Austin Slaughter

The USDA sent an email to grocery stores telling them they are prohibited from offering special discounts to customers affected by the SNAP funding lapse.
I'm aware of at least 2 stores that had offered struggling customers a discount, then withdrew it after receiving this email

BOSTON (AP) — Judges order the federal government to use contingency funds for SNAP food aid payments during the shutdown.

bsky.app/profile/aust...

bsky.app/profile/aust...

If the administration wants to prevent student loan borrowers from receiving PSLF if they work for organizations engaged in supposedly illegal activity, why not use the proper legal channels to get such organizations shut down?

We wrote up a Brookings Post related to my recent paper with Ari Anisfeld, @drelizabethbell.bsky.social, and Dennis Kramer: www.brookings.edu/articles/how...

Illinois Launches Effort to Re-Enroll Adult Learners Illinois has launched a statewide effort to re-enroll students who stopped out of college, in partnership with ReUp Education, a company focused on recruiting and supporting adult learners, according ...

There's a growing movement to get "some college, no degree" students to reenroll and complete their degrees

www.insidehighered.com/news/quick-t...

Student loan limits: Takeaways from a recent Brookings panel | Brookings

This is a nice summary of a recent Brookings panel on student loan limits, including a link to a recording of the panel

www.brookings.edu/articles/stu...

Updated FAFSA Guidance for Mixed-Status Families As FAFSA completion season is well underway, NCAN continues to hear questions about how best to support students from mixed-status families.

It's noteworthy this NCAN guidance for mixed-status families filling out the FAFSA does *not* confidently encourage such families to fill out the form, citing that ED can provide information from the form to immigration enforcement

www.ncan.org/news/713255/...

Federal Judge Indefinitely Blocks Trump’s Latest Layoffs A federal district court judge indefinitely blocked President Trump’s most recent round of staff cuts Tuesday, saying his actions were likely unlawful and that the plaintiffs had a good case for argui...

The latest round of layoffs at ED has been blocked by a federal judge. The Supreme Court will likely give a green light to the layoffs, though, just as they did with the March round of layoffs.

www.insidehighered.com/news/quick-t...

ED Panel Prepares to Settle Student Loan Caps Talks over which graduate programs qualify for more loans resume next week. The Education Department and higher ed negotiators remain far apart on the best solution.

The grad school loan caps in OBBBA seem half-baked to me

I'm not opposed to some version of caps, but:

-100k versus 200k is a big/rough difference
-the distinctions are untethered to earnings and value to taxpayers
-there's no recognition of variation in quality across programs within a field

The Little-Known Way That Trump Is Upending Community College The administration’s plan to cut millions in adult-education funding runs counter to its goal of addressing work-force needs, program leaders say. The government cites “dismal results.”

The administration wants to make dramatic cuts to adult education, which would be harmful to community colleges

www.chronicle.com/article/the-...

SNAP’s Contingency Reserve Is Available for Regular SNAP Benefits, as USDA and OMB Have Ruled in Past The Administration must use all available options to fund November benefits for the 1 in 8 people in the U.S. who need SNAP to afford their grocery bill.

Past administrations used #SNAP contingency funds to prevent benefit gaps. Despite clear legal authority, the current Administration refuses to do, putting 1 in 8 people in the U.S. who need SNAP to afford their grocery bill. www.cbpp.org/research/foo...

Fun comparison: if LSU put this $54 million into expanded supports for students, it would probably produce about 400 additional college graduates

I had been wondering if the attacks on DEI in higher education would come for male-focused initiatives

I guess the answer is "yes"

Research firms continue to shed talented staff—even after the far-reaching cuts earlier this year. Just this week, there have been announcements of significant layoffs at RAND and Mathematica.

How Do States Fund Community College Dual Enrollment? Read detailed data on each state's funding models and mechanisms for their dual enrollment programs in this blog post.

This blog post from CCRC covers state funding for dual enrollment, including funding levels, funding mechanism (grants vs. formula), and funding flow (through K-12 or direct to college)

ccrc.tc.columbia.edu/easyblog/how...

What Should Research at the Ed. Dept. Look Like? The Field Weighs In The agency requested input on the Institute of Education Sciences' future. More than 400 comments came in.

What Should Research at the Ed. Dept. Look Like? The Field Weighs In share.google/CK4UyCnjg8Bz...

by @jdmatsudaira.bsky.social @tiacaldwell.bsky.social @meredithswelch.bsky.social

Table showing the number (370,000) and share (26%) of federal loan borrowers who would be above the new borrowing limits, the average amount of annual borrowing above the new limits among them ($22,000), and the total volume above the new limits ($8.1 billion)

Good new brief estimating that 26% of federal loan borrowers will exceed the new loan limits, and they will do so by about $22,000 per year on average

www.american.edu/spa/peer/upl...

Trump Gutted IES. Skepticism of Its Renewal Abounds. The Education Department recently requested ideas on how to “modernize” the data collection and education research funding agency, and it sought to hire for a few positions.

Trump Gutted the Institute of Education Sciences. Its Renewal Is in Doubt.
www.insidehighered.com/news/governm...

Is it run by Amazon or does it just use AWS?

I added Swarthmore to the tracker.

*or by price increases in programs that currently put students into, say, $150k of debt but are eligible to go up to $200k

I suspect future students pursuing grad programs that currently put students into more than $100k of debt will counterintuitively be the *winners* of the new cap on debt because the price of those programs will come down and be subsidized by price increases for cheaper programs*

The Institute of Education Sciences: 22 Years of Helping States, Districts, and Educators Make Informed Decisions - Alliance For Learning Innovation

The Institute of Education Sciences: 22 Years of Helping States, Districts, and Educators Make Informed Decisions www.alicoalition.org/blog/the-ins...

NEW: A federal judge today temporarily paused the Education Department's layoffs of nearly everyone in its special ed division.

Judge Susan Illston in the Northern District of California issued the ruling, which applies to thousands of other RIFs, too.

Read more: www.usatoday.com/story/news/e...

The Logical End Point of Trump’s Higher-Education Agenda A “compact” offered by the administration could devastate racial diversity at elite universities.

I wrote for @theatlantic.com about Trump’s plan to purge Black people from the Ivy League.

www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...

Old enough to remember when kids being anti-semitic was the basis for a federal government assault on higher education

I left my toddler alone for a few minutes the other day and he didn't die, confirming he does not need me and would be fine surviving on his own