Education Stakeholders Respond to Trump Administration’s 2027 Budget Request The Trump Administration is requesting $76.5 billion in discretionary budget authority for the Department of Education for 2027, a $2.3 billion or 2.9% reduction from 2026 Department of Education spen...

Trump’s FY27 education budget prioritizes cuts, consolidations, and shrinking the federal role in public education. Stakeholders warn it will hurt students, families, and schools already under strain. Congress should invest in opportunity, not austerity.

www.theeduledger.com/leadership-p...

5 Things to Know About Trump’s Latest Budget Proposal Congress broadly rejected the president’s proposed gutting of research funding agencies for this fiscal year. But his new budget proposal still attacks them, and ED. Here are our five takeaways.

Trump’s latest budget proposal again targets higher ed: it protects Pell Grants, but slashes TRIO, GEAR UP, MSI grants, FWS, NSF, NIH, and other research and student-support programs. Congress rejected these cuts. Higher ed should be ready to push back again.
www.insidehighered.com/news/governm...

Education Stakeholders Respond to Trump Administration’s 2027 Budget Request The Trump Administration is requesting $76.5 billion in discretionary budget authority for the Department of Education for 2027, a $2.3 billion or 2.9% reduction from 2026 Department of Education spen...

Trump’s FY 2027 education budget once again prioritizes cuts, consolidation, and school choice over the public schools, students, and communities that need real investment. Educators and advocates are right to call out a proposal that deepens inequality.

www.theeduledger.com/leadership-p...

How higher ed would fare in Trump’s latest budget proposal It seeks to eliminate key student access programs, cut $354 million in grants for minority-serving institutions and trim U.S. Department of Education funding.

Trump’s latest budget would slash higher ed support: eliminate TRIO, GEAR UP, and FSEOG, cut work-study by 90%, and gut MSI grants, OCR, and research funding. It preserves Pell, but overall, it puts college access and equity at risk. Congress should reject it.

www.highereddive.com/news/how-hig...

Bipartisan Appeal to House Appropriators: Protect Pell As FY2027 drafting begins, a record number of Congress members on both sides of the aisle are advocating for fully funded Pell, as well as Federal Supplemental Education Opportunity Grants and Federal...

Pell Grants are a lifeline for millions of low-income students. Congress should listen to the growing bipartisan call and fully fund Pell. No cuts, no gimmicks, just real access and opportunity for students who need it most. #PellGrant #HigherEd

www.theeduledger.com/leadership-p...

The Center for the Defense of Academic Freedom at the AAUP encourages anyone concerned about threats to academic freedom & free speech on college campuses to host an in-person or virtual screening of our Faculty on the Front Lines interview series.

Details here: www.aaup.org/faculty-on-t...

New NCFDD survey reveals a 36-point gap between faculty needs and institutional funding From the politically driven cancellation of 7,800 federal research grants to a 64 percent decline in faculty well-being, the data confirms a sobering reality: institutional commitment is being sustain...

NCFDD’s new survey is a wake-up call: faculty say their need for professional development is rising fast, while institutional funding is going the other way. When campuses underinvest in faculty support, they undercut retention, productivity, and student success

www.theeduledger.com/faculty-staf...

NIH grant terminations disproportionately hurt women, early-career researchers The federal agency's abrupt cancellation of about 2,300 grants weakened the U.S. research training pipeline, per a new peer-reviewed analysis.

NIH grant terminations didn’t hit all researchers equally: women, especially early-career scientists, were disproportionately affected. Cutting support at the start of a career doesn’t just halt projects; it weakens the pipeline of future researchers. www.highereddive.com/news/nih-gra...

AAMC: NIH Has Only Obligated 15% of External Research Funding The science community fears the funding agency’s slow contract and grant making could result in another rush of multiyear obligations at the end of the fiscal year. The NIH director has said, “Don’t p...

AAMC says NIH has only obligated 15% of external research funding so far — a staggering sign of how federal uncertainty is throttling the research pipeline. That’s not just bureaucracy; it’s delays in lifesaving science, training, and innovation.

www.insidehighered.com/news/governm...

'An Additional Barrier': Experts Warn of Chaos as Student Loan Portfolios Exit ED for Treasury The U.S. Department of Education has signed an interagency agreement with the U.S. Department of the Treasury to transfer roughly $180 billion of the agency’s student loan portfolio, or 11%, to the Tr...

Experts are right to sound the alarm: shifting federal student loan portfolios from ED to Treasury risks more confusion, more red tape, and worse service for millions of borrowers. Student debt needs clarity and care—not another bureaucratic maze.

www.theeduledger.com/home/article...

Collective Bargaining is One Solution to Ending Higher Ed Worker Exploitation – I Should Know. One adjunct professor argues that without the legal leverage of collective bargaining, she is a 'sitting duck' for institutions to profit from her expertise while leaving her vulnerable to financial i...

“The VA General Assembly voted to give over half a million public sector workers collective bargaining rights. But not me. I'm an adjunct faculty member who was just left behind to endure the exploitation of higher education.”

@abigailspanberger.com, please correct course & add us back in.

Kent Warns Accreditors Over DEI Education Under Secretary Nicholas Kent sent letters to two accreditors alleging that diversity, equity and inclusion practices in their standards conflict with federal law.

Under Secretary Kent is threatening accreditors over DEI, not “holding them accountable” but weaponizing Title VI to erase even paused diversity standards—this is about chilling equity work, not compliance.
www.insidehighered.com/news/governa...

Trump’s anti-DEI orders stand for now, but future challenges can’t be ruled out The White House is emboldened to act “aggressively,” making it important for employers to audit their DEI programs, attorneys told HR Dive.

Trump’s latest anti-DEI orders survived this round in court, but the fight is far from over: future challenges are still very much on the table, and employers should be strengthening—not abandoning—real equity work right now.

www.hrdive.com/news/trump-a...

Education Department Defends Push To Strip Student Loan Forgiveness Eligibility The Education Department forcefully defended a new rule that would strip student loan forgiveness eligibility for public service employers under the PSLF program.

Trump’s 2025 research funding freeze didn’t “end” when headlines moved on. Universities may have survived, but labs, grad students, and early‑career scholars are still starved of the grants Congress already approved.

www.forbes.com/sites/adammi...

Education Department Defends Push To Strip Student Loan Forgiveness Eligibility The Education Department forcefully defended a new rule that would strip student loan forgiveness eligibility for public service employers under the PSLF program.

The Trump Education Department is openly defending a rule that slashes who counts as a “public service” employer for student loan forgiveness, gutting PSLF for nonprofits, legal aid, and advocacy orgs while millions are in crisis.

www.forbes.com/sites/adammi...

Federal Grant Makers May Lose Job Protections: 5 Things to Know Trump has created a new employee category that he previously dubbed Schedule F. It allows for easier firings of those who are “subverting presidential directives.”

Federal grant-makers at NIH/NSF could be stripped of civil service protections and turned into at-will workers under Trump’s revived Schedule F scheme.

This is a direct attack on independent research, scientific integrity, and democratic governance. www.insidehighered.com/news/governm...

How DOGE Gutted the NEH in 22 Days Internal documents show how leadership at the National Endowment for the Humanities handed over the grant termination process to DOGE and ChatGPT.

Trump’s DOGE used ChatGPT to gut 97% of NEH grants in just 22 days, flagging HVAC repairs and newspaper digitization as “DEI” and wiping out $100M in humanities research. This is algorithmic McCarthyism, and everyone should be sounding the alarm.
www.insidehighered.com/news/faculty...

Presidents Feel Pressure in Trump's Second Term The latest Inside Higher Ed Survey of College and University Presidents reveals leaders’ concerns about Trump 2.0, public trust, finances and AI.

College presidents are sounding the alarm: Trump’s second term is ramping up attacks on DEI, research funding, and academic freedom, while only 5% of campuses are responding with public advocacy. www.insidehighered.com/news/governa...

Why the Removal of Faculty Unions Matters to St. John’s Students. In an era of growing corporate consolidation, labor power is as important as ever.  The statistics are clear: not only do unionized workers, especially those of color, make more money, but they also r...

The St. John’s University administration is setting a dangerous precedent in ceasing to recognize its faculty labor unions after 56 years of bargaining...a decision that will further hurt the university’s quality of education if they don't reverse course immediately.

Some in the Trump administration are pushing to rebuild IES After DOGE gutted IES, the education and statistics agency inside the Education Department, some in the Trump administration are trying to rebuild it. A new report of ideas on how to do that was relea...

Trump’s DOGE gutted the federal agency that tells us what’s really happening in classrooms. Now even Trump appointees admit we need IES back so we can rebuild on evidence, not ideology.
hechingerreport.org/proof-points...

Public colleges could face pressure amid state budget woes, Fitch says Republican-led federal cuts and a shaky economy could set up competition for funds — and historically, higher education gets cut first in tough times.

States are balancing their budgets on the backs of public colleges again. Fitch warns higher ed funding is the “balance wheel” that gets cut first, even as enrollment rises and need grows. www.highereddive.com/news/public-...

Trump offered a restrictive deal to universities that almost all rejected – but the Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education may not be entirely dead The Trump administration is reportedly working on a revised version of the higher education proposal.

Trump’s "Compact" tried to trade federal dollars for control over who universities admit, what they teach, and how they treat race, gender, and trans students. We need to stay organized for whatever “revised” version comes next. theconversation.com/trump-offere...

New CPHE Accrediting Body Is Illegitimate Rather than protecting educational quality, the CPHE appears designed to give partisan political actors a powerful new tool to pressure universities to conform to a narrow ideological agenda—backed by...

The far right's new politicized higher ed accreditor is illegitimate.

"Rather than protecting educational quality, the CPHE appears designed to give partisan political actors a powerful new tool to pressure universities to conform to a narrow ideological agenda"

— Todd Wolfson, AAUP President

McMahon: Education Department shutdown is still the goal One year into the job, the education secretary is setting her sights on improving literacy and expanding school choice.

Linda McMahon is still gunning to shut down the Education Department, using a manufactured shutdown to claim public schools “don’t need” federal oversight or civil rights protections.

www.k12dive.com/news/mcmahon...

McMahon Touts First Year in Office; Dems, Students Push Back The Education Department says that in just one year McMahon has secured reforms in higher ed that conservatives have championed for decades. Critics say her work is creating barriers to college access...

Education Secretary Linda McMahon calls her first year a success while gutting ED, slashing MSIs, and threatening loan access. Students and Dems are right: these attacks on higher ed and civil rights are dangerous, and she must go.
www.insidehighered.com/news/governm...

Lawmakers and Universities Push Back on Loan Caps Politicians from both sides of the aisle sharply criticized the Education Department’s narrow interpretation of the legislation, which limits the number of students with access to large federal loans.

Grad students shouldn’t be punished for pursuing the degrees our communities depend on. Capping federal loans while tuition soars just drives borrowers to predatory private debt. We need more public funding, not backdoor austerity in #HigherEd.

www.insidehighered.com/news/governm...

Oklahoma legislature advances bill that would remove tenure at OU, public universities The Oklahoma legislature advanced a bill Tuesday that would remove the possibility of tenure for OU faculty, limit contract agreements to five years and require each state institute for higher

“Abolishing tenure cripples scientific & creative research...

This sends a strong message that top-tier academics seeking employment at Oklahoma universities should look elsewhere immediately. Why pursue a job here under such a repressive climate?”

— Michael Givel, OU AAUP President

Numerous faculty and AAUP chapters are rejecting the Commission for Public Higher Education, which threatens to introduce unprecedented state politician influence over universities!

Check out this thread of media coverage and AAUP members speaking out against the CPHE 🧵

NIH research grant funding rates plummeted in 2025 Agency acknowledges young investigators are losing out as result of multiyear funding policy imposed by White House

NIH just confirmed it: 2025 grant success rates plummeted, especially for early-career scientists, as Trump’s funding policies choke off new awards. Congress needs to step in now.

www.science.org/content/arti...

Trump secures legal victory on anti-DEI directives The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals let two executive orders stand that target diversity, equity inclusion in the higher education sector and elsewhere.

Trump’s latest court win greenlights his admin’s crusade to gut DEI in higher ed, canceling equity-focused grants and tying federal dollars to chilling DEI litmus tests. Faculty, students, and unions have to organize to defend real equity work on our campuses.

www.highereddive.com/news/trump-s...