Free Republic

Millions of federal student loan borrowers are just weeks away from default as serious delinquencies surge to record highs after the Trump administration resumed debt collections, economists say. Nearly one-third (31%) of federal borrowers with a payment due were at least 90 days late in April, according to a new report from TransUnion released on Tuesday, June 24. That's nearly triple the pre-pandemic rate of 11.7% and the highest figure on record. Just 0.3% of borrowers were in default by April, but with nearly 5.8 million now more than 90 days late, many are on the brink of defaulting. Once...

Over 2.1 million Americans have dropped out of college without earning a degree, a troubling trend that raises concerns about whether universities are prioritizing politics over academic achievement. Universities hire more DEI staff than history professors while millions of students leave without degrees ... Over 2.1 million Americans have dropped out of college without earning a degree, a troubling trend that raises concerns about whether universities are prioritizing politics over academic achievement. A June 4 report from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center found that college non-completers rose by 2.2 percent in the past year. Citing a lack of direction,...

A lawsuit filed in federal court in Tennessee on Wednesday seeks to end a program designed to funnel tens of millions of dollars to colleges and universities with a large percentage of Hispanic students, charging it is racist and unconstitutional. The suit was filed by the state of Tennessee and advocacy group Students for Fair Admissions against the U.S. Department of Education. In 2023, the advocates’ suit against Harvard University led to the Supreme Court ruling it unconstitutional to consider race in university admissions. A federal funding program designates schools as “Hispanic-Serving Institutions” if they have at least 25% Hispanic-student...

After enjoying many decades of high public support, higher education in the U.S. is in serious decline. Polls show that a sizeable percentage of the populace now doubts that college is worth the cost and that it contributes to the public good. Enrollments keep falling, and the luster that a college degree used to confer on graduates has become tarnished, especially since recent events indicate that, instead of helping them mature, college turns them into ideologically obsessed activists. What has gone wrong? In his latest book, Let Colleges Fail, economics professor Richard Vedder employs his insights to answer that question....

It takes me about eight minutes to walk across the campus of the New College of Florida, where I just concluded a year as a visiting professor. There are rare sightings of students, a grand total of 800, who dart in and out from under the palm trees like white ibises. The clock bell on the astroturf in front of the library can be heard from the waterfront all the way to the student dorms. The all-faculty email list for the 100 or so scholars emits messages such as: “Is anyone having trouble with the Internet?” Despite its minuscule size,...

Your college major can play a significant role in the type of job you'll find after graduation and the amount of income you can expect in a salary.But surprisingly, some of the most popular majors have high unemployment rates, according to data from the New York Fed. Majors such as computer science and physics had some of the highest unemployment rates, at 6.1 and 7.8 percent, respectively, despite being considered relatively stable STEM fields."A graduate's degree doesn't guarantee job security, and in some cases, it can make you overqualified and underemployed, especially when debt is involved," Kevin Thompson, the CEO...

A bill that would compel Illinois public universities to provide, prescribe, and even promote abortion drugs is now one signature away from becoming law. House Bill 3709 passed the state senate May 31 and is now awaiting action from Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker. If signed, the bill would require schools to refer students to abortion providers and, where pharmacies are available on campus, directly distribute abortion drugs like mifepristone, according to a May 20 press release from Illinois Right to Life. The bill would also mandate that universities include information about chemical abortion on their websites, elevating the practice to...

United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested several illegal aliens who were allegedly employed by a construction subcontractor performing work on the University of Texas San Antonio (UTSA) main campus. The arrests took place during a warrant-based worksite raid carried out by ICE on Friday afternoon. ICE issued a brief statement regarding the worksite enforcement action, saying, “On May 30, ICE San Antonio conducted an enforcement action on the northwest side of San Antonio. This operation resulted in the arrest of several individuals who were in the United States unlawfully. No further details are available at this time.” ICE...

Over a mere two days recently (May 14-15), the major daily news outlets serving higher education, Inside Higher Ed and the Chronicle of Higher Education, reported the following: Data collected by the State Higher Education Executive Officers Association (SHEEO) reveals that state-government support of universities rose by a minuscule inflation-adjusted 0.8 percent in the last year, an actual decline after adjusting for enrollment or income growth; Penn State University has announced plans to close seven campuses; The U.S. House of Representatives appears poised to make sharp reductions in federally guaranteed student-loan support, for example capping support for graduate and professional...

Every year, postsecondary institutions of all kinds distribute hundreds of billions of dollars in student financial aid across the United States—not to mention the tens of billions in aid allocated by state governments and institutions of higher learning themselves. Such aid ranges from loans with well-below-market interest rates to flat-out grants (such as Pell Grants), the lion’s share of which are propped up by taxpayer dollars. Since the end of the Second World War, America has invested heavily in higher education, for good reason. But a recent spike in financial-aid fraud is syphoning taxpayer dollars away from their intended purpose:...

Here's an economics lesson that belongs in the textbooks. Student loan debt soared to more than $1.5 trillion during the Biden presidency, and the response by Washington was to "forgive" hundreds of billions of these unpaid loans by deadbeat borrowers and let the taxpayers pick up the tab. It was never clear why the universities that charge exorbitant tuitions that have reached more than $75,000 a year at many elite schools shouldn't bear the cost of the program -- but that's another story. Those of us who watched these events unfold predicted that one result of this policy would be...

College is often touted as a time for young people to explore their passions and interests. But passion isn’t going to pay the bills. Graduates who majored in education, social work, or the arts end up earning the lowest median income within five years, according to recent data from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. … To summarize, the worst paying degrees for early-career earnings are: Foreign language ($40,000) General social sciences ($41,000) Performing arts ($41,900) Anthropology ($42,000) Early childhood education ($42,000) Family and consumer sciences ($42,000) General education ($42,000) Miscellaneous biological science ($42,000) Social services ($42,000) Theology and...

In 2023, the Supreme Court rendered a 6-3 decision that effectively outlawed affirmative-action policies in college admissions, finding in favor of groups representing qualified students whose applications were rejected at Harvard and the University of North Carolina. But, as he often does, Chief Justice John Roberts left a loophole. It allows colleges to continue their discriminatory admissions policies if they desire, and Roberts made sure to point at it in the decision. He stressed that universities can still take into account “an applicant’s discussion of how race affected his or her life, be it through discrimination, inspiration, or otherwise.” It...

3 in 4 parents of college-age students also oppose men in women’s spaces A majority of parents with college-age students want universities to stop prioritizing race in hiring and scholarship decisions ... The results showed a majority of parents “are at odds with our country’s higher education institutions on several contentious issues that are consistently in today’s political dialogue,” according to a news release. Defending Education works to rid education of ideological agendas. In the poll, which involved parents of 15- to 21-year-old students, 54 percent said universities should not prioritize a student’s race when awarding scholarships, and 57 percent...

At one time, most Americans (and virtually all academics) would have agreed with the famous saying, often attributed to Voltaire, “While I disagree with what you say, I will defend to the death your right to say it.” Over the last several decades, that has dramatically changed. Many academics now seem to embrace the opposite view—something like, “Since I disagree with what you say, I will do everything possible to silence you.” Is that an exaggeration? You won’t think so after reading Nicholas Wolfinger’s new book, Professors Speak Out: The Truth About Campus Investigations. Wolfinger, a sociology professor at the...

The Trump administration is, for the first time since the emergence of the full-blown DEI regime in higher education, looking closely at what that movement has produced and where it runs counter to educational and political norms. The administration is using its authority to pressure colleges and universities to move away from practices that are not in conformity with those norms. This has led to bitter complaint from the advocates of DEI ideology. In a recent Inside Higher Ed article, writer Sara Weissman ponders the “DEI Hills Higher Education Is Willing to Die On.” Naturally, DEI advocates want people to...

Jason Collier, a special education teacher in Virginia, often needs to wait until payday to fill up the gas tank of his car — and in the meantime hopes he doesn’t run out. “Money is tight when you’re a teacher,” Collier, 46, said. Now he’s afraid that the U.S. Department of Education will soon garnish up to 15% of his wages because he’s behind on his student debt payments. Collier said he hasn’t been able to meet his monthly bill for years, while juggling the expenses of raising two children and medical expenses from a cancer diagnosis. If his paycheck...

Last spring, I coauthored an AEI report examining the taxpayer-subsidized Truman Scholarship program, founded in 1975 to identify “aspiring leaders” during their college years and encourage “their commitments to careers in public service.” We found an overwhelming left-wing bias. Among the fellows selected between 2021 and 2023, just six of 182 winners expressed interest in even a single conservative issue. Meanwhile, 72 had explicit interest in “woke” areas like “LGBT+” advocacy, DEI, or immigration rights, while dozens more had biographies readily recognizable as left-leaning. The Truman Foundation recently named its 2025 winners, and nothing has changed. The College Fix reported,...

Over the last several years, we have seen many colleges and universities make aggrieved statements in response to current events, from the election of President Trump to the death of George Floyd. The social implication is that if a school doesn’t speak out on an event, it is agreeing by omission. Many argue, however, that when colleges get involved in political issues, it only makes the political divide on campus grow larger. In fact, a recent survey from Inside Higher Ed and Generation Lab found that the majority of students don’t want colleges to make statements about political events at...

The Trump administration’s flurry of action on education reform creates space for states to chart their own paths. Efforts to abolish the Department of Education aim to “return education to the states.” Yet most conservative states have mostly been timid in embracing and building a better future for higher education. This is partly a fault of imagination, partly a lack of will. Florida led the way in both imagination and will. Many acts of the DeSantis administration presaged those of the Trump administration. Florida banned DEI offices, while the Trump administration is using national civil-rights laws to root them out....