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Despite the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling against President Biden’s student debt relief program, his administration is still putting forth other efforts to support borrowers.
President Joe Biden and Education Secretary Dr. Miguel Cardona
These efforts come in the form of a rulemaking process for an alternative path to debt relief; a new repayment plan; and a 12-month repayment “on-ramp” – Oct. 1, 2023 to Sep. 30, 2024 – so that borrowers who miss monthly payments during this period are not considered delinquent.
There will be a virtual public hearing Jul. 18 about the rulemaking effort, where individuals can submit written comments.
The repayment plan, Saving on a Valuable Education (SAVE), will half the amount undergraduate loan borrowers have to pay a month from 10% to 5% of discretionary income; make it so that borrowers earning under 225% of the federal poverty level won’t have to make monthly payments under this plan; forgive loan balances after 10 years of payments for those with original loan balances of $12,000 or less; and not charge borrowers with unpaid monthly interest.
The plan will be open to borrowers this summer before monthly payments are due.
When Congress voted in December 2020 to restore Pell Grants for incarcerated Americans after a 26-year ban, advocates hailed the move as an opportunity for 760,000 people in prison to achieve a better life through education. But now, as the July start date approaches, experts are warning that prison-imposed restrictions can prevent this expansion of Pell from reaching its full potential.
Dr. Deborah Appleman, the Hollis L. Caswell professor and chair of educational studies at Carleton College
“In the prisons where I work, they’re limited to no more than 10 books total,” she said. “They’re always having to make these heartbreaking choices about which books they’re going to get [and which] they’re going to give away.”
Faculty are also restricted in the number of materials that they can bring into prisons, as well as what type. Appleman, who often uses video in her teaching, was prevented from bringing discs into a prison because officials said that they could be used to smuggle in drugs.
Incarcerated students often don’t have much chance to use essential educational tools that people on the outside take for granted.
“Computer access is really atrocious,” said Appleman.
Demetrius James, program manager at the Bard Prison Initiative and a former incarcerated student
Once, when a fellow inmate wrote a personal letter on a computer that was supposed to be used only for schoolwork, all students were prevented from using computers for several months.
“People had to handwrite their papers,” said James.
James was ultimately able to get $300 from family members to buy a typewriter in order to do his work. He also encountered challenges with his senior project, a 60–80-page paper on the history of the urban novel. James found that his attempts to get the novels were often restricted because they contained violent or sexual content. One administrator, he said, would not allow material unless it was appropriate for a 12-year-old.
“It was hard for you to concentrate and dig deep in the research that you were most passionate about,” he said.
Additionally, according to James, prison rules forced inmates to choose whether to participate in higher education or to have a job. This made it very hard for inmates without much financial support to choose to go to school.
“I really can’t even speak on the logic behind it,” said James.
Sometimes educational programs can feel like a low priority, derailed by clerical errors and staffing issues. Appleman spoke of a time when an instructor who had been teaching a class for 14 weeks was turned away because of a paperwork mistake, and another time when classes were cancelled because a correctional staff member wasn’t available to check teachers in.
According to Appleman, many of the restrictions that interfere with prison education programs come from a view of the incarcerated as perpetually on the verge of violence.
“If you believe that they’re there to try to become better human beings, to try to get a second shot at life, then some of these restrictions may seem ridiculous,” she said. “I don’t want to be a naïve bleeding heart. I get that there are people who did bad things. But that doesn’t mean that every day should bring new limits and new punishments.”
She believes that, for the expansion of Pell to be as effective as possible, the restrictions should be re-thought.
“We need to use the reasonable person standard,” she said. “Educational materials in and of themselves are not necessarily dangerous. There’s no reason why newspaper articles about a drug bust should be kept from somebody who was writing a paper about it.”
Appleman and James were both optimistic about the prospect for some improvement in the future, in part because of the expansion of the Pell Grant itself.
“I feel like there is a sea change connected to the temperature of the country,” said Appleman. “I think that there is a national wave of humanity and mercy and [a] rethinking [of] the incarcerated and the fact that they are human beings.”
James thinks that the expansion of prison education programs that the Pell Grant is likely to create will help make rules more reasonable.
“It becomes a normal thing, just like a law library,” he said. “I think the more normal it is to have college in prison programs, the less restrictions that they may have on it.”
But, according to Appleman, prison and education may always remain in tension.
“There’s a way in which the mission of education and the mission of the carceral state are always at odds with each other. In fact, they almost contradict each other,” she said. “The project of incarceration is subjugation, and the project of education is to rewrite a narrative so that folks can feel like the intelligent and capable people that they can be. The culture of surveillance and security works against that.”
Jon Edelman can be reached at [email protected].
For most of its 50-year history, the Pell Grant has not covered summer classes, with two brief exceptions: 2009-2011 and 2017 to the present. Summer Pell, officially called year-round Pell, stands on uncertain ground, subject to the shifting priorities of Congress, which ended it originally due to its cost and a lack of evidence of its efficacy. Now, a new study from the Community College Research Center at Columbia University has shown that summer Pell has had meaningful benefits, improving retention, attainment, and even earnings up to nine years after college entry for students who received it.
Vivian Yuen Ting Liu, associate director of the office of research, evaluation, and program support at the City University of New York
Students with summer Pell in the 2009-2011 period were 29% more likely to enroll in classes the following fall, 13% more likely to have earned an associate degree within three years, and 7% more likely to have earned a bachelor’s degree within six, compared with students who did not have access to the grants.
“What we are finding here is pretty large,” said Liu, equivalent to hundreds of additional students staying in school and earning degrees. Increases for students with summer Pell between 2017 and now were even higher, which Liu attributed to the absence of the Great Recession, less confusion about the program, and the fact that the program has lasted longer.
The benefits of summer Pell didn’t stop at the acquisition of a credential—summer funding also affected the earnings of students who were able to take advantage. Students with summer Pell consistently made 6% more per year than students without, equivalent to over $1300 extra, nine years after entering college.
Liu was surprised about how long the influence of summer Pell seems to have lasted.
“A lot of policies, you expect to have an effect within that semester and then maybe in one year, but very rarely do you find consistent positive impact down the road,” she said.
Liu believes that the long-term benefits come because summer Pell incentivizes students to study full-time in order to qualify. (Part-time students can use leftover traditional Pell Grant money to take summer classes, so they don’t qualify for summer Pell.) She compared it to an e-commerce website offering free shipping to those who spend a certain amount of money. Students who enroll full-time are more likely to graduate and can join the workforce more quickly.
The findings are consistent with research showing that continuous enrollment improves persistence and completion. Students studying in the summer may be more likely to remain engaged with their education and can progress to a degree more quickly. They may also avoid summer learning loss. Additionally, summer students tend to take fewer courses but on a more rigorous schedule, which may help both learning and morale.
Summer Pell seems to offer particular help to disadvantaged groups. Liu found that the benefits were largely driven by African American students, who experience particularly strong barriers to completion. Availability of summer Pell increased Black summer enrollment by over three percentage points and led to a 1.3-point increase in their likelihood of finishing a bachelor’s degree within six years. African American students also had increased earnings in their sixth and ninth years from college entry.
Dr. Stephen Katsinas, director of the Education Policy Center at the University of Alabama
“If more students are from single-parent families and parents with lower intergenerational wealth transfer, which African Americans sadly have, that means that parents might be less likely to have that last $300 to lend [their child] so he doesn’t have to drop out. Summer Pell is providing a lot of that,” he said.
Another group that benefited especially was non-traditional students older than 25. These learners had higher rates of summer enrollment, a greater likelihood of earning an associate degree within three years, and larger earnings gains. They did not experience gains in bachelor’s degree attainment within six years, however, which might reflect a preference for shorter degrees.
Katsinas noted that these older students are more likely to have small children, and that summer Pell may have helped them defray the associated costs.
“Summer Pell is providing a consistent revenue stream that they can leverage for housing, food, and even childcare,” he said.
Katsinas is concerned, however, that Congress might deprioritize summer Pell in order to spend money on Pell Grants for short-term programs.
“In light of these findings, it would be tragic if Congress chose to fund short-term Pell by defunding summer Pell,” he said. “This is an important study, rigorously conducted, on a vitally important topic. It showed that summer Pell moves students through the system faster, which is what we want.”
Jon Edelman can be reached at [email protected].
A group of lawmakers have signaled their support for the Biden administration’s federal student debt relief plan in a letter sent to the president. Sen. Alex Padilla
The letter – signed by 126 members of Congress – was led by Sens. Alex Padilla, (D-Calif.), Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), and Reps. Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.), Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.), Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), and Frederica Wilson (D-Fla.)
“We write to express our strong support for your efforts to provide student loan relief to more than 40 million low-to-middle-income borrowers as they recover from the economic crisis brought on by the pandemic,” wrote the lawmakers. “Today in America, tens of millions of Americans are drowning in more than $1.6 trillion in student debt, leaving them less likely to become homeowners or save for retirement.”
This debt cancellation would help advance racial equity, the lawmakers added.
“Cancelling student loan debt will help make progress towards addressing this racial wealth gap,” the letter read. “Further, under the Administration’s plan, about a quarter of Black borrowers and half of all Latino borrowers would see their debts cleared entirely. As our Nation recovers from the pandemic, your cancellation plan will provide critical relief to millions of families and help avert a sharp rise in delinquencies and defaults.”
26 million Americans have already applied for relief through the plan.
A new Maine legislature bill may make higher education significantly less expensive for Maine high school graduates who choose to go to the University of Maine (UMaine), WMTW reported.Sen. Mike Tipping
The bill – sponsored by Maine Sen. Mike Tipping – would waive half of UMaine tuition up to four years for full-time students who graduate from a state high school in 2023, 2024, or 2025.
UMaine’s in-state tuition this year is $11,640.
"Enrollment has been down, and student debt has been up," Tipping said.
And this waiver would also apply to students seeking to complete their degree if they've lived in Maine for at least five years and have only a year of less of courses left.
"If we want to have a state where students can go here and stay here, and if we want teachers and nurses and engineers, we need to invest in our future," Tipping said.
A new bill has been introduced in the Texas legislature that would revamp how the state gives its community colleges money, KXAN reported.Rep. Gary VanDeaver
House Bill 8 – filed Wednesday by Texas Rep. Gary VanDeaver, would alter the funding formula for money that the state gives its 50 community college districts, effective Sept. 1. This move comes after a recommendation for state funding based on “measurable outcomes” from a 2022 commission the Texas legislature created.
The legislation would allocate funding to schools based on “measurable outcomes,” such as number of credentials of value awarded; number of students who earn at least 15 credit hours and transfer to a university; and number of students who finish 15 credit hours or dual credit courses that are used toward academic/workforce program requirements.
Credentials of value include degrees, certificates, and other credentials from credit that prepares students for learning and greater earnings in the state economy, according to the bill. And additional weight is given for credentials in high-demand fields.
Currently, the state funds schools based on college performance in relation to one another, enrollment, course types, “success points” metrics, and a uniform amount of “core” funding.
The bill could also create a scholarship program for economically disadvantaged students in dual-credit courses.
The U.S. Department of Education (ED) is now discharging student loans of borrowers alleging they were defrauded by their colleges after a federal judge recently ruled that a $6 billion settlement could proceed, The Washington Post reported.
The settlement stems from a 2018 class-action suit from people accusing ED of ignoring applications for loan forgiveness through a federal borrower defense program. First approved in November, the verdict was appealed by Everglades College, American National University, and Lincoln Educational Services, parent company of Lincoln Technical Institutes.
The judge of the case, U.S. District Judge William Alsup, denied a motion to halt the full settlement on Feb. 24 but agreed to pause loan cancellation for a week for applicants from the three schools to give the colleges a chance to seek a stay from the appellate court.
“Resolution of a lawsuit concerning monumental delay should not be delayed any longer by three intervenor schools who were not parties to the settlement agreement and who were not in the long, hard-fought litigation that preceded it,” Alsup wrote in his ruling.
A spokesman for Everglades College said the school has requested such a stay. The three aforementioned schools are among 151 institutions — many are for-profit — that ED said had engaged in “substantial misconduct … whether credibly alleged or in some instances proven.”
“Accountability and transparency require regulatory consistency, adherence to due process, and strict observance of the law that protects not only students and taxpayers, but also the institutions that serve them,” a Thursday statement from Everglades College read. “We believe that any student with a valid [borrower defense] claim has the right to have it fairly evaluated. However, the settlement ignores the law and grants relief regardless of the evidence or the merits of a particular claim.”
Objections include that the deal did not assess the validity of the borrowers’ claims and that ED was violating federal procedure. But Alsup argued that the schools lost no procedural rights and failed to show how the settlement poses them actual harm.
“The relief provided by this settlement … will allow plaintiffs to breathe easier, sleep easier, repair their credit scores, take new jobs, enroll in new educational programs, finish their degrees, get married, start families, provide for their children, finance houses and vehicles, and save for retirement,” Alsup wrote. “It will allow them not only to move on, but to move up, elevating others in the process.”
The agreement provides about 200,000 people relief, including refunds of money paid to the federal agency and credit repair. And approximately 64,000 more borrowers, who attended schools not on ED’s list, are entitled to receive application decisions on a rolling basis.
When the FAFSA Simplification Act begins to take effect this July, it’s expected to significantly affect the process of applying for financial aid, making the paperwork less complex and altering the formula for eligibility. However, there has been scant information on the specific impacts at a national level. Now, the State Higher Education Executive Officers Association (SHEEO) has begun to fill that void with the release of new data estimating changes in how student and family assets will be calculated and how much students will get.
SHEEO based its analysis on national and state data from the 2017-18 National Postsecondary Student Aid Study, Administrative Collection. What they found was good news for potential aid recipients: estimates of the financial resources of students and families will go down for many. This is a result of changes in the formula for calculating what used to be called Estimated Family Contribution (EFC) but will be called Student Aid Index (SAI) when it is phased in during the 2024-25 academic year. Over 45% of students from the data sample would experience a decrease from EFC to SAI of $1,000-$2,500.
Rachel Burns, senior policy analyst at SHEEO
Lower SAI numbers will lead to a greater number of students being eligible for Pell Grants. SHEEO calculated that almost 43% of the students in their data who were originally ineligible for Pell Grants would now qualify, an increase of over two million students. That’s almost double the percentage increase in Pell recipients that had been estimated by the Office of Federal Student Aid. Nearly 85% of Pell-eligible students would see their award amounts increase by up to $8,800, with the largest segment seeing a $5,000 boost.
These increases in eligibility could lead to even more aid, according to MorraLee Keller, senior director of strategic programming at the National College Attainment Network.
“A lot of colleges, in their packaging strategies, direct the most aid to students who are Pell-eligible,” she said. “So if you were not previously Pell-eligible and now you are, that may bring additional forms of aid to help you meet the costs of higher education.”
Keller also thought that the improved Pell access could also increase enrollment at community colleges, which has been damaged by the pandemic.
“If you’re eligible for a full Pell Grant, that will cover, in the majority of the states in the country, your tuition at a local community college,” she said. “You may be able to go to community college, pay your tuition, have your books, etc. all covered by your Pell Grant.”
SHEEO’s analysis also revealed that the EFC measure was lumping together a large number of students in the lower part of the income spectrum. The lowest possible value for an EFC is $0, but SAI will include negative values, down to -$1,500. SHEEO found over 3.7 million students who had $0 EFCs who would have had negative SAIs under the incoming system.
“I was surprised by the number of students who had a $0 EFC that now have a negative SAI,” said Burns. “I think that really points to the fact that EFC was lumping a lot of needy students into one category and there wasn’t enough distinction between students who really needed more financial aid than that.”
This change could be helpful for lower-income students, qualifying them for more state aid under current funding formulae. States may respond by modifying their aid programs if they don’t want to pay more or cannot afford to.MorraLee Keller, senior director of strategic programming at the National College Attainment Network
Not all students will benefit from the new formula. Students in certain categories, particularly those in families with two or more members in college, students whose parents have a lot of assets, and students whose families have farms or small businesses may find their aid eligibility decreasing. SHEEO’s analysis found that, for 8.4% of students, SAI would be higher than their EFC. At least 7.8% of students would have a decreased Pell Grant, and 8,060 would lose Pell eligibility entirely.
Some students might also have a higher SAI than EFC, which could hurt their state grant eligibility. States may try to include these students nevertheless, but it may be challenging, according to Burns.
“I think the goal would be to try to grandfather in students who are currently getting the aid so that no one is losing it,” said Burns. “I think it’s likely that states are going to have to have very difficult conversations about what to do.”
SHEEO has developed a tool that states and researchers can use to explore their analysis. Users can see the data broken out by state, dependency, sector, gender, race, and number of family members in college. They can also download more specific data.
But while students and their families might find themselves eligible for more aid, Burns emphasized that the process is still onerous.
“There’s still just as many data elements. There are a lot of hurdles for students to go through. While a lot of it can come directly from the IRS, it is still is a laborious process,” she said. “It’s a simplified formula, but not necessarily a simplified form.”
Jon Edelman can be reached at [email protected].
The U.S. Department of Education (ED) has released guidance on implementing Higher Education Act provisions that allow the Secretary of Education to require leaders of private colleges failing to operate with financial responsibility to assume personal liability for unpaid debts.Education Secretary Dr. Miguel Cardona
The guidance clarifies when ED can require individuals to assume personal liability to allow their schools to participate in federal financial aid programs. This allows ED to pursue those people for liabilities not paid by the schools, including costs resulting from closed school and borrower defense discharges. ED expects it is most likely to impose such requirements on institutions with the most financial risk.
“The Biden-Harris Administration is canceling the loans of more than a million borrowers cheated by for-profit colleges. But too often, the owners and executives of these colleges escape liability,” said Under Secretary James Kvaal. “Congress gave the Department the authority to make college owners and operators personally responsible for these losses in certain circumstances and we are going to use that authority to hold them accountable, defend vulnerable students, protect taxpayer dollars, and deter future risky behavior.”
ED will now begin making such determinations when schools’ program participation agreements come up for renewal or they have ownership changes.
The guidance included factors ED may consider when making these determinations, including civil or criminal lawsuits, settlements, or disciplinary or legal actions related to federal student aid or claims of dishonesty, fraud, misrepresentation, consumer harm, or financial malfeasance; significant compliance issues; or an executive compensation or bonus structure that can significantly affect the school’s financial health.
A bill to incentivize Colorado prisoners to pursue higher education passed 61-1 in the state House of Representatives, Colorado Politics reported. The bill still needs approval from the state Senate and governor.Rep. Matthew Martinez
HB 1037 – Reps. Matthew Martinez and Rose Pugliese, and Sen. Julie Gonzales are prime bill sponsors – would deduct time off of an inmate’s sentence for earning an academic credential while incarcerated – six months for earning a certificate, one year for an associate or bachelor’s degree, 18 months for a master's, and two years for a doctorate. And those released prior to degree completion could finish to cut time from parole.
"Getting them connected to education lowers recidivism and helps them get their lives back on track," said Martinez, who worked at the Adams State University Prison Education Program before taking office. "They become productive members of society and that's better for all of Colorado."
To note, the program would only apply to non-violent offenders.
“This is a program that will help decrease recidivism in non-violent offenders, which will make our communities safer," Pugliese said. "There is no additional cost to the people of Colorado. It is good public policy.”
Colorado has one of the worst U.S. recidivism rates, with over 50% of inmates released ending up back behind bars within three years. But prisoners engaging in higher ed during incarceration are less likely to return to crime after release, with recidivism rates dropping to 13.7% for prisoners who earned associates degrees, 5.6% for those who earned bachelor’s degrees, and 0% for those who earned master’s degrees, according to a 2006 national analysis by Emory University.
This bill comes amid recent changes from the U.S. Department of Education making it so that inmates will soon be eligible to receive federal Pell Grants up to nearly $7,000 a year.
Pacific Northwest Transportation Consortium (PacTrans), a regional transportation research center led by the University of Washington (UW), will receive $3 million in federal funding.Rep. Pramila Jayapal
Rep. Pramila Jayapal helped secure the funding for the center, which will aid the university in its research and workforce development efforts for transportation around mountainous roadways and protected waterways.
Other institutions such as Northwest Indian College and Washington State University are also PacTrans collaborators.
“I’m thrilled that UW, Northwest Indian College and Washington State University will continue to lead the way in developing the next generation of transportation technology and development,” said Jayapal. “This new federal funding not only means we will continue to drive innovation in our district, we will also create new, good-paying jobs and expand technical education and workforce development. Our Seattle-based research center has already benefited communities here in Washington and across the country, and now with this new funding I know that we will continue to lead the way in advancing equitable, reliable, and resilient transportation.”
Civil rights organization National Black Justice Coalition is calling for the resignation of College Board CEO David Coleman after it was reported that College Board coordinated and met with Florida officials multiple times before releasing revisions to its AP African American Studies course.Dr. David J. Johns
“New reports showing that the College Board not only was in close contact with Governor Ron DeSantis’ administration in crafting the AP African American Studies course revisions, but actually worked to cater that curricula to their political beliefs and attachment to white nationalism, is deeply disturbing,” said Dr. David J. Johns, executive director of the NBJC.
It seemed that College Board’s leadership cared more about political approval from “radical anti-Black, anti-LGBTQ, anti-truth extremists” than teaching children the full history of the U.S., Johns said.
The Educational Testing Service (ETS) has publicly supported the College Board, writing in a statement earlier this week that "recent coverage about the AP African American Studies framework is filled with inaccuracies that take away the importance of the historic course designed to explore the vital contributions and experiences of African Americans," the assessment organization noted. "This interdisciplinary course was developed over many years and draws from the expertise and experience of college faculty and teachers across the country. The pilot followed the standard process for developing AP course frameworks, and core revisions — including the removal of secondary sources — were finalized in December 2022, independent of political pressure."
But a New York Times article printed on Thursday tells another story.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration has been vocal in its criticisms and pushback against the AP African American Studies course.
“The fact that the College Board not only catered to, coordinated with, and then capitulated to the DeSantis Administration, but then also attempted to cover it up with collusion makes matters worse,” Johns said. “The takeaway is simple: David Coleman should resign as CEO of the College Board. The organization should seek new leadership and keep anti-democratic, segregationist, white nationalistic politics out of our kid’s education.”
In response, NBJC and other Black LGBTQ+/Same-Gender Loving leaders have launched the #BlackHistoryQueerAF digital campaign, which aims to highlight Black LGBTQ+/SGL people throughout Black History Month and remind people of the queerness in Black history.
The Biden administration’s recent moves towards relief for student borrowers—the debt forgiveness program currently awaiting a hearing at the Supreme Court and changes to income-driven repayment programs—have sparked controversy and criticism. One of the most persistent critiques has that colleges will respond by raising tuition since they know that students have been encouraged by the changes to borrow. This idea is the so-called Bennett hypothesis, named after former Secretary of Education William J. Bennett, who suggested it in a 1987 New York Times editorial entitled “Our Greedy Colleges.”
It's a logical idea. After all, since the 1991-92 academic year, federal student aid has increased 295%, during which time institutions of higher education roughly doubled their inflation-adjusted tuition and fees, according to data from the College Board. And it’s easy to imagine that if students have easy access to government money, colleges would want to use it to improve their programs or pad their bottom lines.
Dr. Jenna A. Robinson, president of the James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal
Robinson believes that the effects of the Biden administration’s moves could be significant.
“Universities could really raise tuition quite a bit, knowing that the cost is not going to fall on the students they’re trying to attract,” she said. “It probably would have as large of an effect as the fact that subsidized federal student loans exist in the first place.”
Robinson is far from alone in her concern. A group of 23 Republican governors invoked the Bennett hypothesis in a letter to President Biden opposing loan forgiveness, and Dr. Lawrence Summers, the former secretary of the treasury and president of Harvard University, mentioned it in a in a tweet last year.
But research suggests that outside of for-profit institutions, evidence for the Bennett Hypothesis is scant.
“It’s very difficult to find a Bennett hypothesis story in the public and not-for-profit sectors,” said Dr. Michael Kofoed, an associate professor of economics at the United States Military Academy in West Point. “I would say [it’s] muted at best. There could be some small places where it could happen, but, overall, the literature shows it’s just not as big as people make it out to be.”
The reason, according to Kofoed, is that colleges may not be as greedy as William J. Bennett had thought.
“Colleges and universities are not profit-maximizing firms,” he said. “They have other objective functions, and so they don’t behave like a for-profit firm would.”
Institutions of higher education are moving toward no-loan programs, Kofoed argued, in which higher-income students paying full sticker prices subsidize lower or middle-income students. Increasing the sticker price might make this system more challenging.
“I would be skeptical of thinking that they would instantly throw out that model of student cross-subsidization and decide to just raise tuition to capture the student loans and place a higher debt on the students that they are currently committed to reducing,” he said.
Research has found that even when students are able to borrow large amounts, it doesn’t lead to increases in tuition.
Dr. Robert Kelchen, professor and head of the department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, did a study of graduate students, who have been able to borrow up to the full cost of attendance since the mid-2000s.
“I was going into my research expecting to find that [the Bennett hypothesis] is true,” he said. “And I was surprised. If it’s happening, it should be happening in law schools and business schools. [But,] I did not find a big increase in tuition”
Kelchen thought that perhaps schools didn’t want to be perceived as greedy, or that no school wanted to move first. Another factor was that students who can borrow more often still prefer to borrow as little possible.
There are several alternative explanations for why college costs have risen so much, according to Kelchen and Kofoed. Over the past several decades, demand has increased faster than the number of available seats. In the case of public universities, state funding declined in the Great Recession and hasn’t recovered. Schools are also dependent on large workforces that can’t be automated and have only gotten more expensive. And students have come to need and expect more non-academic services over the past few decades, particularly for mental health.
Kelchen is doubtful that the Biden administration’s changes will have much of a Bennett effect. He points out that increases in tuition have slowed in recent years.
“A lot of colleges are concerned that if they raise prices, they won’t get students,” he said. “[With] affordability as a concern, I think we’ve gotten to a point where the majority of colleges out there will struggle to increase tuition in any meaningful way.”
But Kelchen thinks that, despite what studies have shown, the Bennett hypothesis will remain prominent.
“Most people are not reading the research,” he said. “And researchers aren’t great at communicating it.”
Jon Edelman can be reached at [email protected].
More women, as well as Black, Hispanic, American Indian, and Alaska Native people collectively, worked in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) jobs over the past decade and are earning more degrees in science and engineering fields at all levels compared to previous years, according to a recent report from The National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics (NCSES).Dr. Sethuraman Panchanathan
The report, “Diversity and STEM: Women, Minorities, and Persons with Disabilities 2023,” is a federal attempt to investigate diversity trends in STEM employment and education.
"Diversity is America's unique advantage in science and technology," said National Science Foundation (NSF) Director Dr. Sethuraman Panchanathan. NCSES is part of the NSF.
"Our global leadership depends upon diversity, leveraging different backgrounds, experiences, and points of view to bring unique insights to problem solving and discovery," he said. "The Diversity and STEM report provides objective, reliable data on where our nation has made progress towards access and equity in STEM education and careers, as well as where we must do more."
To note, despite the increases for the aforementioned demographics, these groups – and those with disabilities – remain underrepresented in STEM compared to their percentage in the U.S. population, the report found. Currently, the STEM workforce includes 12.3 million women (35% of the STEM workforce), 8.3 million members of underrepresented minority groups (24%), and 1 million people with disabilities (3%).
Women earned half of science and engineering bachelor's degrees and 49% of associates degrees, yet only represented about 35% of the STEM workforce, with wages consistently lower than men's, according to the report. And although Hispanic, Black, American Indian, and Alaska Native people comprise 31% of the population, they comprise only 24% of the 2021 STEM workforce.
Hispanic, Black, American Indian, and Alaska Native STEM workers also have lower median earnings than white or Asian STEM workers, the report found.
Another finding was that Hispanic students are earning associate's degrees in science and engineering fields at higher rates now, with the total number of such degrees awarded to Hispanic students tripling 2011-2020.
"A highlight of this year's edition of Diversity and STEM is the use of a broader definition of 'STEM work', providing a better understanding of STEM representation by different demographic groups," said NCSES Director Emilda B. Rivers. "For the first time, we count in STEM statistics all groups whose work requires a high level of technical knowledge, regardless of their degree."
The college affordability crisis has students working and borrowing all that they can in order to manage the cost of school. But a new report from the National College Attainment Network (NCAN) shows that the high school class of 2022 left an estimated $3.58 billion on the table last year in the form of unclaimed Pell Grant funds—around 14% of annual Pell expenditures.
That unclaimed money leads directly to fewer students attending and completing college.
Bill DeBaun, senior director of data and strategic initiatives at the NCAN
The report’s methodology was simple. The NCAN started with the number of high school graduates who did not fill out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA), which was roughly 1.65 million. Assuming that non-FAFSA completers would be eligible for Pell Grants at the same rate as people who did fill out the application, the NCAN found that about 767,000 students would have qualified for funding but did not complete the form. The non-profit then multiplied this number by the average Pell Grant award of $4,686 to get the nearly $3.6 billion total.
There are plenty of reasons why students who might be eligible for Pell Grants might not complete the FAFSA. For one thing, it’s complex..
Dr. Michael Kofoed, an associate professor of economics at the United States Military Academy in West Point
However, it’s difficult to tell whether a student might be Pell-eligible without investing the time and energy that the FAFSA requires. Another problem is that many people who are eligible for aid may mistakenly think that they are not.
“It’s very difficult for lower-middle income [earners], to judge whether or not they will be Pell-eligible,” said Kofoed.
Students may also be debt averse, not realizing that the Pell Grant doesn’t need to be repaid. And some may be reluctant to share financial data with the government.
The $3.6 billion left behind represents a strong increase from 2017, when $2.3 billion went unclaimed, according to an analysis by NerdWallet, a personal finance company. The report attributes this change primarily to increases in the value of Pell Grant awards under the Biden administration. This year’s $3.58 billion represents a decrease, however, from the class of 2021’s $3.75 billion unclaimed. DeBaun said that this was because of decreased disruption from the pandemic.
“The class of 2022 was much more likely to be attending school in person where they were better connected to support, to school counselors, to financial aid nights, and FAFSA completion events,” he said.
The report also included state-level data, finding that the areas with the highest FAFSA completion rates were Washington D.C. (74%), Tennessee (71%), and Louisiana (69%). Tennessee’s position, said Kofoed, was likely a result of its Tennessee Promise program, which offers free community college but requires filling out the FAFSA. Louisiana is the first state to adopt a universal FAFSA completion policy, which makes filling out the FAFSA a requirement for high school graduation. Other states with similar policies, including Illinois, Alabama, and Texas, are among the top ten in terms of FAFSA completion.
States with the lowest completion rates included Alaska (35%), Utah (38%), and Arizona (47%). According to Kofoed, some of the reason is cultural.
“The intermountain region is always super-low because there is this strong bias against taking on loans,” he said. “A lot of it is the teachings of the Mormon church. So, some students will say, ‘The FAFSA is what I have to do to get a student loan, and I don’t want a student loan, and I think my parents make too much for a Pell Grant, so I’m just not going to complete [it] at all.”
NCAN also offered recommendations for how states could encourage FAFSA completion. The number one proposal was that more states should institute universal FAFSA completion policies, as Louisiana has done, along with support to help students with the form. Additionally, NCAN called on states to do a better job of sharing FAFSA data with districts, high schools, and communities so that outreach to students can be better targeted. It also promoted FAFSA completion challenges, friendly competitions among districts or schools to win prizes based on FAFSA completion rates or growth. Finally, it suggested the continued use of COVID-19 relief funding for college and career readiness programming.
Though the amount of money left on the table is massive, the report finds reasons for hope in the short-term. According to DeBaun, the high school class of 2023’s FAFSA completions are up about 6% year over year. Starting with the 2024-25 school year, the FUTURE Act will allow FAFSA filers to have their income data imported directly from the IRS, and the FAFSA Simplification Act will reduce the number of questions on the application significantly.
However, DeBaun cautioned that improved FAFSA completion alone is a not a cure for the deeper problem of low post-secondary attainment.
“I think we’ll see an [increase] in FAFSA completion as friction in the process is reduced, but we shouldn’t expect that to be some kind of silver bullet,” he said. “After completing the FAFSA, students still need support in finding success on college campuses that keeps them enrolled and gets them all the way to a career and credential.”
Jon Edelman can be reached at [email protected].
The U.S. Department of Education’s (ED) Office for Civil Rights (OCR) has concluded that Troy University did not make reasonable and responsive adjustments responsive to a student’s pregnancy-related adjustment requests during the 2020-21 school year.
OCR had been investigating Troy regarding whether the school had responded to the student’s requests in a manner that complied with Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972.
The student notified Troy of her pregnancy before the start of the fall 2020 semester, the investigation confirmed. There were repeated instances of negative consequences for the student stemming from a lack of accommodations for her pregnancy, such as not getting a proper size table for one of her classes.
The investigation also found that Troy’s Title IX coordinator did not consistently or timely intervene when alerted of issues with certain classes and that the lack of available information on getting pregnancy-related adjustments contributed to Troy’s uncoordinated response.
Troy will now commit to a number of actions to conclude the investigation, such as providing the student in question grade adjustments; giving reimbursement for expenses related to retaken courses; reviewing or drafting policies on requests for adjustments from pregnant students; updating the school website to give information on Title IX rights of pregnant students; and faculty and staff Title IX rights training.
“I thank Troy University for addressing the pregnancy-related needs of the student who came to OCR for help and for ensuring that, going forward, it will provide pregnant students equal access to the university’s courses and other offerings,” said Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Catherine E. Lhamon.
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