The Heritage Foundation's 2025 Mandate for Leadership details what the Trump Administration has in store for US higher education. The Education section starts on page 319. While one major goal is to eliminate the US Department of Education, there are many other privatization schemes in the works--shifting powers to the corporate world and providing minimal federal oversight.  This includes reduced oversight of K-12 education, colleges, and student loans--particularly as it applies to race and class. It is possible that many of these strategies may be employed without Congressional approva ..read more

 [Editor's note: This article originally appeared on Republic Report.]  I’m scheduled to offer a brief public comment at today’s session of the Department of Education’s negotiating rulemaking meetings, where representatives of various higher education constituencies have come together to debate new proposed regulations governing issues including distance education, state government authorization of schools, and standards for the private accrediting bodies that oversee schools.  My comment will address accreditation, and this is what I plan to say: Many students say a schoo ..read more

Dear Secretary Cardona, Department of Education Staff, and Regulating officials, My name is Michael DiGiacomo. I am a former student and victim of 2 closed for-profit scam colleges and the student loan industry. I have been fighting this industry since 2003-2006, when I realized I had been played badly by these deceptive debt factories. These "colleges," and others like them, were easily able to trick not just me, but many thousands of poor, first-time people into attending. The false promises of dream job placement stats and leads, fueled by the student loan industry's "College Students make ..read more

The US Department of Education (ED) handles the student loans of about 40 million US citizens, holding to about $1.6 Trillion in debt--which is considered an asset to the US government.  And ED-FSA (Federal Student Aid) hires tens of thousands of workers, mostly contractors, to service the debt.  But that could change in a few years.  Under President Trump, debtors should expect that their loans may be transferred over to large corporations--at some point--with the sale being used to reduce the federal deficit, The new owners may include big banks and other large companies, both ..read more

Capital One and Discover have publicly announced plans to merge.  For working people who know anything about finance and debt, and have debt themselves, this should be frightening.  Both companies are banks and high-interest credit card lenders. Which means they lend money to desperate consumers.  That includes college students looking to graduate or extend their education.    While there may be regulatory challenges, it's not likely that the merger, or any other financial consolidation, will be prevented--no matter how onerous it is to consumers.   ..read more

The Higher Education Inquirer has been tracking Ambow Education (AMBO) for about two years. Tomorrow, February 20, 2024, Ambow completes a 1-10 reverse stock split to pump up its stock price just enough to avoid delisting from the New York Stock Exchange.   What we saw on Friday was alarming: volume was 250 times normal: 70 million shares versus a daily average of about a quarter million. And the price doubled, from 12 cents a share to 24 cents. What we were seeing was more than abnormal.  Was it stock manipulation?   We asked Ambow for a comment but they had no answer ..read more

[Editor's note: This article was first published at BryanAlexander.org] Over the past year at least a dozen American states have taken a very interesting step. They have removed a college degree requirement for applicants to some or most state jobs. It’s a way of helping people “break the paper ceiling,” of advancing without needing to have postsecondary education credentials. Examples include Alaska, California, Maryland, Minnesota, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania (and Philadelphia), South Dakota, Utah, Virginia. Now Massachusetts has joined them. (alternative link) Governor M ..read more

In 2014, the father-son team of Joel Best and Eric Best published The Student Loan Mess: How Good Intentions Created a Trillion Dollar Problem.  Their argument was that rising student loan debt posed a major social and economic problem in the United States, exceeding $1 trillion at the time of publication (predicted to reach $2 trillion by 2020). This "mess" resulted from a series of well-intentioned but flawed policies that focused on different aspects of the issue in isolation, ultimately creating unintended consequences. Key Points of the 2014 book:  History of Federal Involveme ..read more

American Intercontinental University: 89 full-time instructors for 14,333 students. American Public University System has 332 F/T instructors for 48,688 students. Aspen University has 27 F/T instructors for 7,386 students. Capella University: 180 F/T for 39,727 students. Colorado State University Global: 40 F/T instructors for 9,565 students. Colorado Technical University: 55 F/T instructors for 24,808 students. Devry University online: 61 F/T instructors for 26,384 students. Grand Canyon University has 550 F/T instructors for 101,816 students.* Liberty University: 735 F/T for 96,709 students ..read more

A source at the US Department of Education has told the Higher Education Inquirer that the Pre-Acquistion Review for the Idaho-University of Phoenix deal has been completed and that ED has approved of the sale. This article may be updated as we receive more information.   While financing for the project has not been transparent, the University of Idaho may eventually be liable for future losses, but Idaho officials, including University of Idaho President C. Scott Green, are undeterred by these potential problems.   A court case to determine whether the University of Idaho ..read more