thankful,” the student texted Bryant, “that you were that supportive adult for me.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This story about TRIO was produced by \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cem>The Hechinger Report\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem>, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "For 60 years, TRIO – which includes programs like Upward Bound – has helped millions of people attain a college degree, but the administration says it is no longer needed.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>MOREHEAD, Ky. — The summer after ninth grade, Zoey Griffith found herself in an unfamiliar setting: a dorm on the Morehead State University campus.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There, she’d spend the months before her sophomore year taking classes in core subjects like math and biology, as well as electives like oil painting.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For Griffith, it was an opportunity, but a scary one. “It was a big deal for me to live on campus at the age of 14,” she said. Morehead State is about an hour from her hometown of Maysville. “I was nervous, and I remember that I cried the first time that my dad left me on move-in day.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Her mother became a parent as a teenager and urged her daughter to avoid the same experience. Griffith’s father works as a mechanic, and he frowns upon the idea of higher education, she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And so college back then seemed a distant and unlikely dream.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Griffith’s stepsister had introduced her to a federal program called Upward Bound. It places high school students in college dorms during the summer, where they can take classes and participate in workshops on preparing for the SAT and financial literacy. During the school year, students get tutoring and work on what are called “individual success plans.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s part of a group of federal programs, known as TRIO, aimed at helping low-income and first-generation students earn a college degree, often becoming the first in their families to do so.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So thanks to that advice from her stepsister, Kirsty Beckett, who’s now 27 and pursuing a doctorate in psychology, Griffith signed up and found herself in that summer program at Morehead State. Now, Griffith is enrolled at Maysville Community and Technical College, with plans to become an ultrasound technician.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>TRIO, once a group of three programs — giving it a name that stuck — is now the umbrella over eight, \u003ca href=\"https://www.ed.gov/sites/ed/files/about/offices/list/ope/trio/trio50anniv-factsheet.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">some dating back to 1965\u003c/a>. Together they serve roughly 870,000 students nationwide a year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It has worked with millions of students and has \u003ca href=\"https://coenet.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/TRIO-Caucus-List_061825.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">bipartisan support\u003c/a> in Congress. Now, some in this part of the Appalachian region of Kentucky and across the country worry about students who won’t get the same assistance if President Trump ends federal spending on the program.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A White House \u003ca href=\"https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Fiscal-Year-2026-Discretionary-Budget-Request.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">budget proposal\u003c/a> would eliminate spending on TRIO. The document says “access to college is not the obstacle it was for students of limited means,” and it puts the onus on colleges to recruit and support students.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Advocates note that the programs, which cost roughly $1.2 billion each year, have a proven track record. Students in Upward Bound, for example, are more than twice as likely to earn a bachelor’s degree by age 24 than other students from some of the United States’ poorest households, \u003ca href=\"https://coenet.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/COE_Overview-One-Pager_Advocacy_May-2025_v3.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">according to the Council for Opportunity in Education\u003c/a>. COE is a nonprofit that represents TRIO programs nationwide and advocates for expanded opportunities for first-generation, low-income students.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For the high school class of 2022, 74% of Upward Bound students enrolled immediately in college — compared with only 56% of high school graduates in the bottom income quartile.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/2877x3821+0+0/resize/1200/quality/75/format/jpeg/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F65%2F2d%2F25daaf874cf0ba2bdcc32d0e292f%2Fhe-trio-6.jpg\" alt=\"Students Zoey Griffith (left) and Aniyah Caldwell say the Upward Bound program has been life-changing for them. Upward Bound is one of eight federal programs under the TRIO umbrella.\">\u003cfigcaption>Students Zoey Griffith (left) and Aniyah Caldwell say the Upward Bound program has been life-changing for them. Upward Bound is one of eight federal programs under the TRIO umbrella. \u003ccite> (Michael Vasquez | The Hechinger Report)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Upward Bound is for high school students. Another TRIO program, Talent Search, helps middle and high school students, without the residential component. One program called Student Support Services (SSS) provides tutoring, advising and other assistance to at-risk college students. Another program prepares students for graduate school and doctoral degrees, and yet another trains TRIO staff.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A \u003ca href=\"https://www.ed.gov/sites/ed/files/about/offices/list/ope/trio/sssparticpantsinbpsls.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">2019 study\u003c/a> found that after four years of college, students in SSS were 48% more likely to complete an associate’s degree or certificate, or transfer to a four-year institution, than a comparable group of students with similar backgrounds and similar levels of high school achievement who were not in the program.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“TRIO has been around for 60 years,” said Kimberly Jones, the president of COE. “We’ve produced millions of college graduates. We know it works.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yet Education Secretary Linda McMahon and the White House refer to the programs as a “\u003ca href=\"https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Fiscal-Year-2026-Discretionary-Budget-Request.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">relic of the past\u003c/a>.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jones countered that census data shows that “students from the poorest families still earn college degrees at rates far below that of students from the highest-income families,” demonstrating continued need for TRIO.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>McMahon is challenging that and pushing for further study of those TRIO success rates. In 2020, the \u003ca href=\"https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-21-5\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">U.S. Government Accountability Office found\u003c/a> that even though the Education Department collects data on TRIO participants, the agency “has gaps in its evidence on program effectiveness.” The GAO criticized the Education Department for having “outdated” studies on some TRIO programs and no studies at all for others. Since then, the department has expanded its evaluations of TRIO.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During a Senate subcommittee hearing in June, McMahon acknowledged that “there is some effectiveness of the programs, in many circumstances.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, she said there is not enough research to justify TRIO’s total cost. “That’s a real drawback in these programs,” McMahon said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now, she is asking lawmakers to eliminate TRIO spending after this year and has already canceled some previously approved TRIO grants.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Opening a door into a broader world\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>“What are we supposed to do, especially here in eastern Kentucky?” asks David Green, a former Upward Bound participant who is now marketing director for a pair of Kentucky hospitals.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/1366x768+0+0/resize/1200/quality/75/format/jpeg/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Ff8%2F69%2F4771cf194e918cbc91c3f5a9e242%2Fhe-trio-4.jpg\" alt=\"East Main Street in Morehead, Ky., just outside Morehead State University's campus.\">\u003cfigcaption>East Main Street in Morehead, Ky., just outside Morehead State University’s campus. \u003ccite> (Michael Vasquez | The Hechinger Report)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Green lives in a region that has some of the nation’s highest rates of unemployment, cancer and opioid addiction. “I mean, these people have big hearts — they want to grow,” he adds. Cutting these programs amounts to “stifling us even more than we’re already stifled.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Green described his experience with TRIO at Morehead State in the mid-1980s as “one of the best things that ever happened to me.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He grew up in a home without running water in Maysville, a city of about 8,000 people. It was on a TRIO trip to Washington, D.C., he recalled, that he stayed in a hotel for the first time. Green remembers bringing two suitcases so he could pack a pillow, sheets and a comforter — unaware the hotel room would have its own.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He met students from other towns and with different backgrounds. Some became lifelong friends. Green learned table manners, the kind of thing often required in business settings. After college, he was so grateful for TRIO that he became one of its tutors, working with the next generation of students.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Uncertain future in Congress\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Jones, of the Council for Opportunity in Education, said she is cautiously optimistic that Congress will continue funding TRIO, despite the Trump administration’s request. The programs serve students in all 50 states. According to the COE, about 34% are white, 32% are Black, 23% are Hispanic, 5% are Asian and 3% are Native American.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In May, Rep. Mike Simpson, an Idaho Republican, called TRIO “one of the most effective programs in the federal government,” which, he said, is supported by “many, many members of Congress.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In June, Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, a Republican from West Virginia and a former TRIO employee, spoke about its importance to her state. TRIO helps “a student that really needs the extra push, the camaraderie, the community,” she said. “I’ve gone to their graduations, and been their speaker, and it’s really quite delightful to see how far they’ve come in a short period of time.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>TRIO survived, with its funding intact, when the Senate Appropriations Committee approved its budget last month. The House is expected to take up its version of the annual appropriations bill for education in early September. Both chambers ultimately have to agree on federal spending, a process that could drag on until December, leaving TRIO’s fate in Congress uncertain.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While lawmakers debate its future, the Trump administration could also delay or halt TRIO funding on its own. This year, the administration took the unprecedented step of unilaterally \u003ca href=\"https://www.insidehighered.com/news/government/politics-elections/2025/06/11/trio-advocates-worry-after-upward-bound-grants\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">canceling about 20\u003c/a> previously approved new and continuing TRIO grants.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>A big impact on young lives\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>At Morehead State, leaders there say the university and the region it serves need the boost received from TRIO: While roughly 38% of American adults have earned at least a bachelor’s degree, in Kentucky that figure is only 16%. And locally, it’s 7%, according to Summer Fawn Bryant, the director of TRIO’s Talent Search programs at the university.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>TRIO works to counter the stigma of attending college that still exists in parts of eastern Kentucky, Bryant said, where a student from a humble background who is considering college might be scolded with the phrase: \u003cem>Don’t get above your raisin’\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“A parent may say it,” Bryant said. “A teacher may say it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She added that she’s seen time and again how these programs can turn around the lives of young students from poor families.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-embed npr-promo-card insettwocolumn\">\n\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\u003c/div>\n\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Students like Beth Cockrell, an Upward Bound alum from Pineville, Ky., who said her mom struggled with parenting. “Upward Bound stepped in as that kind of co-parent and helped me decide what my major was going to be.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cockrell went on to earn three degrees at Morehead State and has worked as a teacher for the past 19 years. She now works with students at her alma mater and teaches third grade at Conkwright Elementary School, about an hour away.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Long-term benefits\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Sherry Adkins, an eastern Kentucky native who attended TRIO more than 50 years ago and went on to become a registered nurse, said efforts to cut TRIO spending ignore the long-term benefits. “Do you want all of these people that are disadvantaged to continue like that? Where they’re taking money from society? Or do you want to help prepare us to become successful people who pay lots of taxes?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As Washington considers TRIO’s future, program directors like Bryant, at Morehead State, press forward. She has saved a text message that a former student sent her two years ago to remind her of what’s at stake.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After finishing college, the student was attending a conference on child abuse when a presenter showed a slide that included the quote: “Every child who winds up doing well has had at least one stable and committed relationship with a supportive adult.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Forever thankful,” the student texted Bryant, “that you were that supportive adult for me.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This story about TRIO was produced by \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cem>The Hechinger Report\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem>, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "how-is-your-student-loan-repayment-affected-by-the-one-big-beautiful-bill",
"title": "How Is Your Student Loan Repayment Affected By the One Big Beautiful Bill?",
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"headTitle": "How Is Your Student Loan Repayment Affected By the One Big Beautiful Bill? | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>If you’re a federal student loan borrower or about to become one, your head may be spinning.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On July 4, when President Trump signed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2025/07/03/nx-s1-5454841/house-republicans-trump-tax-bill-medicaid\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">into law\u003c/a>, he also greenlit a history-making overhaul of the federal student loan system — one that will affect the lives of many, if not most, of the United States’ nearly 43 million student loan borrowers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And boy is it a lot to unpack, with new, tighter borrowing limits and dramatically reduced repayment options, to name just a few of the sweeping changes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In May, we \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2025/05/12/nx-s1-5389644/trump-student-loan-program-forgiveness-overhaul\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">explained\u003c/a> this overhaul, as conceived by House Republicans. Now that a Senate compromise has been signed into law, here’s an updated guided tour of the final changes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Let’s start with the elephant in the room:\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>President Biden’s SAVE plan is ending\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The most generous repayment plan is the Biden-era Saving on a Valuable Education (SAVE) plan. But it is so generous, with its low monthly payments and expedited loan forgiveness, that Republicans have so far successfully argued in court that it is \u003cem>too\u003c/em> generous. In fact, the nearly 7.7 million borrowers currently enrolled in SAVE have been in legal limbo for months, without interest accruing or required monthly payments.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s about to change.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“For all practical purposes, I would say SAVE is just kind of dead at this point, even if it’s technically on life support,” said Preston Cooper at the conservative-leaning American Enterprise Institute (AEI).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This month, the U.S. Education Department announced that on Aug. 1, SAVE borrowers will, once again, \u003ca href=\"https://www.ed.gov/about/news/press-release/us-department-of-education-continues-improve-federal-student-loan-repayment-options-addresses-illegal-biden-administration-actions#:~:text=Next%20Steps,well%20as%20their%20principal%20amounts.\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">see their balances grow\u003c/a> — with interest. Because the SAVE plan is still enjoined, though, borrowers won’t yet be required to make payments. Still, Cooper said that many borrowers, rather than watch their loans balloon, will likely want to move to a different plan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Roxanne Garza, director of higher education policy at the liberal-leaning EdTrust, worries that the relatively last-minute announcement about interest accrual will cause problems for the Education Department, which saw \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2025/03/12/nx-s1-5325854/trump-education-department-layoffs-civil-rights-student-loans\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">roughly half its staff cut\u003c/a> by the Trump administration.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think what will likely happen now is you will see a rush of people trying to take action that will, again, likely create an even bigger backlog,” said Garza.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, borrowers in SAVE will have to change plans by July 1, 2028, when SAVE will be officially shut down. If they wait, though they currently can’t be required to make payments, they will see their loans explode with interest.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the two new plans that the law creates won’t be ready for a year, and the department’s \u003ca href=\"https://studentaid.gov/loan-simulator/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">own website\u003c/a>, meant to help borrowers navigate their repayment options, does not reflect this confusing new landscape, except for a banner that says: “Loan Simulator will be updated at a later date to reflect recent legislative changes.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Beginning July 1, 2026, new loans will be subject to new borrowing limits\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Undergraduates won’t see any changes to their \u003ca href=\"https://studentaid.gov/understand-aid/types/loans/subsidized-unsubsidized\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">loan limits\u003c/a>. But it’s a very different story for graduate students and parents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For graduate students, new limits will make it harder for lower- and middle-income borrowers to attend pricier graduate programs. The current \u003ca href=\"https://studentaid.gov/understand-aid/types/loans/plus/grad\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">grad PLUS loan\u003c/a> allows students to borrow up to the cost of their graduate program, but Republicans are shutting it down this time next year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After that, grad students’ borrowing will be capped at $20,500 a year with a lifetime graduate school loan limit of $100,000, a big drop from the previous cap of $138,500.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>How big a deal will this be? AEI’s Cooper has been crunching the numbers and said, “Just under 20% of master’s students borrow above the proposed limits.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Borrowers working toward a professional graduate degree (i.e., medical or law school) will have their borrowing capped at $50,000 a year and their lifetime cap increased from $138,500 to $200,000.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Parents and caregivers who use parent PLUS loans to help students pay for college will also see new loan limits. They will be capped at $20,000 a year and, in aggregate, at $65,000 per child.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cooper says only one-third of parent PLUS borrowers with dependent children currently take out more than this new annual loan cap.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The law also sets a new lifetime limit, for undergrad and graduate loans combined, at $257,500 per person.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Repayment options for borrowers are changing dramatically\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Republicans are reducing repayment options for new borrowers from the current seven plans down to two new plans. The new plans are:\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>\u003cstrong>1. The standard plan\u003c/strong>\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>New borrowers will be assigned a repayment window of between 10 and 25 years, depending on the size of their debt, with equal monthly payments like a home mortgage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Under \u003ca href=\"https://edworkforce.house.gov/uploadedfiles/ans_el_recon_01_xml.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">this plan\u003c/a>, borrowers with larger debts would qualify for a longer repayment period:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>Owe less than $25,000, and repay over 10 years.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Owe $25,000 or more but less than $50,000? Repayment expands to 15 years.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Owe $50,000 or more but less than $100,000: Repay over 20 years.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Anyone owing $100,000 or more would repay over a 25-year period.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003ch3>\u003cstrong>2. The Repayment Assistance Plan (RAP) \u003c/strong>\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>For borrowers worried they don’t earn enough to cover the inflexible monthly payments of the new standard plan, Republicans have also created the Repayment Assistance Plan (RAP).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On RAP, payments would largely be based on borrowers’ total adjusted gross income (AGI).\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>Borrowers earning no more than $10,000 would be asked to pay $10 a month.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Earn more than $10,000 but not more than $20,000, and your payment will be based on 1% of AGI.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>More than $20,000 but not more than $30,000, it would be 2% of AGI and so on up the income scale.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Repayment tops out at 10% of AGI for borrowers earning $100,000 a year or more.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>Current borrowers will also have access to this new RAP plan, as well as to some older plans.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>RAP is the latest in a long line of income-based repayment plans. How does it compare with previous plans?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Monthly payments for many middle-income borrowers on RAP will be \u003cem>lower \u003c/em>\u003c/strong>compared with earlier plans, \u003ca href=\"https://www.urban.org/sites/default/files/2025-05/House_Republicans_Proposed_IDR_Plan_for_Student_Loans.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">according to\u003c/a> multiple \u003ca href=\"https://www.aei.org/research-products/report/an-analysis-of-the-one-big-beautiful-bill-acts-effect-on-student-loans/#scrollSection7\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">experts\u003c/a>. But RAP is not as generous as the Biden-era SAVE plan, which, again, is being phased out.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>RAP will require even the lowest-income borrowers to make a minimum monthly payment of $10, ending the $0 option of previous plans and making it more expensive for these borrowers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This new $10 minimum payment wouldn’t make a big difference to the government’s coffers, said Jason Delisle, who spoke to NPR \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2025/05/12/nx-s1-5389644/trump-student-loan-program-forgiveness-overhaul\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">in May\u003c/a>, when he was studying student loan policy at the Urban Institute. Delisle has since been appointed to a position in the Trump administration.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Delisle said the purpose of RAP’s new $10 minimum payment likely stems from “emerging research that requiring people to make some payment each month is good because it keeps them connected to the loan and makes it less likely that they’ll default\u003cem>.”\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But some borrower advocates worry that this new minimum payment could have the opposite effect.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For the lowest-income borrowers, asking for $120 a year is “significant,” EdTrust’s Garza told NPR in May. “I think having that be a required minimum payment will likely push more borrowers into default.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But RAP also comes with a few new perks that borrowers will likely appreciate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>RAP will waive any interest that is left after a borrower makes their monthly payment. \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If their monthly payment is $50 but they owe $75 a month in interest, the government will waive the remaining $25.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The result: Borrowers will no longer see their loans\u003cem> grow\u003c/em>, which was a common downside to previous income-driven repayment plans.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Borrowers on RAP will also see their balances go \u003cem>down \u003c/em>\u003c/strong>\u003ca href=\"https://www.aei.org/education/house-republicans-proposed-repayment-plan-fixes-vexing-student-loan-problem/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cstrong>every month\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003cstrong>.\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The government will pitch in up to $50 to make sure lower-income borrowers see their principal balances shrink.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For example, a borrower whose monthly payment makes only a $30 dent in their principal would see the government knocking off an extra $20 a month.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Borrowers whose monthly payments already reduce their principal balance by at least $50 would get no extra help from the government.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s a form of monthly loan forgiveness,” Delisle said. “It’s a drip, drip, drip of loan forgiveness, rather than waiting for the big payout at the end of 20 years.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>The loan forgiveness math will change.\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While previous plans offered forgiveness after 20 or 25 years, the RAP would extend that to 360 qualifying payments, or 30 years. That’s a big difference, said AEI’s Cooper.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Borrowers with typical levels of debt “and typical incomes for their degree level are almost always gonna pay off well before they hit that 30-year mark,” Cooper said. “So if you’re going into RAP, I wouldn’t be thinking about forgiveness because you’re probably gonna pay it off before you hit 30 years.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In short, the days of what Delisle called “the big payout” are over.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>But wait! Current borrowers have another loan forgiveness option (sort of).\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In addition to RAP, an older plan known as Income-Based Repayment (IBR) will still be available to borrowers who take out their loans before July 1, 2026.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Part of the reason IBR remains is that, unlike other income-driven repayment plans, IBR wasn’t created by the Education Department. It was created by Congress and is codified in statute.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>How does IBR work? For borrowers with loans older than July 2014, their payments are capped at 15% of discretionary income. Payments on younger loans are capped at 10%.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With the Biden-era SAVE plan being wound down, Delisle said, most lower- and middle-income borrowers would likely have lower monthly payments on the new RAP compared with IBR.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But, Delisle said, borrowers with older loans might still want to enroll in IBR if they’ve been in repayment for close to 20 or 25 years, so they can qualify for loan forgiveness.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s because, on IBR, pre-2014 loans qualify for forgiveness after 25 years. For newer loans, it’s just 20 years — both considerably shorter than RAP’s 30-year schedule.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One big caveat to all this: The Education Department has temporarily stopped processing all loan forgiveness for borrowers on IBR because of the legal actions surrounding the SAVE plan, according to a statement from Education Department Deputy Press Secretary Ellen Keast.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Keast said the Biden-era rule explaining SAVE “provided the authority to count forbearances in IBR toward loan forgiveness” and, because that rule has been frozen by the courts, the department can’t accurately determine loan forgiveness under IBR. “Discharges will resume as soon as the Department is able to establish the correct payment count,” Keast said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The department told NPR that any borrowers who make payments after they’re eligible for forgiveness will eventually get a refund.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Edited by \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/people/348780034/nicole-cohen\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cem>Nicole Cohen\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"title": "How Is Your Student Loan Repayment Affected By the One Big Beautiful Bill? | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>If you’re a federal student loan borrower or about to become one, your head may be spinning.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On July 4, when President Trump signed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2025/07/03/nx-s1-5454841/house-republicans-trump-tax-bill-medicaid\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">into law\u003c/a>, he also greenlit a history-making overhaul of the federal student loan system — one that will affect the lives of many, if not most, of the United States’ nearly 43 million student loan borrowers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And boy is it a lot to unpack, with new, tighter borrowing limits and dramatically reduced repayment options, to name just a few of the sweeping changes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In May, we \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2025/05/12/nx-s1-5389644/trump-student-loan-program-forgiveness-overhaul\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">explained\u003c/a> this overhaul, as conceived by House Republicans. Now that a Senate compromise has been signed into law, here’s an updated guided tour of the final changes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Let’s start with the elephant in the room:\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>President Biden’s SAVE plan is ending\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The most generous repayment plan is the Biden-era Saving on a Valuable Education (SAVE) plan. But it is so generous, with its low monthly payments and expedited loan forgiveness, that Republicans have so far successfully argued in court that it is \u003cem>too\u003c/em> generous. In fact, the nearly 7.7 million borrowers currently enrolled in SAVE have been in legal limbo for months, without interest accruing or required monthly payments.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s about to change.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“For all practical purposes, I would say SAVE is just kind of dead at this point, even if it’s technically on life support,” said Preston Cooper at the conservative-leaning American Enterprise Institute (AEI).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This month, the U.S. Education Department announced that on Aug. 1, SAVE borrowers will, once again, \u003ca href=\"https://www.ed.gov/about/news/press-release/us-department-of-education-continues-improve-federal-student-loan-repayment-options-addresses-illegal-biden-administration-actions#:~:text=Next%20Steps,well%20as%20their%20principal%20amounts.\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">see their balances grow\u003c/a> — with interest. Because the SAVE plan is still enjoined, though, borrowers won’t yet be required to make payments. Still, Cooper said that many borrowers, rather than watch their loans balloon, will likely want to move to a different plan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Roxanne Garza, director of higher education policy at the liberal-leaning EdTrust, worries that the relatively last-minute announcement about interest accrual will cause problems for the Education Department, which saw \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2025/03/12/nx-s1-5325854/trump-education-department-layoffs-civil-rights-student-loans\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">roughly half its staff cut\u003c/a> by the Trump administration.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think what will likely happen now is you will see a rush of people trying to take action that will, again, likely create an even bigger backlog,” said Garza.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, borrowers in SAVE will have to change plans by July 1, 2028, when SAVE will be officially shut down. If they wait, though they currently can’t be required to make payments, they will see their loans explode with interest.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the two new plans that the law creates won’t be ready for a year, and the department’s \u003ca href=\"https://studentaid.gov/loan-simulator/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">own website\u003c/a>, meant to help borrowers navigate their repayment options, does not reflect this confusing new landscape, except for a banner that says: “Loan Simulator will be updated at a later date to reflect recent legislative changes.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Beginning July 1, 2026, new loans will be subject to new borrowing limits\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Undergraduates won’t see any changes to their \u003ca href=\"https://studentaid.gov/understand-aid/types/loans/subsidized-unsubsidized\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">loan limits\u003c/a>. But it’s a very different story for graduate students and parents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For graduate students, new limits will make it harder for lower- and middle-income borrowers to attend pricier graduate programs. The current \u003ca href=\"https://studentaid.gov/understand-aid/types/loans/plus/grad\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">grad PLUS loan\u003c/a> allows students to borrow up to the cost of their graduate program, but Republicans are shutting it down this time next year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After that, grad students’ borrowing will be capped at $20,500 a year with a lifetime graduate school loan limit of $100,000, a big drop from the previous cap of $138,500.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>How big a deal will this be? AEI’s Cooper has been crunching the numbers and said, “Just under 20% of master’s students borrow above the proposed limits.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Borrowers working toward a professional graduate degree (i.e., medical or law school) will have their borrowing capped at $50,000 a year and their lifetime cap increased from $138,500 to $200,000.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Parents and caregivers who use parent PLUS loans to help students pay for college will also see new loan limits. They will be capped at $20,000 a year and, in aggregate, at $65,000 per child.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cooper says only one-third of parent PLUS borrowers with dependent children currently take out more than this new annual loan cap.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The law also sets a new lifetime limit, for undergrad and graduate loans combined, at $257,500 per person.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Repayment options for borrowers are changing dramatically\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Republicans are reducing repayment options for new borrowers from the current seven plans down to two new plans. The new plans are:\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>\u003cstrong>1. The standard plan\u003c/strong>\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>New borrowers will be assigned a repayment window of between 10 and 25 years, depending on the size of their debt, with equal monthly payments like a home mortgage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Under \u003ca href=\"https://edworkforce.house.gov/uploadedfiles/ans_el_recon_01_xml.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">this plan\u003c/a>, borrowers with larger debts would qualify for a longer repayment period:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>Owe less than $25,000, and repay over 10 years.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Owe $25,000 or more but less than $50,000? Repayment expands to 15 years.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Owe $50,000 or more but less than $100,000: Repay over 20 years.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Anyone owing $100,000 or more would repay over a 25-year period.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003ch3>\u003cstrong>2. The Repayment Assistance Plan (RAP) \u003c/strong>\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>For borrowers worried they don’t earn enough to cover the inflexible monthly payments of the new standard plan, Republicans have also created the Repayment Assistance Plan (RAP).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On RAP, payments would largely be based on borrowers’ total adjusted gross income (AGI).\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>Borrowers earning no more than $10,000 would be asked to pay $10 a month.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Earn more than $10,000 but not more than $20,000, and your payment will be based on 1% of AGI.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>More than $20,000 but not more than $30,000, it would be 2% of AGI and so on up the income scale.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Repayment tops out at 10% of AGI for borrowers earning $100,000 a year or more.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>Current borrowers will also have access to this new RAP plan, as well as to some older plans.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>RAP is the latest in a long line of income-based repayment plans. How does it compare with previous plans?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Monthly payments for many middle-income borrowers on RAP will be \u003cem>lower \u003c/em>\u003c/strong>compared with earlier plans, \u003ca href=\"https://www.urban.org/sites/default/files/2025-05/House_Republicans_Proposed_IDR_Plan_for_Student_Loans.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">according to\u003c/a> multiple \u003ca href=\"https://www.aei.org/research-products/report/an-analysis-of-the-one-big-beautiful-bill-acts-effect-on-student-loans/#scrollSection7\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">experts\u003c/a>. But RAP is not as generous as the Biden-era SAVE plan, which, again, is being phased out.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>RAP will require even the lowest-income borrowers to make a minimum monthly payment of $10, ending the $0 option of previous plans and making it more expensive for these borrowers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This new $10 minimum payment wouldn’t make a big difference to the government’s coffers, said Jason Delisle, who spoke to NPR \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2025/05/12/nx-s1-5389644/trump-student-loan-program-forgiveness-overhaul\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">in May\u003c/a>, when he was studying student loan policy at the Urban Institute. Delisle has since been appointed to a position in the Trump administration.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Delisle said the purpose of RAP’s new $10 minimum payment likely stems from “emerging research that requiring people to make some payment each month is good because it keeps them connected to the loan and makes it less likely that they’ll default\u003cem>.”\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But some borrower advocates worry that this new minimum payment could have the opposite effect.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For the lowest-income borrowers, asking for $120 a year is “significant,” EdTrust’s Garza told NPR in May. “I think having that be a required minimum payment will likely push more borrowers into default.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But RAP also comes with a few new perks that borrowers will likely appreciate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>RAP will waive any interest that is left after a borrower makes their monthly payment. \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If their monthly payment is $50 but they owe $75 a month in interest, the government will waive the remaining $25.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The result: Borrowers will no longer see their loans\u003cem> grow\u003c/em>, which was a common downside to previous income-driven repayment plans.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Borrowers on RAP will also see their balances go \u003cem>down \u003c/em>\u003c/strong>\u003ca href=\"https://www.aei.org/education/house-republicans-proposed-repayment-plan-fixes-vexing-student-loan-problem/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cstrong>every month\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003cstrong>.\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The government will pitch in up to $50 to make sure lower-income borrowers see their principal balances shrink.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For example, a borrower whose monthly payment makes only a $30 dent in their principal would see the government knocking off an extra $20 a month.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Borrowers whose monthly payments already reduce their principal balance by at least $50 would get no extra help from the government.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s a form of monthly loan forgiveness,” Delisle said. “It’s a drip, drip, drip of loan forgiveness, rather than waiting for the big payout at the end of 20 years.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>The loan forgiveness math will change.\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While previous plans offered forgiveness after 20 or 25 years, the RAP would extend that to 360 qualifying payments, or 30 years. That’s a big difference, said AEI’s Cooper.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Borrowers with typical levels of debt “and typical incomes for their degree level are almost always gonna pay off well before they hit that 30-year mark,” Cooper said. “So if you’re going into RAP, I wouldn’t be thinking about forgiveness because you’re probably gonna pay it off before you hit 30 years.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In short, the days of what Delisle called “the big payout” are over.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>But wait! Current borrowers have another loan forgiveness option (sort of).\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In addition to RAP, an older plan known as Income-Based Repayment (IBR) will still be available to borrowers who take out their loans before July 1, 2026.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Part of the reason IBR remains is that, unlike other income-driven repayment plans, IBR wasn’t created by the Education Department. It was created by Congress and is codified in statute.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>How does IBR work? For borrowers with loans older than July 2014, their payments are capped at 15% of discretionary income. Payments on younger loans are capped at 10%.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With the Biden-era SAVE plan being wound down, Delisle said, most lower- and middle-income borrowers would likely have lower monthly payments on the new RAP compared with IBR.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But, Delisle said, borrowers with older loans might still want to enroll in IBR if they’ve been in repayment for close to 20 or 25 years, so they can qualify for loan forgiveness.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s because, on IBR, pre-2014 loans qualify for forgiveness after 25 years. For newer loans, it’s just 20 years — both considerably shorter than RAP’s 30-year schedule.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One big caveat to all this: The Education Department has temporarily stopped processing all loan forgiveness for borrowers on IBR because of the legal actions surrounding the SAVE plan, according to a statement from Education Department Deputy Press Secretary Ellen Keast.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Keast said the Biden-era rule explaining SAVE “provided the authority to count forbearances in IBR toward loan forgiveness” and, because that rule has been frozen by the courts, the department can’t accurately determine loan forgiveness under IBR. “Discharges will resume as soon as the Department is able to establish the correct payment count,” Keast said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The department told NPR that any borrowers who make payments after they’re eligible for forgiveness will eventually get a refund.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"tagline": "Where conversation and cultura meet",
"info": "What kind of no sabo word is Hyphenación? For us, it’s about living within a hyphenation. Like being a third-gen Mexican-American from the Texas border now living that Bay Area Chicano life. Like Xorje! Each week we bring together a couple of hyphenated Latinos to talk all about personal life choices: family, careers, relationships, belonging … everything is on the table. ",
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"info": "The Political Mind of Jerry Brown brings listeners the wisdom of the former Governor, Mayor, and presidential candidate. Scott Shafer interviewed Brown for more than 40 hours, covering the former governor's life and half-century in the political game – and Brown has some lessons he'd like to share. ",
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"marketplace": {
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"title": "Marketplace",
"info": "Our flagship program, helmed by Kai Ryssdal, examines what the day in money delivered, through stories, conversations, newsworthy numbers and more. Updated Monday through Friday at about 3:30 p.m. PT.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 4pm-4:30pm, MON-WED 6:30pm-7pm",
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"info": "The MindShift podcast explores the innovations in education that are shaping how kids learn. Hosts Ki Sung and Katrina Schwartz introduce listeners to educators, researchers, parents and students who are developing effective ways to improve how kids learn. We cover topics like how fed-up administrators are developing surprising tactics to deal with classroom disruptions; how listening to podcasts are helping kids develop reading skills; the consequences of overparenting; and why interdisciplinary learning can engage students on all ends of the traditional achievement spectrum. This podcast is part of the MindShift education site, a division of KQED News. KQED is an NPR/PBS member station based in San Francisco. You can also visit the MindShift website for episodes and supplemental blog posts or tweet us \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/MindShiftKQED\">@MindShiftKQED\u003c/a> or visit us at \u003ca href=\"/mindshift\">MindShift.KQED.org\u003c/a>",
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"order": 12
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"info": "For decades, the process for how police police themselves has been inconsistent – if not opaque. In some states, like California, these proceedings were completely hidden. After a new police transparency law unsealed scores of internal affairs files, our reporters set out to examine these cases and the shadow world of police discipline. On Our Watch brings listeners into the rooms where officers are questioned and witnesses are interrogated to find out who this system is really protecting. Is it the officers, or the public they've sworn to serve?",
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"info": "Our weekly podcast explores how the media 'sausage' is made, casts an incisive eye on fluctuations in the marketplace of ideas, and examines threats to the freedom of information and expression in America and abroad. For one hour a week, the show tries to lift the veil from the process of \"making media,\" especially news media, because it's through that lens that we see the world and the world sees us",
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"planet-money": {
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"politicalbreakdown": {
"id": "politicalbreakdown",
"title": "Political Breakdown",
"tagline": "Politics from a personal perspective",
"info": "Political Breakdown is a new series that explores the political intersection of California and the nation. Each week hosts Scott Shafer and Marisa Lagos are joined with a new special guest to unpack politics -- with personality — and offer an insider’s glimpse at how politics happens.",
"airtime": "THU 6:30pm-7pm",
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"possible": {
"id": "possible",
"title": "Possible",
"info": "Possible is hosted by entrepreneur Reid Hoffman and writer Aria Finger. Together in Possible, Hoffman and Finger lead enlightening discussions about building a brighter collective future. The show features interviews with visionary guests like Trevor Noah, Sam Altman and Janette Sadik-Khan. Possible paints an optimistic portrait of the world we can create through science, policy, business, art and our shared humanity. It asks: What if everything goes right for once? How can we get there? Each episode also includes a short fiction story generated by advanced AI GPT-4, serving as a thought-provoking springboard to speculate how humanity could leverage technology for good.",
"airtime": "SUN 2pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Possible-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
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},
"pri-the-world": {
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"title": "PRI's The World: Latest Edition",
"info": "Each weekday, host Marco Werman and his team of producers bring you the world's most interesting stories in an hour of radio that reminds us just how small our planet really is.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 2pm-3pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/The-World-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
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},
"radiolab": {
"id": "radiolab",
"title": "Radiolab",
"info": "A two-time Peabody Award-winner, Radiolab is an investigation told through sounds and stories, and centered around one big idea. In the Radiolab world, information sounds like music and science and culture collide. Hosted by Jad Abumrad and Robert Krulwich, the show is designed for listeners who demand skepticism, but appreciate wonder. WNYC Studios is the producer of other leading podcasts including Freakonomics Radio, Death, Sex & Money, On the Media and many more.",
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},
"reveal": {
"id": "reveal",
"title": "Reveal",
"info": "Created by The Center for Investigative Reporting and PRX, Reveal is public radios first one-hour weekly radio show and podcast dedicated to investigative reporting. Credible, fact based and without a partisan agenda, Reveal combines the power and artistry of driveway moment storytelling with data-rich reporting on critically important issues. The result is stories that inform and inspire, arming our listeners with information to right injustices, hold the powerful accountable and improve lives.Reveal is hosted by Al Letson and showcases the award-winning work of CIR and newsrooms large and small across the nation. In a radio and podcast market crowded with choices, Reveal focuses on important and often surprising stories that illuminate the world for our listeners.",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.revealnews.org/episodes/",
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"rss": "http://feeds.revealradio.org/revealpodcast"
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},
"rightnowish": {
"id": "rightnowish",
"title": "Rightnowish",
"tagline": "Art is where you find it",
"info": "Rightnowish digs into life in the Bay Area right now… ish. Journalist Pendarvis Harshaw takes us to galleries painted on the sides of liquor stores in West Oakland. We'll dance in warehouses in the Bayview, make smoothies with kids in South Berkeley, and listen to classical music in a 1984 Cutlass Supreme in Richmond. Every week, Pen talks to movers and shakers about how the Bay Area shapes what they create, and how they shape the place we call home.",
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"order": 16
},
"link": "/podcasts/rightnowish",
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},
"science-friday": {
"id": "science-friday",
"title": "Science Friday",
"info": "Science Friday is a weekly science talk show, broadcast live over public radio stations nationwide. Each week, the show focuses on science topics that are in the news and tries to bring an educated, balanced discussion to bear on the scientific issues at hand. Panels of expert guests join host Ira Flatow, a veteran science journalist, to discuss science and to take questions from listeners during the call-in portion of the program.",
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},
"snap-judgment": {
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