‘Hormuz fertilizer block will upend world’s food production’

Chris Krebs at the Financial Times

Before the “first strike on Iran, the global food system was already running on reduced redundancy,” says Chris Krebs, and the Strait of Hormuz closure “isn’t breaking a healthy system. It is breaking one that was already compromised.” The “food security clock runs in months,” but the “geopolitical clock runs in years.” If “fertilizer isn’t moving through the Strait of Hormuz in two weeks’ time, we won’t be debating any more, we’ll be sending in aid.”

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‘Education decisions aren’t inevitable. They are rooted in history.’

Erika M. Kitzmiller at The Philadelphia Inquirer

Cities like Philadelphia have “always had choices — choices to enact educational policies and practices that replicate inequality or to pursue alternatives that disrupt it,” says Erika M. Kitzmiller. Too “many times in our city’s history, those with power have chosen the former.” The city’s “current challenges — shrinking school enrollments, outdated school facilities and persistent resource disparities — did not suddenly appear in the 21st century.” They “have a long history marked by injustice and disinvestment.”

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‘Why corporate America is coming home to the heartland’

Derek Kreifels at the National Review

For “decades, a handful of states such as Delaware, with its hospitable corporate law, and California, Illinois and New York, with their capital resources, held too strong a grip on the American corporate engine,” says Derek Kreifels. But taxes are “harming innovation, growth and the economic prospects of the people who live there.” As a “result, we are now witnessing a historic migration, as some of America’s most iconic companies pack their bags and head for the heartland.”

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‘Congress can’t protect radio without protecting artists’

Michael Huppe at The Hill

There is a “question for Congress: What good is radio without music?” says Michael Huppe. There are “thousands of artists across America” whose “performances are the product that AM and FM radio use to earn nearly $14 billion in advertising revenue each year.” But “unlike every other democracy, the U.S. still does not require radio corporations to pay the artists for that privilege.” Congress can pass “bills protecting AM radio in every vehicle and protecting the artists who make every recording.”

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‘Is the US running out of ammo?’

The Wall Street Journal editorial board

The Iran war is “still in its early days, but the press is playing the wrap-it-up music by warning that America and its allies lack air defenses for a long fight,” says The Wall Street Journal editorial board. The White House will have to “elevate U.S. weapons lines to a national priority.” The U.S. “can choose to build more weapons,” but it “doesn’t matter how many missiles are in the cabinet if our enemies conclude America won’t accept risk to defend itself.”

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‘Gucci needs fresher ideas than “sex sells”’

Andrea Felsted at Bloomberg

The “luxury sector must excite customers enough to tempt them to buy, rather than repel them with missteps such as the rampant price increases of the past five years,” says Andrea Felsted. After a “two-year, industry-wide slump, even competitors are rooting for Gucci.” The company wants to “re-establish Gucci at the cutting edge,” but “relying on nostalgia can only take the brand so far.” Making a “more rounded collection with wide-ranging appeal” will “take time.”

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‘University presidents face a “Star Trek”-like Kobayashi Maru moment’

James T. Harris at the Chicago Tribune

In some “academic circles, especially at public universities, it is now common for presidents to adopt a policy of neutrality,” says James T. Harris. Educators are “currently facing their own Kobayashi Maru moment — defend social justice on their campus or openly criticize the actions of the federal government and put the federal funding vital to their students and the institutions they serve at risk.” One “could argue that silence is understandable given the certain retribution.”

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‘A middle powers club would make the world more dangerous’

Manjari Chatterjee Miller at Foreign Policy

The “sight of a North American country working with three of the Indo-Pacific’s largest economies” underscores the “new salience of middle powers,” says Manjari Chatterjee Miller. But “while middle-power diplomacy has suddenly become ubiquitous, there is a widespread misunderstanding of not only the nature of these countries but also the risks of their collective rise.” These countries are “unable or unwilling to step up regionally or globally to define a more general agenda for international order.”

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Many graduates who took out student loans feel they got “an incomprehensibly unfair deal that they did not understand and now cannot escape”, says John Blake, formerly of the Office for Students. The problems are worst for the estimated 5.8 million people who took out “Plan 2” loans, the main scheme from late 2012 to mid 2023. While the interest rate on other loans is set at the Retail Prices Index (RPI) measure of inflation, Plan 2 loans are charged at RPI plus up to 3%.

Then at the last Budget, Rachel Reeves froze the threshold at which repayment in England starts between April 2026 and 2030; it was meant to rise with inflation. This means that more people will have to pay, while interest has snowballed, even for those with hefty monthly repayments. The result is a large cohort of angry indebted graduates.

How do Plan 2 loans work?

They were introduced for students in England and Wales in 2012, after the coalition government tripled tuition fees from £3,290 to £9,000 per year (there are no fees for students from Scotland, and they’re capped at about half the rate in Northern Ireland).

While studying, each borrower was charged interest at the RPI rate plus 3%. Afterwards, it moved to tiered rates starting at RPI, rising up to RPI+3%, depending on earnings (those making £51,245 or more currently pay the full rate). However, borrowers don’t have to pay anything until they reach the repayment threshold, now set at £28,470. Then they pay back 9% of their earnings above the threshold. After 30 years, any outstanding balance is written off.

How does this affect people in practice?

To take one example, Patrick Ba Tin, 30, borrowed some £50,000 in student loans – around average as a total – and was told he would hardly notice the repayments. Now a regulatory analyst earning a decent wage, Ba Tin has paid £5,000 towards his loans since graduating, with the current rate at £300 per month. Even so, the loan is actually growing: he now owes £75,000 in total; he will probably have to keep paying for the full 30 years. Of course this affects his finances, and his ability to buy a home. A typical graduate from the Plan 2 cohort has to earn at least £66,000 a year just to make his or her debt go down. Nadia Whittome, a Labour backbencher, has only managed to pay off £1,000 of her £49,600 debt despite six years on an MP’s salary. And repayments come on top of already high tax rates. So a Plan 2 loan holder earning £51,245 will take home only 49% of their earnings above that.

How have loans changed since?

Plan 5 student loans replaced Plan 2 for courses starting in August 2023. These don’t charge interest above the rate of inflation: the rate simply follows the RPI. But borrowers have to start paying them back sooner – the repayment threshold is only £25,000, not far off the minimum wage – and the repayment term is ten years longer: 40 years. Under this system, in contrast to Plan 2, no one will have to pay back more than they borrowed in real terms, and the Institute for Fiscal Studies estimates that 79% of initial borrowers will repay their loans in full. However, lower earners will pay more and higher earners less than they would have under the previous system. Plan 5 will also be costlier for the taxpayer in the long run.

Is the system unfair?

It is harsh for holders of Plan 2 loans. A loan holder who started a course in 2022 will pay around £8,700 more on average than someone who took one out a year later. Tinkering with the repayment threshold, by Conservative and Labour governments, has made repayments unpredictable.

The finance guru Martin Lewis has called on Reeves to reconsider her repayment threshold freeze, saying it isn’t “moral” to change the terms of a loan; polls suggest half of Plan 2 loan holders think the product was “mis-sold” to them. The National Union of Students and The Times have also called for an end to the freeze, along with cuts to the Plan 2 interest rate and a cap on the total amount of interest payable. Arguably, the RPI measure shouldn’t be used at all: the government is phasing it out – because it is deemed about 1% too high – in favour of the Consumer Prices Index (CPI).

Beyond that, there is the wider issue of inter-generational unfairness. The Plan 2 cohort were the first to be hit with substantial tuition fees, which were not charged at all until 1998. In addition, young people face high property prices, and governments that arguably protect the finances of pensioners at the expense of younger generations.

Can Plan 2 loans be defended?

They are in some respects generous, and more like a graduate tax than a bank loan. They do protect low earners; and during the ultra-high inflation period after Covid, the government intervened to cap interest rates. More broadly, the student loan system reflects important trade-offs. Britain has a mass university system – some 50% of young people in the UK go into higher education – and it has to be paid for somehow. All the main parties in England have decided that those who benefit most directly – well-paid graduates – should bear much of the burden. The costs are considerable: the total outstanding Plan 2 debt is about £200 billion.

What is likely to happen?

Reeves has insisted that the student loans system is “fair and reasonable”, and that the freeze was necessary for getting “the balance right between tax and spending”. But sources suggest discussions are taking place about possible measures to make the loans fairer, perhaps by tweaking interest rates. Kemi Badenoch has announced that the Tories would abolish the “unfair” additional interest, at the cost of some £2 billion per year, paid for by cutting funding for “low-quality degrees”. But this – unlike raising the earnings threshold – would only benefit those earning enough to clear the debt within 30 years.

Is a graduate tax the solution?

The idea of funding universities with a graduate tax has been mooted since the 1960s, when economists pointed out that a relatively small group of people were getting an expensive benefit paid for out of general taxation. The idea came up again during the expansion of higher education in the 1990s, and at one time or another it has been backed by the likes of Gordon Brown and Vince Cable. In practice, the loans function much like a tax – repayments are collected through the tax system – and proponents argue that presenting them with a future tax obligation is less stressful than being saddled with a large debt.

Implementing a tax would raise major administrative issues, though. There is no register of graduates. And might it incentivise students not to graduate? Or encourage high-earning graduates to move elsewhere? There are already problems in this area: at least 70,000 loan holders living abroad were reported not to be making repayments in 2024. No country in the world imposes a pure graduate tax, though many use income-contingent loans. The UK loans are high, though, since people here contribute more to their education: only 23% of higher education is paid for by public funding in the UK, well below the OECD average of 67%.

Recent developments in generative artificial intelligence have educators from elementary to university seemingly fighting an uphill battle as they struggle to manage students’ dependence on the technology. Meanwhile, one company has decided to fully embrace the new tools. But critics question whether replacing teachers with AI is worth the risk.

How does Alpha School work?

Alpha School is an AI-powered private school that was founded in 2014 by educational podcaster and 2 Hour Learning founder MacKenzie Price and software and private equity billionaire Joe Liemandt. Despite being around for more than a decade, Alpha’s recent “rise has coincided with technological leaps in what artificial intelligence can do,” said CNN. The company has several branches across the country, with plans to expand.

Students typically start the day with a group activity that introduces a life skill, before sitting down in front of “laptops, plug-in headsets or even virtual reality sets to learn academics through an AI tutor,” said CNN. The program’s two-hour curriculum includes “four 30-minute sessions in math, science, social studies and language,” and “20 minutes of additional learning concepts, like test-taking skills.”

The schools do not have traditional teachers; they employ “human guides” who do not “manage grades or curriculum,” but can offer “specialized teaching, like handwriting,” said CNN. They do not need postgraduate or educational degrees to work for Alpha. Last year, the school reported serving 200 K-8th-grade students and another 50 high school students, with plans to expand to dozens of locations, said The New York Times. Tuition ranges from $10,000 to $75,000 a year.

During a visit to Alpha School’s Austin, Texas, campus in September, Department of Education Secretary Linda McMahon said the school had great potential, calling it an “exemplary” case of what tech can do for American education. “Harnessing AI thoughtfully will be critical to expanding opportunity and preparing students for tomorrow’s workforce,” she said. The school’s co-founders say there is strong interest in their system, which has “gained favor among advocates of expanded school choice and alternative learning,” said CNN.

Is the program effective?

Despite McMahon’s stamp of approval, the AI-driven program has attracted growing criticism. An increasing number of families have chosen to leave the school’s Brownsville, Texas, campus, said Wired. That has not stopped Alpha’s leaders from “pointing to Brownsville as an example” of how 2 Hour Learning can “succeed in communities with low SES,” meaning socioeconomic status. For more than a dozen former employees, students and parents, “what they expected from Alpha School wasn’t what it delivered,” said Wired.

Former guides, “many of whom requested anonymity because they fear negative consequences,” say Alpha’s educational philosophy was “driven by software metrics and, sometimes, Liemandt’s whims,” said Wired. Alpha wanted to “prepare students for a hypercompetitive ‘late-capitalism, dog-eat-dog’ environment,” said one guide to the outlet.

Experts say there is “little outside scrutiny” of Alpha’s model and “how successful it really is at teaching children,” said CNN. A major concern is that Alpha refuses to “allow any independent research to evaluate the claims or to really scrutinize what’s going on from disinterested parties,” said Victor Lee, an associate professor at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Education, to CNN. That behavior “sort of implies there’s something to hide.”

What happened

Former Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers is stepping down as a professor at Harvard over his close relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, he and the university said Wednesday. Summers has been on leave from Harvard, where he once served as president, since the depth of his friendship with Epstein was revealed in emails released by Congress in November.

Who said what

The resignation “marks an extraordinary unraveling for Summers, long one of the most influential figures in American economics,” The Harvard Crimson said. His “standing began to collapse” after the cache of released emails showed he “regularly exchanged messages with Epstein about women, politics” and other topics after the disgraced financier pleaded guilty to soliciting sex from a minor in 2008, and up to “the day before Epstein’s final arrest” in 2019 on sex-trafficking charges.

Summers’ “stunning fall from grace” was the “latest fallout among high-profile academics over Epstein associations,” The Wall Street Journal said. Harvard Wednesday said mathematics professor Martin Nowak was on paid administrative leave “pending further investigation” of his Epstein ties, and Nobel laureate Richard Axel resigned Tuesday as co-director of Columbia’s Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute. Former Sen. Bob Kerrey (D-Neb.), who later served as university president at the New School, told The New York Times Wednesday he had quit the board of clean-energy startup Monolith over concerns that emails showing he had met with Epstein in 2013 would “make it difficult for them to succeed.”

What next?

Summers’ resignation from all faculty and academic positions takes effect at the end of the academic year, but he stepped down Wednesday as co-director of a Harvard Kennedy School business-government center. Once “free of formal responsibility,” Summers said, “I look forward in time to engaging in research, analysis and commentary on a range of global economic issues.”

‘Where are all the “Don’t tread on me” Americans?’

Chris Truax at The Hill

We have a “package of constitutional rights that we created to keep the government from becoming oppressive,” says Chris Truax. These rights “aren’t just a defense against an intentionally tyrannical government; they also protect us against well-meaning bureaucrats.” For “all the patriots out there who fly ‘Don’t Tread on Me’ flags and talk about upholding the Constitution,” this is “your moment. You’ve spent your entire lives talking about resisting tyranny. Now it is happening right before your eyes.”

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‘How to have a good first date’

Sonya Gurwitt at Time

A “lot of first dates do not turn into second dates,” and dating “can feel like a chore,” says Sonya Gurwitt. There is a “scriptedness to dating in a big city,” a “dance that nobody choreographed, but with distinct steps we’re supposed to pick up as we go.” People should “approach first dates as an opportunity to step into somebody’s world. When else do you get to spend a few hours getting to know a stranger?”

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‘This Pam Bondi photo captures the justice system’s contempt for Epstein’s victims’

The Miami Herald editorial board

If there is a “single photo that captures the contemptible way the Jeffrey Epstein victims have been treated by the justice system, it’s a picture of Pam Bondi, the U.S. attorney general,” says the Miami Herald editorial board. The picture shows Bondi “sitting in front of a group of more than a dozen victims,” but it “looks as though she is determined to ignore them.” It is a “heartbreaking image for many reasons” and shows the “default response by authorities.”

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‘The homeschooling hack’

Lauren Hilgers at New York magazine

“Homeschooling, long associated with hippies and religious conservatives in the U.S., is in the middle of a rebrand and a boom,” says Lauren Hilgers. Homeschooled kids are “more self-motivated, better rested, and less anxious than their peers in normal classrooms,” and “can read a book without distractions or devote hours of attention to a single subject.” Parents “can carefully measure their child’s interests, skills, and learning styles, teaching them to become discerning à la carte consumers of classes.”

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American higher learning is considered among the best in the world, but recent rankings show the top of the food chain may be changing. While U.S. universities still dominate most lists, foreign institutions have been slowly superseding them. And with the Trump administration’s continued attacks on higher education, the trend may be here to stay.

Which universities are considered the best?

Six major rankings use a variety of factors to calculate the best universities. The Leiden Rankings at Leiden University, U.S. News Best Global University Rankings and the University Ranking by Academic Performance all focus on the “number of research publications, citations to those studies, and other measures of scholarly quality,” said Forbes. The other three, Quacquarelli Symonds’ QS World University Rankings, Times Higher Education Rankings and the Center for World University Rankings, measure the “success and employment records of graduates, the perceived quality of the faculty, the relative presence of international students, and general institutional reputation.”

In the “initial iteration of each system, an American university was ranked first in the world,” said Forbes, with Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology taking the various rankings’ top spots. But in the “most recent rankings, we see different outcomes. In four of the systems, the number of top-10 spots occupied by U.S. universities declined.” Notably, Chinese schools have been replacing many American institutions on these lists.

The most recent Leiden list ranks China’s Zhejiang University first and Harvard third, with “12 of the following 13” based in China, said The Daily Beast. In the most recent edition of the Times Higher Education list, more than 60 U.S. schools fell in the rankings, including “well-known institutions suffering significant downgrades, such as an eight- and 17-place drop for Duke University and Emory University, respectively.” The Times Higher Education list also named the U.K.’s Oxford University the world’s best college for the tenth year in a row.

Why are foreign schools gaining steam?

It is largely due to a global reordering, which comes as the Trump administration has been “slashing research funding to American schools that depend heavily on the federal government to pay for scientific endeavors,” said The New York Times. President Donald Trump’s policies “did not start the American universities’ relative decline, which began years ago, but they could accelerate it.”

The disparity between people who can afford college may also be a factor. The data shows that “access for talented students from families outside the traditional ‘elite’ is much more restricted than it ought to be,” said Time, and “students from wealthy backgrounds are heavily overrepresented: More than 15% come from families in the top 1% of the U.S. national income distribution,” which translates to over $600,000 per year.

U.S. institutions also strive to attract foreign students, but are facing challenges from “travel bans and an anti-immigration crackdown that has swept up international students and academics,” said the Times. All of these combined issues could be leading to a decline in U.S. education supremacy. There is a “big shift coming, a bit of a new world order in global dominance of higher education,” said Phil Baty, the chief global affairs officer for Times Higher Education, to the Times. “It’s not as if U.S. schools are getting demonstrably worse, it’s just the global competition: Other nations are making more rapid progress.”

‘How the world fell in love with climbing’

Josh Noble at the Financial Times

That “climbing has piqued the interest of the world’s largest subscription streaming service is a sign of how big the pursuit has become,” says Josh Noble. The “number of people climbing has exploded — fueled by the post-pandemic boom in exercise, the sport’s addition to the Olympic program and awe-inspiring achievements from daredevil climbers.” But “some in climbing are wary of how the most dangerous version — free solo climbing — is typically what garners the most attention.”

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‘T-maxxing has gone too far’

Yasmin Tayag at The Atlantic

American men are “attempting to increase their testosterone levels — whether they need to or not,” says Yasmin Tayag. Low testosterone “really can be debilitating,” but the “average decline in testosterone is not especially large.” Up to a “third of men on TRT don’t have a deficiency,” and this “maximalist approach to testosterone is risky.” Pumping the “body full of testosterone may not alleviate the problems that patients set out to solve,” as “every patient responds to testosterone differently.”

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‘The real “civilizational erasure” is happening in America’

Fareed Zakaria at Foreign Policy

Many “MAGA luminaries often proclaim that the grave danger facing the West is ‘civilizational erasure,’ which they claim is happening in Europe,” says Fareed Zakaria. But the “West’s defining character has not been tribal or religious solidarity — that describes most of the world.” The West’s “precious, almost unique, achievement has been the limitation of state power,” but the “second Trump administration has moved sharply to erode these traditions.” The “Trump administration has declared war on civil society.”

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‘When courts become quality control’

Ronell Smith at The Dallas Morning News

Competence is “usually invisible,” says Ronell Smith. People “notice it when it’s missing — when major decisions are made quickly, explained incompletely, then ‘resolved’ only after legal challenge.” The “Trump administration’s recent Title X reversal is a case study.” Reversals are “normal. What’s different is when reversal starts to feel like the governing method: act first, clarify later and let litigation serve as the cleanup step. It’s a method we might call churn governance.”

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Colleges and universities are facing a new fraud tactic that has made them more susceptible to digital theft. Known as ghost students, hackers are exploiting pandemic-related vulnerabilities to steal millions of dollars in student financial aid.

Over the past five years, the federal government has uncovered more than $350 million in fraud perpetrated by ghost student schemes, said Jason Williams, the assistant inspector general for investigations at the Department of Education's Office of Inspector General, to ABC News. "And that's only in the universe of what we know, and what we have adjudicated."

‘Scourge’ on America’s colleges

For thousands of colleges across the country inundated with ghost students, these “sophisticated thieves have become a scourge,” ABC News said. The scammers use stolen or fake identities to enroll in online classes and apply for grants and loans, then disappear once they receive the funds. The fraudsters are “robbing the federal government of hundreds of millions of dollars and leaving an untold number of victims.”

"It's a huge issue," Williams said to ABC. As they steal identities, these “loans are not being repaid.” They are being assigned to people who “don't even know they have a debt” with the DOE until the Internal Revenue Service alerts them. Thieves have tried to steal financial aid for decades, but when the pandemic hit, “everybody went to online learning,” which “really did open the door” for more widespread fraud.

The ghost students have even “resorted to submitting homework” completed with AI: “anything to try to keep from getting dropped from a class,” said Fortune. Sometimes, “all they’ll get away with is a college email address,” but even that is valuable, “giving the scammers a veneer of legitimacy as a college student,” a security expert said, per Fortune.

The scope of the fraud is “enormous,” said ABC. In California alone, “nearly a third of all community college applicants in 2024 were identified as fraudulent,” according to the California Community Colleges system. Other states are affected by the same problem, but “with 116 community colleges, California is a particularly large target,” said The Associated Press. In some cases, “professors discover almost no one in their class is real.” Community colleges are targeted because “their lower tuition means larger percentages of grants and loans go to borrowers.”

Fighting back with AI

The federal government is “on the hook for tuition aid lost to scammers,” said ABC News. But it is the community colleges, which “accept almost all applicants through open enrollment,” that often “carry the burden of sniffing out fake applications.” Doing so requires “resources, technology and expertise that many institutions do not possess.”

The Department of Education implemented “enhanced fraud controls and identity verification requirements” last year, which “helped schools combat fake applicants,” said ABC. The DOE found that $90 million had been disbursed to ineligible students, including $30 million that went to deceased individuals whose identities had been stolen. To help “root out the fraud,” community colleges have turned to a “growing marketplace of identity verification software vendors,” ABC said.

Minnesota is using AI and has partnered with other schools and security consortia to identify new techniques used by ghost students to infiltrate their schools, said Craig Munson, Minnesota’s chief information security officer, to Fortune. “Just as we leverage AI to protect ourselves, the attackers also continue to leverage it in new and interesting ways.” It’s like an “arms race.” Every six months, the attackers “tend to stop one way of doing things and move to a different tactic.”

After being hit hard by ghost students in 2024, the California Community College system “started fighting the AI-driven scheme — with AI,” said Fortune. The CCC began using N2N’s LightLeap.AI platform to detect fraudulent enrollments last summer. Following the rollout, 79,016 fraudulent applications were detected across over half a million applications. “The only answer for a bad guy with AI is a good guy with AI,” said the CEO and founder of N2N Services, Kiran Kodithala, to Fortune.

‘The “Mississippi marathon” is teaching kids to read’

Rahm Emanuel at The Wall Street Journal

Mississippi “chose to spend less time on topics that dominate Washington’s education agenda and instead maintained a focus on what happens inside the classroom,” says Rahm Emanuel. It “restored phonics-based systems that rigorous scientific studies have shown to work” and “constructed a system to train teachers so that they are effective at teaching students to read.” Rather than “discarding public schools or educator accountability, the rest of America should adopt a model that has been proven to work.”

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‘The World Cup is out of reach for many. The hope lies outside the stadiums.’

Leander Schaerlaeckens at The Guardian

If the “shocking ticket prices for the actual World Cup will make it exclusive and inaccessible,” something “like a shadow World Cup may nevertheless emerge,” says Leander Schaerlaeckens. With a “wall built around the genuine article, scalable only by a bundle of money, a kind of bootleg version may be fashioned out of the scraps and flashes of the tournament.” It may be a “lower-case world cup, as it were, consisting of fan fests and open training sessions and pre-tournament warmup matches.”

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‘Always beware a declining superpower’

Janan Ganesh at the Financial Times

America “remains the strongest country on Earth, if by a reduced margin,” but in “another sense American decline is worse,” says Janan Ganesh. Even “under a normal president, the U.S. might be behaving badly,” as “status-anxious countries have to puff themselves up. It is a rare superpower that takes decline well.” Because the “performance of the U.S. this century has been so awesome in absolute terms,” the “nation’s relative decline can be hard to visualize. But it is there.”

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‘Mamdani might actually pull off universal child care in NYC’

Sara Pequeño at USA Today

When New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani “presented universal child care as part of his campaign platform,” some “thought it was a remarkable goal – and a far-fetched one,” says Sara Pequeño. But it “seems that dream is closer to reality, and the entire country may be better for it.” If “all goes well, this program could cement the city as a guiding light for other metropolitan areas looking to retain talent and keep parents, particularly moms, in the workforce.”

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Mississippi’s upward progress has made it the center of conversation in the education world over the past few years, as people consider how one of the poorest states could manage such significant jumps in statistics. While some are in awe of what the state has accomplished, others question whether the “Mississippi miracle” was achieved with the right kinds of strategies.

Climbing the ranks

Mississippi has risen from 49th in the country on national tests in 2013 to a top 10 state for fourth-grade reading levels, “even as test scores have fallen almost everywhere else,” said The New York Times. Adjusted for poverty and other demographic factors, Mississippi ranks first in fourth-grade reading and math and is at or near the top in eighth-grade reading and math, according to the Urban Institute.

In terms of the states that are “helping kids coming from difficult circumstances learn as much as they can,” Mississippi is doing “much better than many other states, said Michael Petrilli, the president of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, to the Times. This is “including wealthier states in affluent progressive areas.”

The state’s fourth graders “exceeded the national reading average” for the first time in 2024, said the International Business Times. The state’s overall education ranking rose to 16th nationally by 2025, its “highest ever.” Mississippi’s low-income fourth graders “now perform better than those in every other state, surpassing Michigan by 17 points.​”

How it happened

The turnaround in educational achievement has many wondering how Mississippi, with its “low education spending and high child poverty,” managed such a change, said the Times. It did not rely on common proposals such as “reducing class sizes or dramatically boosting per-student funding.” Instead, the state made sweeping policy changes, including “changing the way reading is taught,” relying on an approach known as the science of reading. It is also “embracing contentious school accountability policies other states have backed away from.”

The science of reading was a “key piece of what we did,” said Rachel Canter, the longtime leader of education reform group Mississippi First who now works at the Progressive Policy Institute, said to the Times. But people are “missing the forest for the trees if they are only looking at that.”

In addition to adjusting reading instruction, Mississippi “raised academic standards and started giving each school a letter grade, A to F,” said the Times. The state takes an “unusually strong role in telling schools what to do.” The Department of Education also deploys literacy and mathematics coaches in low-performing elementary schools to assist educators. State officials vet and approve the curriculum used by the majority of districts, which is “unusual in a country that prizes local control of schools.”

Perhaps the most controversial policy is holding back third graders who cannot read proficiently. The state was able to enact changes, in part, because it has “weak teachers’ unions,” which have “traditionally resisted accountability linked to standardized testing.”

Next steps

Mississippi is intensifying its efforts, with the education department planning to request $9 million from state lawmakers this year to “expand literacy coaching beyond the early elementary grades,” the Times said. Other states have “gone in the opposite direction” by “backing off accountability and lowering proficiency standards, sometimes in the name of equity.” Still, a handful of states, including Louisiana and Alabama, are “seeing promising results using a similar set of strategies as Mississippi.”

To fail to improve education is to “lastingly abandon a significant fraction of our children to a lifelong struggle,” said The Argument Substack. “And blue states have been failing.” They have been spending heavily on schools but have been unwilling to “muster the political will and effort necessary to hold those schools accountable for results and adopt teaching practices that actually work.”

What happened

The University of Oklahoma has removed a graduate student after she gave a student a failing grade on a psychology paper that cited the Bible as proof that “belief in multiple genders” is “demonic.” A review determined that the instructor, Mel Cuth, was “arbitrary in the grading of this specific paper,” the university said Monday, and she “will no longer have instructional duties.”

Who said what

The junior psychology major who wrote the essay appealed her zero grade and filed a religious discrimination claim. “Her case became a flashpoint in the ongoing debate over academic freedom on college campuses” after the university suspended Cuth and struck the student’s failing grade, The Associated Press said. Conservative groups and commentators made it an “online cause, highlighting” the junior’s argument “she’d been punished for expressing conservative Christian views.”

The University of Oklahoma’s Graduate Student Senate called Cuth’s removal “reprehensible.” The failed essay, meant to discuss academic research on gender expression and bullying in middle school, included a “prayer” that America’s youth “would not believe the lies being spread from Satan” about multiple genders. Cuth responded that the paper “does not answer the questions for the assignment,” relies on “personal ideology” and “is at times offensive,” though “I am not deducting points because you have certain beliefs,” according to a screenshot posted online by the school’s Turning Point USA chapter.

What next?

Cuth said through a lawyer yesterday she was “considering all of her legal remedies, including appealing this decision.”

‘A lesson in false limits’

Sally Jenkins at The Atlantic

Few “professionals suffer more from ageism than athletes,” says Sally Jenkins. Fans “want athletes to retire before they lose the luster of their prime and start looking knee sore,” an “expectation that, judging by the recent exploits of the skier Lindsey Vonn and the quarterback Philip Rivers, has cheated audiences.” Too many “athletes, however, are discouraged from competing as they age.” Vonn and Rivers “both saw an opening to compete again, and something adventurous in them said, ‘Why not?’”

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‘This Christmas, let’s ban the world’s most miserable gift-giving game’

Dave Schilling at The Guardian

It is “forced frivolity season,” and people can “say yes to just about every holiday party invite — save for one massive exception. White elephant parties,” says Dave Schilling. There isn’t a “more dispiriting feeling than unwrapping a hardcover edition of a book you’ve been meaning to read or a pair of Bluetooth headphones and having it ripped from your hands.” The “person who invented this cursed activity takes more pleasure in witnessing pain than a dominatrix.”

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‘Without railway reform, your town could be the next East Palestine’

Jess Conard at The Hill

“Three years ago, a 149-car train pulled by three locomotives carrying tons of toxic chemicals derailed in East Palestine, Ohio,” and the “scars — physical, emotional and economic — remain today,” says Jess Conard. The “safety protocols that exist are ineffective,” yet the “standards that would make railroads operate safely are ignored.” These “safety technologies are reasonable and available and could have prevented the disaster in East Palestine.” If “implemented quickly, they could also prevent a disaster in your community.”

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‘More math, not less, will lead students to success’

Bloomberg editorial board

Educators have “embraced trendy curricula that seek to make math more fun, incorporating coursework that feels more relevant to students than, say, dividing polynomials,” says the Bloomberg editorial board. These “approaches, though well-intentioned, tend to lower standards.” Not “only are core math concepts missing by design, but the rigorous statistics and computer science skills needed for more advanced coursework are also lacking.” Math “becomes fun when you practice, and to that end interventions must start early.”

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The advantage of having a college degree while job hunting is “becoming a thing of the past,” said Jonnelle Marte in Bloomberg. Historically, recent college grads have snatched up jobs more quickly than peers with only a high school diploma. But the job-finding rate for college-educated workers ages 22 to 27 has dropped sharply over the past 20 months, and is now “roughly in line” with that of young high-school-educated workers, according to new research from the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland. That concerning convergence is another sign of the dearth of entry-level opportunities for young, mostly white-collar workers. The overall unemployment rate overall for 20-to-24-year-olds hit 9.2% in September, “up 2.2 percentage points from a year prior.”

Given those vanishing job prospects, it’s no surprise that more Americans are saying college isn’t worth it, said Ben Kamisar in NBCNews.com. As recently as 2017, 49% of Americans felt that an advanced education improved their chances “to get a good job and earn more money,” compared with 47% who did not. Today, the sentiment has completely flipped, with 63% now disputing the value of a college degree. “Exploding tuition prices” are a huge factor, but the labor market is also making Americans sour on a traditional “ingredient of the American dream.” Artificial intelligence is making white-collar jobs feel riskier, while blue-collar work “is looking like a safer bet,” said Julie Jargon in The Wall Street Journal. Just ask Hannah Talley, 25, who dropped out of Texas A&M to become an auto mechanic and is now earning $53,000 a year at a Firestone shop. Meanwhile, her 22-year-old sister, Sophia, is struggling to find her way as a freelance journalist after graduating from the University of Texas.

“We can’t all be plumbers,” said Callum Borchers, also in The Wall Street Journal. There was a time after the pandemic when “skills-based hiring” that ignored credentials was in vogue. Employers at the time “didn’t have much choice” in a tight labor market. Now they “have their pick of available talent.” Faced with options, employers will increasingly “revert back to the degree as a proxy,” HR experts say, partly because it takes “more effort to determine whether someone without a degree can handle a job.” The value proposition of going to college “has stopped being a no-brainer,” said Allison Schrager in Bloomberg, but that doesn’t mean it “isn’t worth the expense for many people.” Having a degree is “a lifetime asset,” and “the average college graduate can still expect to earn $1 million more over their lifetime” than those with high school diplomas. That’s enough to give college at least a passing grade.

‘Teachers want to help English learners. We owe them the right tools.’

Javaid Siddiqi at The Hill

English learner students are “capable of making multi-year academic gains in a single school year and represent some of the most motivated learners,” says Javaid Siddiqi. The “question isn’t whether they can succeed. It’s whether we’re equipping their teachers with the tools to help them.” Every “teacher should understand strategies to help students deconstruct texts. You can’t teach students who can’t access the reading.” The “problem is that most educator preparation programs don’t teach these strategies.”

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‘Is Queens the new political bellwether of America?’

Michael Massing at The Guardian

As the “extraordinary Oval Office meeting” between President Donald Trump and New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani shows, “there’s a new bellwether in American politics,” says Michael Massing. Queens “contains multitudes. With a population of 2.3 million, it would be the nation’s fifth-largest city if it stood alone.” It is “thoroughly middle and working class — a swath of heartland America set down in pulsating, cosmopolitan New York.” Yet “national news organizations have treated the borough like flyover country.”

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‘Banning AI regulation will endanger American kids’

Michael Kleinman at Time

Despite “horrific incident after horrific incident, AI companies retain carte blanche to sell products with zero meaningful safety standards or oversight,” says Michael Kleinman. No “other industry is given such freedom to endanger people with total impunity.” A “broad range of states including Utah, Texas, and California have already stepped up with important AI regulation that would be eviscerated by preemption.” This “dramatically limits the ability of states to enact commonsense regulations to protect our children.”

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‘The Nuzzi seizure of power’

Chris Lehmann at The Nation

Future “chronicles of the utter debasement of American political journalism will have to devote an entire chapter” to oral sex, says Chris Lehmann. This “salacious discourse comes off as positively quaint next to the revelations recounted by Beltway journalist Ryan Lizza in his serial Substack breakdown of the demise of his relationship with Olivia Nuzzi.” What “becomes clear across the dreary narrations” is “that all parties are in thrall to the act of portentous narration itself.”

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As the Trump administration sets its plans in motion to reallocate the responsibilities of the Education Department, the initial steps are illuminating how President Donald Trump could fulfill his campaign pledge to bulldoze the department entirely. Education Secretary Linda McMahon has launched a public campaign to argue that states and other federal agencies could better handle the department’s work.

How does the administration plan to break up the department?

American schools are funded mainly by state and local money. Still, the Education Department “serves as a conduit for billions of dollars of federal aid going to state and local education agencies,” said The Associated Press. Agency officials said the money will continue to be distributed as outlined by Congress, but under the newly signed agreements, much of it will come from a different agency.

The Department of Labor will take over some of the largest federal funding sources for schools and colleges, including Title I money for schools serving low-income communities. Adult education programs were already moved to Labor in June. Another agreement puts the Health and Human Services in charge of a grant program for parents attending college. The State Department will oversee foreign language programs, and the Interior will take on programs supporting Native American education.

Some of the department's roles remain unchanged, such as managing the $1.6 trillion federal student loan portfolio. While student aid is unaffected, both McMahon and Trump have suggested a different federal department could better handle it. Pell Grants and federal loans will continue to be disbursed, and student loan borrowers will continue making payments. The Department of Education will also continue to oversee the accreditation process, which allows colleges to accept federal financial aid.

Money for providing educational support for students with disabilities will continue to come from the department as well. However, McMahon has suggested it could be transferred to the Department of Health and Human Services. Investigations into schools and universities that have violated disability rights law and civil rights violations will also remain untouched, though McMahon has pointed out that the Department of Justice could take those over.

Is this the end of the Department of Education?​​

Not necessarily. McMahon has acknowledged that “only Congress can eliminate the department,” but she has “vowed to work to dismantle it from within,” said The Washington Post. The Trump administration is “taking bold action to break up the federal education bureaucracy and return education to the states,” McMahon said in a statement. “Cutting through layers of red tape in Washington is one essential piece of our final mission.”

Shifting the responsibilities of the department to other agencies “will not by itself remove red tape or alter the power that Washington exerts over states and school districts,” said the Post. States and school boards already control most decisions related to education, but the department “enforces rules embedded in federal programs, such as grant requirements.”

The proposed disbanding of the department has elicited pushback from education experts and politicians. It is “difficult to see how transferring cornerstone programs” out of the department will “result in streamlined operations, especially for the nation’s small, rural and low-capacity districts,” said David Schuler, executive director of AASA, the School Superintendents Association, in a statement.

The administration is acting as if the constitutional separation of powers is a “mere suggestion,” said Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) in a statement. This is an “outright illegal effort to continue dismantling the Department of Education.” Students and families will “suffer the consequences as key programs that help students learn to read or that strengthen ties between schools and families are spun off to agencies with little to no relevant expertise.”

Others praised the administration’s decision to move forward with its plans to try to shut down the department. The shutdown of the federal government “made one thing clear: Students and teachers can go to class without heavy-handed federal intervention,” said House Education and Workforce Chair Tim Walberg (R-Mich.) in a statement, per Politico. The administration is “making good on its promise to fix the nation’s broken system by right-sizing the Department of Education to improve student outcomes.”

While most Americans may think of being a school crossing guard as a relatively safe profession, it appears that this is not the reality. A new investigation has shed light on just how deadly being a crossing guard can be, with hundreds of people injured and even killed on the job over the past decade. Experts also say there are gaps in how these statistics are gathered, meaning crossing guard injuries may be underreported.

How dangerous is it to be a crossing guard?

The investigation was helmed by The Associated Press alongside Cox Media Group television stations across the country. It found that during the last 10 years at least “230 school crossing guards across 37 states and Washington, D.C., were struck by vehicles,” said the AP. Nearly three dozen of these crossing guards were killed. The AP compiled this data from “incident and accident reports requested from nearly 200 police departments,” but it still represents “only a portion of guards injured and killed nationwide.”

Often, the drivers involved in these incidents received very little punishment: More than “70% of drivers who hit crossing guards received just traffic tickets or no charges at all,” said WSB-TV Atlanta, one of the stations that worked on the investigation. And the drivers regularly didn’t stop: As many as 40 of the 230 accidents were hit-and-runs, and “in at least six of those, law enforcement was never able to identify the driver who fled the scene.”

There are problems when it comes to tracking this data, and a “full accounting is impossible,” said the AP. There are no federal agencies that keep a comprehensive list of crossing guard accidents, and “only two states have made a serious effort to track crossing guard safety: New Jersey and Massachusetts.” Crossing guard protection “remains a patchwork of state and local policies.”

What can be done about this?

Certain states are looking at solutions through legislation. Some hope that “improved technology could eliminate the need for crossing guards to direct traffic,” said WSOC-TV Charlotte, which also worked on the investigation. There are also efforts being made to “give towns and school districts more authority to make safety changes, like lowering speed limits.”

In “2025, there are alternatives to having somebody standing out there holding up a sign and waving it,” South Carolina State Rep. David Martin (R) said to WSOC-TV. School districts “should have resources and the power to be able to do that instead of going through the government.”

Other communities are working on implementing additional safety measures. To assist with a lack of crossing guards in the Seattle School District, officials are using “community help, flashing crosswalk signs and trying to reroute traffic away from schools,” said KIRO-7 Seattle, another investigative partner.

But this still hasn’t made the job of a crossing guard any less deadly. Crossing guards and school flaggers “were in the top fifth of deadliest jobs” in 2023, said the AP, citing the most recent year with available data. This death rate is “on par with power line installers and air transportation workers.” A crossing guard is also the “only occupation in that top fifth that interacts with children daily.”

‘College football may be the last remaining communal experience we have’

Daniel Diermeier at USA Today

College sports “undoubtedly unify a community, but they also do more: They reveal and forge character,” says Daniel Diermeier. And “excelling at sports or academics isn't an either/or choice” at schools like Vanderbilt. The university takes “pride in the fact that student-athletes live in the same residential colleges as their peers, where a roommate could be a concert pianist or a double major in economics and chemical engineering,” even as a “winning football program seemed beyond our reach.”

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‘How white-collar workers could fuel a new populist movement — on the left’

Noreena Hertz at Politico

Fear that “AI will decimate the job market is growing fast among the educated middle class,” says Noreena Hertz. It is also “threatening to impact who they will vote for.” We can “expect to see the threat of being replaced by AI increasingly become a factor propelling voters toward a new cadre of populist politicians.” But “this time it will be white-collar workers driving the charge, and many will turn not to the right but to the left.”

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‘Get cellphones out of schools’

The Boston Globe editorial board

The “prohibition of cellphones may be the most clear-cut school policy choice in the United States,” says The Boston Globe editorial board. It’s a “rare moment when data validates what many can already feel anecdotally.” With the “usual caveat that correlation is not causation, the trends are too stark to ignore,” and they “make a strong case for follow-through; schools with a cellphone ban on the books but no enforcement saw no difference in student attention.”

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‘The pending disaster of a Skydance-Warners merger’

Ben Schwartz at The Nation

The “Trump administration immediately signaled its enthusiasm for a Skydance-WBD deal,” and “it’s not hard to see why,” says Ben Schwartz. But one “entity’s controlling that many movies, in theaters and on TV, television programming, news media and sports gives instant leverage to Skydance to raise prices for consumers.” It “would also continue wreaking harm to the basic canons of newsgathering.” The “merger would bode ill for Warner Bros.’ mainstay products — film and television.”

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‘It needs to be said again: Leave Britney alone’

Kat Tenbarge at The New York Times

Britney Spears can “finally live on her own terms,” but an “online chorus of onlookers has howled about how she’s displayed that freedom on social media,” says Kat Tenbarge. This “time, it isn’t just the paparazzi following Ms. Spears’ every move,” as on social media “anyone can play the role of gossipmonger.” This “creates a cacophony that is difficult to ignore.” A “large audience’s benevolence” goes “only so far before it curdles into something far more sinister.”

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‘The Lorax’s warning is clear. Will we speak for the trees and our wildlife?’

Jane Davenport at USA Today

President Donald Trump’s “administration is seeking to implement sweeping rollbacks to some of our country’s bedrock wildlife regulations,” and this “would degrade habitat on public lands, undermine decades of recovery efforts and accelerate the extinction crisis we face today,” says Jane Davenport. They “represent the modern-day ax at the base of our Truffula trees. And, unless we act, the ax will keep swinging.” This “unprecedented dismantling of our conservation framework would trade irreplaceable ecosystems for short-term profits.”

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‘How can overworked and disengaged college students still get straight A’s?’

The Dallas Morning News editorial board

Walk “onto a college campus and you’ll hear the same refrain: Students are exhausted,” says The Dallas Morning News editorial board. Students “feel exhausted and anxious, yet they keep delivering on the traditional indicators of success — good grades and impressive résumés flush with clubs and extracurriculars.” They “might be spending less time on their academic work, or turning to tools like ChatGPT to help complete assignments, but their results are stronger than ever.”

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‘The Springsteen movie shows the problem with today’s music biopics’

Carl Wilson at Slate

The “worst thing I can say about writer-director Scott Cooper’s new biopic about the making of ‘Nebraska’ is that I can’t imagine people bothering to love or to hate it that much,” says Carl Wilson. “Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere” is a “worthy try at the nearly impossible task of depicting cinematically an artist making a deeply interior turn.” But its “only real courage is in that attempt, not in its own content or form.”

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‘Dogs bred for herding sheep shouldn’t be stuck in the city. I would know — years ago, I tearfully gave one up.’

Rebecca Shaw at The Guardian

Dogs “bred for moving livestock across vast properties are now fetching a ball a few times while their owner plays Candy Crush,” says Rebecca Shaw. The “reason you want one of these dogs is because they are beautiful, amazing, intelligent creatures.” If “you are going to get one, you have to put in a lot of work to make sure they remain happy.” If “you can do that in your apartment or small backyard, that’s great, and impressive.”

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‘Why millions are failing college math — and how to fix it’

Victoria Ballerini, Ann Edwards and Katherine L. Arrington at The Hill

College students are “walking into math classrooms worried about their future — perhaps with good reason,” say Victoria Ballerini, Ann Edwards and Katherine L. Arrington. Math has “functioned less as a bridge to opportunity than as a barrier to completion.” The “challenge is made all the more frustrating because they are unconvinced of math’s relevance.” For “many students, it is taught in ways that appear abstract and disconnected from real-world applications and divorced from their aspirations.”

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‘Gutting special ed shows how little America thinks of its children’

K. Ward Cummings and Anne Tapp Jaksa at Newsweek

You “can tell a lot about a society by how it treats its most vulnerable members — like its children,” say K. Ward Cummings and Anne Tapp Jaksa. Indifference “seems to inspire President Donald Trump’s recent decision to gut the staff of the U.S. Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services.” Without “support, millions of children would be unable to access the academic opportunities that all American children are entitled to as citizens of this country.”

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‘Trump should drop his damages claim against DOJ’ 

National Review editorial board

President Donald Trump is in the “odd position, by his own admission, of ‘suing myself.’ It’s a case he should drop,” says the National Review editorial board. It “comes to money. Which Trump doesn’t need, and which would be obscene to shell out in any nontrivial amount on the taxpayers’ dime.” The “genius of our constitutional system is how many abuses it limits by separating powers. But this is the sort of ethical conflict that cannot be eliminated by procedure.”

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V levels will become the “only pathway” for young people aged 16-19 to gain vocational qualifications equivalent to an A level, the government announced yesterday.

The new level 3 qualifications “simplify” students’ decisions, and “streamline” the 900 existing vocational qualifications, allowing them to mix and match education options more easily.

They will sit alongside A levels, which have an “academic” focus, and T levels, suitable for those who are “confident about working in a certain occupational area”. V levels will offer those less sure of their career pathway more flexibility, the government’s “Post-16 education and skills” white paper said.

How would they work?

V levels will replace BTecs, which have been around since the mid-1980s. While A levels are geared towards university entrance, and a T level (a two-year course equivalent to three A levels) offers training for a specific career, V levels are designed for young people to keep their options open, said FE Week. They are tied to “rigorous and real-world job standards” and mix theoretical learning with developing practical skills.

As an example, after finishing their GCSEs, a student could study a V level in finance and accounting in conjunction with A levels in environmental science and geography. This student might then go on to an apprenticeship in the renewables sector.

Why are they needed?

V levels represent one of the first steps towards Keir Starmer’s target for two-thirds of young people to go to university, or pursue a “gold-standard apprenticeship” or equivalent qualification.

Last year “roughly one in seven” people aged between 16 and 24 were not in education, employment or training, said the Financial Times. Worryingly, the trend appears to be on the rise, with the 2024 figures representing a 1.5 percentage point increase on 2023.

Will they work?

“If you’re feeling a bit confused by it all, you’re not alone,” said HuffPost. “We’ve all heard of A levels” but they may have to “budge up” with the government’s addition of V levels. Aimed at reducing uncertainty over students’ futures, this flexible hybrid approach may inadvertently fail to direct them towards a clear end goal.

While the announcement is a “big step forwards” for level 3 education, it is “not everything we would want, of course”, said David Hughes, chief executive of the Association of Colleges. Though the plans are “ambitious and exciting”, the white paper highlights the “lack of support and funding” within post-16 education, which is plagued by “low pay in colleges” and an “absence of collaboration”.

“It is not yet clear when V levels will be introduced, how they will be rolled out, or which subjects will be on offer,” said the BBC. The government will now launch a consultation to “support the introduction of V levels”, said HuffPost.

‘AI is killing the magic’

Jemima Kelly at the Financial Times

“Will I ever again laugh quite so heartily at a comedian when I don’t know whether some of their jokes are artificially authored?” says Jemima Kelly. People are turning “increasingly to generative AI” to bypass “effortful activity.” But what “utilitarian tech bros like Sam Altman don’t seem to get is that creativity is not just about the final output; the act of being creative is itself in many ways the point.”

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‘Gaza’s traumatized children urgently need the hope education offers’

Nada Hamdona at Al Jazeera

Education is the “only means of reviving hope and helping children start to overcome the trauma of two years of genocide,” says Nada Hamdona. It can “provide a sense of normalcy and purpose,” and “ought to be Gaza’s top priority.” While the recent truce “may have put a stop to the bombs, my students are still without paper and pens.” Learning will give Gaza’s “600,000 schoolchildren” back the “structure, self-assurance and hope for a brighter future” necessary for “psychological rehabilitation.”

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‘The “anti-woke” tax that all Americans are paying’

Adam Serwer at The Atlantic

“Trumpist culture wars have made almost everything more expensive, effectively forcing all Americans to pay an anti-woke tax,” says Adam Serwer. Tariffs have not brought back any “manly jobs” and “making America whiter” is “driving food prices up and wages down, because the administration is terrorizing and deporting the immigrants who do most of the planting and picking of the American food supply.” U.S. “economic policy is now justified by a particularly silly form of right-wing identity politics.”

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‘Politics makes for bad therapy’

Jonathan Alpert at The Wall Street Journal

“Instead of acting as neutral guides, too many therapists now act as transmitters of political polarization,” says Jonathan Alpert. “Therapists often pathologize politics, treating patients with particular viewpoints as abnormal or unhealthy.” They may “label progressives as stuck in ‘woke fantasies’” or “shame conservatives for ‘bigoted thinking.’” But by “validating partisan rigidity in clients,” therapists “function less as healers than as vectors of this new disorder.” Neutrality “isn’t etiquette — it’s the foundation of therapy.”

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‘Is this how we should raise children?’

Louise Perry at The New York Times

Modern people “like to imagine ourselves as autonomous individuals, but in the natural human life cycle we spend a large proportion of our lives dependent on others,” says Louise Perry. “We often feel a longing for something like a village,” especially “college-educated, relatively affluent Americans who moved away from their extended families in pursuit of career opportunities.” Yet “even though forming communities” would “solve many economic and practical problems,” particularly in raising children, few people actually “make the attempt.”

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‘America is sliding toward illiteracy’

Idrees Kahloon at The Atlantic

The “past decade may rank as one of the worst in the history of American education,” says Idrees Kahloon. The “decline began well before the pandemic, so Covid-era disruptions alone cannot explain it.” While “smartphones and social media probably account for some of the drop,” there is “another explanation: a pervasive refusal to hold children to high standards.” In short, “schools have demanded less and less from students — who have responded, predictably, by giving less and less.”

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‘LA’s fires report exposes America’s broken alert system’

Kelly McKinney at the Los Angeles Times

The recently released “after-action report on the January wildfires” in Los Angeles “confirms what has become increasingly clear in recent years, as we witness failure after failure: We don’t know how to execute emergency alerting in this country,” says Kelly McKinney. “For all our technology, for all our wealth, Americans face a dangerous future with hundreds of cumbersome, inconsistent and dangerously slow state and local systems duct-taped together. Unless we face this head-on, more will needlessly die.”

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‘Want higher birth rates? Get on board with remote work.’

Gleb Tsipursky at The Hill

If the “Trump administration and cultural conservatives want more babies, they should encourage more remote work,” says Gleb Tsipursky. “Working from home trims commutes, thus returning valuable hours to households. A parent can handle a pediatric visit without blowing up a shift schedule. Mom can breastfeed without logistical relays. Dad can cover school pickup without hiring a costly nanny.” Ultimately, “people want support that makes everyday life with kids workable.”

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Many students are turning to technology that predates the rise of smartphones. It is a direct —and creative — reaction to the cellphone bans instituted by schools across the country.

The future is retro

Schools with so-called “bell-to-bell” phone bans have turned into looking glasses, peering into the recent past. Around the hallways and in the classrooms, old technology has been making a comeback. Gen Z and Gen Alpha’s “appreciation for flip phones, digital cameras and other gadgets of the recent past is well-documented,” said The New York Times. That fondness “seems to have taken on new urgency in response to a wave of smartphone restrictions in schools that has reached more than a dozen states.” As a result, you can find old iPods, Walkmans and Polaroid cameras in the hands of many an affected student.

The younger generation’s nostalgia for a time before smartphones is not new. “The breakneck speed of tech has led to a fondness for a quieter, more comfortable time,” said The Independent. This has especially been true since the Covid-19 pandemic. Post-Covid shutdowns, "cellphones seem to function as almost an extra limb for my students, an ever-present extension of both their body and mind,” Joel Snyder, a government and economics teacher in Los Angeles, said in a piece for Chalkbeat. This has led many to miss a “simpler time when their entire lives didn’t exist inside their phones, which, at that point, were just gadgets akin to a portable CD player or a Game Boy,” said The New York Times.

The nostalgia doesn’t stop at technology. One school with a cellphone ban also brought back non-Internet games and activities. “The ‘old-school things’ ballooned from puzzles and chess boards to a rotating craft of the month: a sewing machine, a laser engraver, a heat press, bedazzling materials and calligraphy pens,” said The Washington Post.

Log off

Schools that have instituted cellphone bans have seen a marked change in student behavior. “The most common things they say are that discipline problems are down,” Jonathan Haidt, the author of “The Anxious Generation,” said to the BBC. There is also “just a lot less fighting, a lot less drama,” and “truancy is down.” This is because “school is a lot more fun when you can actually talk with your friends and play with them and laugh with them.”

Many schools with the bans found that not having cellphones was generally well-received by both students and teachers. “You just saw a lot more people being outgoing and finding people to talk to when they might not have in the past,” Madeline Ward, a former student at Bethlehem High School in upstate New York, said to the Post. “Students deserve more,” said Snyder. “More space to be present in the classroom, more opportunity to engage with each other and more time away from screens.”

‘A tariff lesson for coffee drinkers’

The Wall Street Journal editorial board

Trump’s “tariffs are coursing through the American (and world) economy,” says The Wall Street Journal editorial board. Every “American coffee drinker either is paying more or soon will as a result.” The “U.S. has only a few regions suitable for growing coffee, and the amount they produce isn’t grande.” In the “case of coffee, tariffs don’t even protect a domestic constituency. They are a tax on American consumption pure and simple — a tax on MAGA’s forgotten man.”

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‘Indonesia’s climate ambitions can’t shine in the dark’

Sisilia Nurmala Dewi at Al Jazeera

There's “no sugarcoating what many Indonesians feel about the recent violence: anger but also dread and fear,” says Sisilia Nurmala Dewi. The “climate movement, too, is drawing the line.” Both “reducing emissions and protecting natural resources are crucial to keeping the planet cool and protecting the people from even more devastating climate impacts.” But “instead of using these resources wisely for wealth redistribution and sustainable national development, our leaders have repeatedly been accessories to corruption and environmental plunder.”

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‘As a young mom, I gave up alcohol. Why more Americans are joining me.’

Ericka Andersen at USA Today

Eliminating “alcohol fits in perfectly with a wave of public research on and interest in reducing toxins in food, products and technology,” says Ericka Andersen. If “you’re worried about toxins in the body, it’s almost laughable not to start with alcohol.” If “alcohol remains absent, we could see a generation with fewer cancers, drunken driving tragedies and less long-term organ damage — a glimpse of a healthier future.” People are “taking back control of their health.”

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‘American students’ reading skills are in crisis’

The Dallas Morning News editorial board

The “reality is that students are doing worse in reading, if they are reading at all,” says The Dallas Morning News editorial board. These “losses could be attributed to any variety of factors: endless scrolling on social media, increases in screen time or the pandemic’s impact on learning. But whatever the causes, the consequences are clear.” Students are “graduating with dangerously weak reading skills, at a moment when communication and critical thinking have never been more essential.”

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The care system for children in England doesn’t represent value for money, according to a new report, with a record number of those in residential care living in challenging conditions and often moved miles away from where they grew up.

The cost of children’s homes has doubled in the last five years but the current standards of care nowhere near reflect that. A report by the National Audit Office (NAO) has described the system as “dysfunctional”.

It’s another damning indictment of a sector that has been dogged by staff shortages and higher expenses, leaving vulnerable children unsupported.

The state of affairs

Protecting children in care has become a problem right across the country. “It is a moral failure” that thousands of children are abandoned at critical times in their lives, said a Commons Education Committee report in July, with “urgent action” required to “fix this broken system”.

On a local level, councils are struggling to find enough placements of a high standard for children. Many bounce from home to home, with no consistency or stability to speak of. A history of abuse and neglect affects two-thirds of children in care in England, said Sky News.

The challenges don’t stop there, with the problems they face continuing into adulthood. Due to “systemic failings” of the care system as a whole, those who emerge from care are “three times more likely not to be in education, training, or employment than their peers”.

Better information about the “supply and the availability” of places in care, but more importantly of specific “children’s needs”, should be the top priority for the Department for Education, said the lead author of the NAO report, Emma Willson.

Crunching the numbers

Like many concerns at the moment, a central obstacle for care providers is funding and allocating resources effectively. Care facilities do not come cheap but the situation is beginning to spiral out of control.

Overall, the total cost of residential care in England last year was £3.1 billion, rising from £1.6 billion 2019/20, said the Financial Times. The average cost to local authorities of placements in children’s homes rose by a third to nearly £320,000 in 2023/24, meaning an average cost of around £6,100 per child a week.

In the most extreme circumstances, children with complex needs require “24-hour supervision by multiple staff” and councils had been charged up to £3.3 million a year for a single placement, said The Guardian.

Profit-run sector

Companies that are privately owned, often funded by private equity, lie at the heart of the sector. They look to take advantage of the broken system, said The Guardian, with the fees they charge far surpassing the rate of inflation, with some of the biggest providers “enjoying average annual profit rates of 22.6% a year”.

Private firms were “racking up huge profits” due to market failure, and can load the children’s homes with “high levels of debt”, which often leads to “heightening the risk of market instability”.

Their presence in the sector has grown. Now, 84% of children’s homes are run for profit, said the BBC. Because they are independent, many private care providers can “cherry pick the children they take” from councils “based on how much support they need and how much profit this allows”.

Many schools across the U.S. have floated the idea of banning cellphones in classrooms, and these bans largely have bipartisan support. Currently, 35 states have some rules or policies regarding classroom phone use. By another metric, “bans on phones are being enacted or proposed in at least 40% of national education systems, with the aim of helping students focus,” said The Economist. Despite this, not everyone agrees that completely banning cellphone use is a good idea, and some believe it can cause different types of harm.

Pro: Reduces distractions

Banning cellphone use in class can lead to more focused students. “The human brain is incapable of thinking more than one thing at a time,” said Michael Rich, an associate professor of pediatrics and an associate professor of social and behavioral sciences at Harvard University, to the Harvard Gazette. Cellphone usage in class can lead to distractions for all students, not just the one using the phone. “Students’ phones can make notification noises that disrupt class and embarrass the students,” said the East Hampton Star.

Removing cellphones “created an environment more conducive to learning” and led to “less student chatter and disruptive behavior,” said The Economist. One study also found that in classrooms without cellphones, “even teachers used their own phones less” and “they also became more engaged with pupils.”

Con: Reduces some learning opportunities

Technology is integral to today’s society. “Students need to learn the risks and opportunities that come with technology, develop critical skills and understand to live with and without technology,” said a 2023 report by UNESCO. “Shielding students from new and innovative technology can put them at a disadvantage.”

Students need to be taught “how to use cellphones and when to use them responsibly,” said Candice Breaux, the career and technical education supervisor at West Baton Rouge Parish Schools, to Education Week. “How do they know when it’s appropriate, where it’s appropriate, how it’s appropriate to use them?”

Pro: Can reduce the risk of mental health struggles

A lack of cellphones could make many students feel more comfortable. One school in Texas that implemented a ban “reported more participation by students and also said they saw student anxiety plummet — mainly because students weren’t afraid of being filmed at any moment and embarrassing themselves,” said NPR. This also reduces cyberbullying.

Constant access to social media has led young people to become more depressed. “School hours could provide a large chunk of the day that they get a break from screens, which might have a positive impact on mental health,” said Care.com.

Con: Challenging to implement

Enforcing cellphone policies “adds one more task to a teacher’s long to-do list,” said Care.com. It may become more burdensome to enforce a total ban than just to teach students to use phones responsibly. “Teachers could spend a lot of energy and effort fighting [cellphones], but I don’t know how far they really would get,” Lauren Tavarez, director of digital learning at the Ector County Independent School District in Texas, said to Education Week.

In addition, even if a ban is implemented, “there are still tablets and laptops — intended as aids to classroom instruction but offering many of the same temptations to distraction,” said The Economist.

Pro: Improves grades and learning

Removing cellphones reduces cheating. No cellphone access forces students to learn the material. “With virtually everything at their fingertips on an Internet-connected phone, students can not only look up answers but also use AI chatbots to generate text, thus evading in-class writing assignments,” said Britannica. Without phone access, students pay attention and absorb the material.

“For low-achieving students, even modest differences can really matter,” Louis–Philippe Beland, an economist at Carleton University in Ontario, said to The Economist. A study performed in India found that students in phone-free classrooms performed better academically, especially in non-STEM classes.

Con: Reduces sense of safety

Banning cellphones limits students’ abilities to contact their loved ones in case of an emergency. The most common reason given by parents to keep school phone access was to be “able to get in touch if there’s an emergency,” said NBC News. This is especially pertinent with the rise of gun violence in schools.

“It is a very sad state of affairs that one of the reasons we think we have to have phones in the classroom is so when the shooting starts, students can call and say goodbye or let people know that this is happening,” Robin Gurwitch, a psychologist at Duke University, said to NBC News.

‘America’s 9/11 veterans deserve promised VA care. Congress must step up for us.’

Juwon Nichols at USA Today

Denied claims by the Department of Veterans Affairs “often weren’t errors,” says Juwon Nichols. They were of a “deeply troubling mindset in which VA employees looked out for themselves first.” The “prevailing mindset was to follow procedure, not advocate for the veteran, leaving him mired in red tape with no clear path to care.” Congress “should pass the CHOICE for Veterans Act, giving veterans faster access to the best care our medical system can provide.”

Read more

‘Colleges love this unfair admissions process. Eliminate it.’

Maya Prakash at The Washington Post

“College admissions in the United States have become divorced from merit,” says Maya Prakash. “I’m not referring to contentious arguments over legacy admissions, affirmative action or athletic recruitment. I’m talking about early decision.” This process “rests on the flawed and unfair assumption that a student’s early commitment makes them a stronger applicant.” Early decision “can be the right choice,” but “decisions should reflect a student’s qualifications, plain and simple — not their willingness to commit early.”

Read more

‘Say her name’

Andrew Day at The American Conservative

The “president should do more to highlight the murder” of Iryna Zarutska, a Ukrainian refugee in Charlotte, North Carolina, “discussing it in blunt terms to seize the political advantage, kick off an honest conversation about violent crime in America, and restore public safety,” says Andrew Day. A “sane criminal justice system would have seized the opportunity to keep” the suspect “off the streets, considering the great lengths to which he had gone over many years to demonstrate the extreme danger he posed to others.”

Read more

‘We need to eliminate the Freshman 15’

Mallary Tenore Tarpley at Time

The “Freshman 15 is a myth,” says Mallary Tenore Tarpley. Studies “show the average weight gain for first-year students is actually around two to three pounds. Far more concerning is the fact that the median age of onset for eating disorders in the United States coincides with the typical age of college enrollment.” We “hardly hear about this, though, because societal conversations tend to focus far more on obesity than on eating disorders.”

Read more

'Who can save France now?'

The Wall Street Journal editorial board

Can "anyone else save France? That's the $1.1 trillion question after another administration collapsed," says The Wall Street Journal editorial board. What "happens next is anyone's guess." Maybe President Emmanuel Macron "will try to soldier on, tapping some other hapless soul to manage an unmanageably divided legislature." Voters "risk finding themselves short of options, in part because they refuse to reward politicians who tell the truth about France's fiscal mess and economic malaise."

Read more

'Challenging narratives and reshaping action — protecting education under attack'

Maleiha Malik and Siraj Khan at Newsweek

This has been a "devastating year for many reasons — not least the impact of displacement due to war, starvation and domestic conflicts," say Maleiha Malik and Siraj Khan. Schools are "increasingly being turned into battlegrounds, or bombarded to rubble," and "every classroom that is destroyed or bombed tells a woeful human story: the confident arrogation by some of the destruction of the lives of others, with absolute impunity." This "simply cannot be. Accountability must take place."

Read more

'Memo to the CEO: office romance is also the board's business'

Financial Times editorial board

The "problem of how, or even whether, to regulate a natural human instinct persists. The evidence suggests codes of conduct are not working," says the Financial Times editorial board. The "problems for companies and their boards arise when an imbalance of power leads to conflicts of interest." The "temptation to leave consensual office romances alone is still strong," but CEOs "operate at a different level." The "boss should have to declare any close workplace relationships to the board."

Read more

'From Washington to Westminster, the populist right needs to erase history to succeed. It's up to us to resist.'

Kojo Koram at The Guardian

It "might seem absurd for a president juggling a global trade war caused by his avalanche of tariffs" to be "fretting over museum artifacts," says Kojo Koram. But "these attacks are not just distractions from the major issues; they provide the ideological justification for real material and legislative changes that will impact people's day-to-day lives." Trump can "use these conversations as the narrative doorway through which laws can be passed that erode rights for poor and vulnerable communities."

Read more

"It's a no-brainer," said John A. Torres in Florida Today. Banning phones in schools is "the right thing to do for our kids." Florida is one of 17 states, plus Washington, D.C., enacting all-day phone bans as students head back to school. With 68% of parents supporting some phone limits, 35 states now restrict phone usage in public schools. Some states are imposing "bell-to-bell" prohibitions on using phones for the entire day, while others bar them during class time, with students granted access between classes and during lunch. Research shows smartphone usage increases children's risk of mental health problems, "from depression to cyberbullying to an inability to focus and learn," said Mary Ellen Klas in Bloomberg. This is one of the "few things most American politicians seem to agree upon," with states as blue as California and as red as Kentucky passing bans. Over 90% of children have a phone by 14, and about half have one by 10. If you want kids to thrive, "lock up their phones."

Actually, most parents "want smarter rules," not total bans, said Keri Rodrigues in USA Today. All-day bans ignore the bigger picture. "In a country where mass shootings are too common," children need to be able to contact their parents in emergencies and parents need to be able to call kids. At shootings in Uvalde, Texas, and Parkland, Fla., "cellphones saved lives," helping students guide first responders to the shooters. Treating phones as pure distractions suggests they "don't have a legitimate and even essential role in students' lives." Technology is an inescapable part of modern life, and schools should be teaching students to "build healthy relationships" with it.

"Before the pearl clutching starts about emergencies, let's be clear," said Cameron Smith in The Tennessean: Most bans allow cellphone use in emergencies. The bans address an ongoing, daily crisis: An entire generation's brains "are quite literally being rewired by constant connectivity," resulting in "the erosion of focus, critical thinking, and the ability to engage deeply with material." But enforcing phone restrictions "will be about as easy as herding cats on roller skates," so parental support is "absolutely crucial." Smartphones are addictive, and have put adults and kids alike "onto attention treadmills." At home, Mom and Dad should also impose limits and model healthy cellphone behavior. We can't "applaud school board policies and then undermine their efforts the moment the bell rings for dismissal."

It's been over a decade since "Educating Yorkshire" first "melted the nation's hearts", as we watched English teacher Mr Burton help his stammering pupil, Musharaf Asghar, to "find his voice", said Helen Brown in The Telegraph.

Channel 4 has returned to Thornhill Community Academy where Mr Burton has been promoted to headteacher. "And, despite calls for our education system to be overhauled since Covid, high-school life seems largely unchanged since the cameras last trundled down the corridors."

Mr Burton is still "jovial and dedicated, if a little wearier", and the "sturdy" format of the show remains intact. Much like the first series, the "unheard and unseen" production team behind the camera "do a great job of coaxing moving insight" from individual pupils.

The revival is "perfectly timed", said Phil Harrison in The Guardian. Earlier this year, Netflix's "Adolescence" prompted a "national orgy of hand-wringing" about the state of education, with its portrayal of "overstretched" teachers as "little more than crowd control" for their maladjusted pupils.

It is comforting, then, that "plenty" has stayed the same at Thornhill since season one. We're introduced to Amy, a "thoroughly eccentric and entirely charming kid grappling with Tourette syndrome and the absurd (but, at 12, deadly serious) micropolitics of schoolyard friendships". And we get a snapshot of dilemmas faced by the "very clever and very disruptive" Riley, who keeps "clowning" in class.

Great care has been taken with the editing "to make these children hilarious, but never the butt of the joke; to show their vulnerability, but also their strength". Gradually a picture emerges of their "muddled impulses and motivations", and the factors that feed into their developing personalities. Many of the kids are supported with carefully tailored pastoral care. "Does it feel like a necessary blast of optimism? You bet it does."

The streamlining of footage into "simple, uplifting narratives" is part of the show's appeal, said Louis Chilton in The Independent. But its inability to "scrutinise the institution it depicts" is also what leaves it "ultimately superficial as a work of documentary filmmaking".

Still, there is something "heartening" about watching kids behave in much the same way they always have. Young people are often portrayed as "inscrutable beings, half-human, half-mobile phone – and yet, here, we can see they're just children being children".

The show isn't particularly inventive, said Emily Baker in The i Paper. However, when generational divisions are so "fraught", and "new moral panics" about the world our kids are growing up in crop up constantly, "this understated, quietly groundbreaking documentary is a tonic. Its message is clear and undeniable: the kids are all right."

President Trump wants to make American schoolchildren traumatized again, said Rex Huppke in USA Today. Seeking to whip the nation's youth into shape, he recently signed an executive order to reinstate the Presidential Fitness Test — an exercise in humiliation dreamed up "when emotionally torturing children was legal." A version of the test was first launched in the late 1950s by President Dwight Eisenhower, who was alarmed that our youngsters lagged Europeans in basic fitness. In the following decades, public school students ages 10 to 17 were, once or twice a year, required to run a mile and complete a sit-and-reach, a pull-up, and other exercises. For millions of us non-jocks, it was sheer torture. I recall weeping while staggering a mile in the Florida heat, and being made to "feel like week-old meatloaf." President Barack Obama sensibly scrapped the program in 2012, replacing it with a focus on encouraging lifelong healthy behavior. But Trump, of course, "wants to return America to imagined glory days" when "bullying was encouraged."

The test "changed my life"—for the better, said Steve Magness in Slate. I was too skinny for football and not coordinated enough for baseball, but while taking the test in second grade I discovered I was the fastest runner in my year. It "ignited a passion" that led me to become a high school running champ and later a coach. Sure, sit-ups and shuttle runs gave some kids' anxiety, but so does going to the whiteboard to solve a math problem, and "we don't get rid of math tests." The criticism just shows how liberals will malign anything Trump does, said Ingrid Jacques in USA Today. About 20% of American children are obese—up from 5% in the 1970s—and only 2 in 5 young adults are fit enough to serve in the military. That's a national security issue, and fighting America's flab "should be something we can all agree on."

I don't know if the test is a good or bad idea for kids, said Jill Twiss in The Daily Beast. But I can only laugh that it's being resurrected by a president who mainlines Big Macs and would struggle to do a single sit-up. Then there's the guy Trump has put in charge of the test, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. He chugs raw milk, swims in sewage, and looks like a steroid-jacked Ken doll "left in the sun for approximately 938 years." What will their fitness benchmarks be? "Roadkill lifting? Social climbing?" Trump gave no details. But in the spirit of his administration, the challenge will surely permit cheating and require PE teachers "to accept bribes for higher scores."

Advancing your education through a graduate-level degree may seem like a no-brainer. But as it turns out, deciding whether or not grad school is worth your time and money can be a little more complicated.

Making the determination boils down to whether the "potential for improved employment prospects and higher long-term earnings outweigh the cost of obtaining a graduate degree, especially if you have to take on debt to pay for it," said The Wall Street Journal. The answer will vary from person to person, depending on factors like "what specific degree you are pursuing — and how much of a salary boost you can expect from it — and how much of a burden your total debt load would be."

Here are four essential questions to ask yourself in making your decision.

How much will it cost?

On average, "total tuition for some two-year, full-time graduate degrees can cost more than $100,000, and doctoral or professional programs often cost even more," said U.S. News & World Report. As a result, many students pursuing an advanced degree need to take out student loans.

If you can find ways to minimize costs, that may tip the scales in favor of grad school. For instance, you can look out for scholarship and grant opportunities, as well as programs that offer funding. Even selecting a program that is part-time or online can make a difference, as that might allow you to continue working while attending.

What impact will it have on your financial future?

The effects of grad school costs are not isolated to when you are attending — they can also have major implications for your financial future. This is especially true if you already have undergrad debt. When you are saddled with steep student loan payments, that can prevent you from progressing toward other financial goals, like buying a house or saving for retirement.

Instead of pushing the question of repayment down the road, make it part of your decision-making process. "It's not a 'Should I go to grad school' question. It's a 'Should I go to this grad school if I have to repay X dollars,'" said certified financial planner Ryan Frailich to the Journal.

Will it increase your earning potential?

Another crucial factor to consider is the effect an advanced degree will have on your future salary. If you would be earning significantly more after attending grad school than you would otherwise, that could help to offset the costs you assume.

Take the time to research "starting salaries for your program's graduates" as well as how much "people in the field ultimately earn," said Investopedia. Then, do the math to see whether you will come out ahead, or if borrowing costs will eat up the difference.

Could it broaden your career prospects?

Finances are not everything. When deciding on grad school, it is also important to evaluate "what kind of job you want and how that job relates to the degree you are considering," said Investopedia. Interrogate whether grad school is a necessary stepping stone on that path. For some fields, the answer will be yes. For others, you may be able to get there through work experience and networking, as opposed to earning an advanced degree.

The cost of graduate school can be prohibitive for prospective students without the help of loans. And soon, borrowers planning to take out federal student loans for graduate or professional school will face stricter limits on how much they can take out.

As part of the recently-passed Trump budget bill's student loan shifts, beginning July 1, 2026, graduate students can borrow only $20,500 per year, with a $100,000 lifetime limit. Meanwhile, professional students (think med school or law school) will have an annual cap of $50,000 and an overall borrowing limit of $200,000.

Of course, borrowing less is not inherently a bad thing — the less you borrow, the less you will have to repay later, plus interest. However, the new cap means some students "will fall short" on getting the funding they need, said The New York Times. Private student loans are technically an alternate option, but they have stricter eligibility criteria, fewer borrower protections and often steeper interest rates.

Here are some other ways to help cover the cost of grad school.

Focus your search on affordable programs

One easy way to lower your grad school tab is to find a more affordable program to attend. You might "consider enrolling in an online program or in-state public university," said Bankrate. If you do not have an in-state program you want to attend, check out the surrounding states' options as well. "Some states have agreements with neighboring states that allow out-of-state students to attend college at in-state rates," which can offer major savings.

Opting for a shorter program can also minimize costs — "for a master's degree, one-year programs cost half as much as two-year programs, and in the end, you still get the degree," said Investopedia.

Apply for scholarships, fellowships and grants

Scholarships, fellowships and grants are another way to help cover your costs — and, unlike student loans, this is money that you typically will not have to repay later.

Scholarships are "usually awarded based on merit or achievement." This is similar to fellowships, which are often "awarded to applicants with exemplary achievements," though they may also "require research in return for the reward," said NerdWallet.

Grants, on the other hand, are more likely to be based on a student's financial need. That said, there are also grants available for those "pursuing careers in designated high-need fields," such as teaching in an area in need of teachers or in a typically understaffed subject area.

Work while you are in school

While perhaps not the most appealing option, working even part-time while you attend grad school can go a long way toward cutting down costs. You might not even have to leave campus to do so; many programs have research and teaching assistantships, which "typically cover at least part of tuition and pay a periodic stipend in exchange for research or classroom instruction," said U.S. News & World Report.

Working off-campus can have its benefits, too. Some employers will help you pay for school while you work for them, an arrangement known as tuition assistance. The arrangement may be more common than you think — "47% of employers offer some kind of undergraduate or graduate tuition assistance," said NerdWallet, citing a 2020 survey by the Society for Human Resource Management.

The "MAGA takeover of higher education" is underway, said Chris Lehmann in The Nation. Columbia University agreed last week to pay $221 million to settle allegations from the Trump administration that it indulged "antisemitism in student protests against the Gaza war and in academic curricula." The school also agreed to a raft of Trump-imposed restraints, including a ban on diversity considerations in hiring and admissions, the reporting of expelled foreign students to the federal government, and a "resolution monitor" who will scrutinize Columbia for "the whiff of anything resembling affirmative action." The university's acting president, Claire Shipman, presented this "rushed capitulation" as a victory for academic independence that will let Columbia reclaim $400 million in frozen federal funding. In fact, all Shipman has achieved is creating a template for the shakedown of other schools: Harvard is now mulling a $500 million settlement to recover $2.6 billion in frozen funds.

"For all its flaws, the Columbia settlement is not nearly as bad as it could have been," said Stephen L. Carter in Bloomberg. The school did not have to admit any wrongdoing, the government relented on demands for information on students' immigration status, and the agreement does not give the government license to outright "dictate faculty hiring, university hiring, admission decisions, or the content of academic speech." Columbia could have easily avoided this punishment, said National Review in an editorial. Decades ago, it should have stopped the spread of antisemitism in its corridors and cracked down on a progressive ideology that tolerates the persecution of "disfavored minorities." That hatred became visible to many Americans only after the Oct. 7, 2023, massacres in Israel, when antisemitic protesters subjected Jewish students and faculty to venom and violence. The Trump administration has now forced Columbia back to "normalcy," and "other schools should follow in its footsteps."

"This deal won't end Columbia's torture," said Columbia economics professor Suresh Naidu in The New York Times. University leaders are fooling themselves if they think they can trust a capricious administration that rips up trade deals it negotiated with longtime U.S. allies such as Canada and Mexico. And the agreement won't placate the administration's "Project 2025 apparatchiks," who are explicitly out to transform U.S. higher education into a tool for ideological control. All it will take to shatter this deal is "a campus protest, an edgy syllabus, or even an acerbic student opinion piece." Then "new vistas of anti-Americanism on campus will be discovered, and the attacks will continue."

The 529 plan has long been a staple for college savings. These tax-advantaged accounts allow funds to grow tax-deferred, with tax-free withdrawals permitted for qualified education expenses. And now, they are about to have a little bit more flexibility.

As part of the budget reconciliation bill enacted in July, 529 plans can be "used to help pay for a broader range of post-high school credentials, like certification in specialties like auto mechanics or food safety, and related expenses," said The New York Times. The law has also "expanded what elementary and high school expenses can be paid for with a 529."

Expanded use of funds for credentialing programs

One of the most notable changes to 529 college savings plans under the Trump tax bill is that "families can now use 529 plans for credentialing programs such as welding, aviation mechanics and other trade certifications," said Saving for College, a financial education website. Tax-free withdrawals from 529 plans are permitted for a range of costs associated with these programs and others, including "tuition, miscellaneous fees, books, exam costs and supplies for programs," as well as "continuing education fees that may be required to keep a credential active," said Kiplinger.

While this shift certainly provides a big boost for those pursuing trades and vocational careers, it can also help those seeking professional licenses and certifications. Under the changes, 529 plan funds are also usable for costs like "CPA exam prep and fees, bar exam review and registration costs and licensing exams for fields like law, accounting and finance," said Saving for College.

For expenses to qualify, however, students must be in courses at "'recognized' credential programs, such as those on lists maintained by each state under a federal law passed in 2014, and those included in a special system maintained by the Department of Veterans Affairs," or in "programs approved by formal credentialing organizations," said the Times.

Higher withdrawal limits for K-12 expenses

The Trump tax bill doubles the amount that families can withdraw from 529 plans tax-free each year for K-12 expenses. Previously, up to $10,000 a year could be "withdrawn tax-free from a 529 fund to pay for kindergarten through Grade 12 tuition at private or public schools," said the Times. But "starting tax year 2026," withdrawals of "up to $20,000 annually" are allowed, said Kiplinger.

More qualified expenses for K-12 withdrawals

Alongside the increased withdrawal limit for K-12 expenses, the definition of what K-12 expenses are considered qualified is also expanding. While previously the use of tax-free withdrawals was "limited to tuition," now 529 plans can "cover an extensive range of additional K-12 costs," said Saving for College. "For instance, books and standardized test fees (like the SAT or ACT) are 'qualified expenses' under the new law for 529 plans, as are online learning materials, certain tutoring fees and dual enrollment fees for college courses taken in high school," said Kiplinger.

Fresh from embarrassing climbdowns on winter fuel payments and welfare reform, the government is bracing itself for another battle over plans to overhaul special needs education in England.

"If they thought taking money away from disabled adults was bad, watch what happens when they try the same with disabled kids," one Labour backbencher told The Times, summing up the mood in the party and among many parents.

What is special needs education?

Special educational needs and disabilities (Send) covers children and young people with physical, emotional and behavioural difficulties including dyslexia, autism, ADHD, communication and mobility issues.

Services are provided by councils, with roughly 630,000 of those with the highest needs supported by specialised education, health and care plans (EHCPs). Offering dedicated one-to-one assistance, specialist equipment, speech and language therapy, and even subsidised travel to and from school, these "provide some statutory certainty in a system that is overstretched and underfunded", said The Guardian.

Why does it need reforming?

There is widespread agreement among parents, councils and politicians that the current Send system is no longer fit for purpose. Complaints to the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman have nearly tripled over the past five years, said Schools Week. Endemic assessment delays and funding and access issues are "symptomatic of a system that is in complete crisis", said Sharon Chappell, the assistant ombudsman.

Send support covers nearly two million young people, costing the Department for Education £10.7 billion a year, according to the National Audit Office. Critics point to a sharp rise in the number of young people diagnosed with ADHD and autism over the past decade, which has put an unsustainable strain on local education support services.

The strain on Send services has, counterintuitively, worked in favour of certain pupils who would ordinarily have been "barred" from mainstream education, but have instead been "folded into mainstream schools with success", said Cristina Odone in The Spectator.

What is the government proposing?

With a full reform package not expected to be made public until the autumn, "we don't yet have any firm details, and that is part of the problem", said The Guardian. Among MPs there is concern that talk of overhauling the system may, in reality, be just another cost-cutting exercise aimed at balancing the budget.

Ministers hope that by increasing the "number of places in Send units at mainstream schools", they can "eventually phase out the need for individual EHCPs over time" for all but "those with the most complex needs", said The i Paper. This has sounded alarm bells for parents and advocacy groups, who fear the withdrawal of vital support. Save Our Children’s Rights said "the idea that 'units' could somehow replace or supersede EHCPs and the rights they embody is worrying and wrong".

In an open letter to The Guardian signed by more than 100 special needs charities and campaigners, Save Our Children's Rights warned that without the statutory support provided by EHCPs, it is "extremely unlikely that ministers will achieve their aim of more children with Send thriving, or even surviving, in mainstream education".

And parents of children with Send "represent a not insignificant protest vote", said The Spectator. "The government angers them at its peril."

What happened

The Supreme Court Monday paved the way for President Donald Trump's administration to conduct mass layoffs across the Department of Education without approval from Congress. The decision lifts a May injunction blocking Trump's executive order aimed at carrying out his campaign promise of closing the department. All three liberal justices dissented.

Who said what

Trump celebrated the decision on his Truth Social platform, calling it a "major victory" for students and parents. The ruling "lifts the handcuffs off" the administration so it can "get education back to the states," Education Secretary Linda McMahon told Fox News. But Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote in a 19-page dissent that the court was expediting the administration's "intent to break the law" and that "the threat to our Constitution's separation of powers is grave."

The DOE's staff of 4,000 has already been "greatly diminished" — by about half — since January, said The New York Times. Eliminating it entirely would require an act of Congress, and "most Americans want to preserve the department," The Wall Street Journal said, citing polling. Still, the ruling "continues a winning streak for the president's efforts to trim the federal government and assert his authority over the executive branch," said The Washington Post.

What next?

Legal challenges to the executive order will continue in lower courts, but some employees received notice of their termination almost immediately following the SCOTUS decision.

What happened

The University of Pennsylvania said Tuesday it will bar transgender students from its women's sports teams as part of a deal with the Trump administration. Penn also agreed to retroactively strip champion trans female swimmer Lia Thomas of her records and titles and to apologize to other swimmers "disadvantaged" by her participation on the women's team during the 2021-22 season.

Who said what

Tuesday's settlement is the latest development in President Donald Trump's "ongoing campaign to remake higher education" by using taxpayer dollars to punish universities for policies that have provoked his "ire," The Wall Street Journal said. Trump has "eagerly sought to reduce transgender people's participation in public life," The New York Times said, and Penn's agreement bows to the administration's "new interpretation" of Title IX, the law that bans sex discrimination in education.

Penn allowed Thomas to compete under Title IX and NCAA rules "as then interpreted," Penn President J. Larry Jameson said in a statement. But failing to resolve the new administration's transgender-focused Title IX investigation "could have had significant and lasting implications" for the university. The NCAA began restricting trans women athletes after Trump signed an executive order threatening to "rescind all funds from educational programs that deprive women and girls of fair athletic opportunities." By Tuesday night, Thomas' name had been removed from the school's online records for the 100, 200 and 500 freestyle, though a note underneath said she had set those records "competing under eligibility rules in effect at the time."

What next?

It was "not immediately clear" whether Penn's agreement would "prompt the Trump administration to restore $175 million in research funding that it suspended in March," the Times said, but it "appeared designed to limit the threat of additional repercussions for Penn."

'How HBCUs fight for survival in Trump's America'

Theodore R. Johnson at The Washington Post

HBCUs are in the "odd position of having solid and long-standing bipartisan support that still results in being under-resourced and vulnerable," says Theodore R. Johnson. Today's "excessively partisan politics around race and higher education further complicate matters." Even a "nonchalant White House, however, still creates tenuous conditions for the nearly 100 remaining HBCUs, even if they've stayed out of Trump's sights." HBCUs "understand acutely the importance of staying away from political controversy and maintaining bipartisan support."

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'Gilead's HIV breakthrough'

The Wall Street Journal editorial board

HIV treatments have "come a long way over the last four decades thanks to U.S. pharmaceutical innovation that has built on government-funded research," says The Wall Street Journal editorial board. Gilead's "daily antiviral pills can prevent HIV transmission and slow AIDS." While an HIV vaccine "remains the Holy Grail, Gilead’s new long-lasting injection, lenacapavir, is the next best thing." Even "Big Pharma's critics are hailing Gilead's breakthrough drug, though they forget that innovation doesn't come cheap."

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'China's new push for Latin America'

Joseph Addington at The American Conservative

The "benefits of Chinese partnership with Latin American countries are significant," says Joseph Addington. An "increased Chinese influence and market integration reduces Latin America's reliance on the U.S., making the option particularly attractive for countries with an adversarial relationship to the U.S. like Nicaragua and Venezuela." For China, "expanding markets in Latin America fits naturally into its economic and geopolitical strategy." But China's "expansion in Latin America has not been without costs."

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'How recent grads can get a job — even in a challenging labor market'

Michael B. Horn and Bob Moesta at Time

Graduating "college students are facing an uphill climb as they enter the job market," say Michael B. Horn and Bob Moesta. Although the "economic landscape is unique, it is not entirely different from difficult labor markets in the past." Workers are "also the customers of prospective jobs. That means college graduates should learn how to shop for employment." Don't "focus on the features of a job — the title, the pay, and so forth. Instead, focus on what you'll do."

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Are international students still welcome in the U.S.? asked The Wall Street Journal in an editorial. It doesn't seem so, judging by the Trump administration's escalating "attack on foreign talent." President Trump signed an executive order last week barring foreigners from enrolling at Harvard University—where more than a quarter of students are from overseas—claiming they threaten national security. A federal judge quickly blocked the order, which was announced just days after Secretary of State Marco Rubio vowed to "aggressively" revoke visas issued to the roughly 277,000 Chinese students in the U.S. The administration justified that move by citing espionage concerns. But Vice President JD Vance gave the real game away when he declared that curbing visas for overseas students would help "American citizens to really flourish." This is "simply not true," said Sheldon H. Jacobson in The Hill. The 1.2 million foreign students in the U.S. haven't displaced our best and brightest—they pay full tuition, helping subsidize Americans who receive aid. And some 40% remain in the U.S. after graduation, "filling vital needs in health care, engineering, and science."

Trump's ongoing campaign against Harvard is "crude and vengeful," said David A. Bell in The New York Times. But the "internationalization of American schools is a real issue." While the number of foreign students in the U.S. is up 300% since 1980, many elite schools have not raised their enrollments significantly, despite the U.S. population growing by 50%. As a result, the admissions process has become more competitive "for homegrown applicants." Then there's the fact that the foreign students who attend our institutions "tend to come from considerable wealth and privilege; this is what allows them to pay the full U.S. tuitions." Those students make our universities "look even more elite and possibly out of touch"—providing fuel for Trump's populist assault on academia.

There is no upside to this "war on knowledge," said David Ignatius in The Washington Post. For decades, "the freedom and diversity of American higher education operated like a magnet," attracting the planet's most incredible minds and "spinning off trillions of dollars in wealth." But by ripping up the welcome mat and slashing tens of billions of dollars in funding for almost every area of science, Trump has created an opening for foreign universities to lure both international and U.S. talent. Drugs that would have saved American lives, and breakthrough technologies that would have created American jobs, will now be developed abroad. The destructive consequences of Trump's "Cultural Revolution" will haunt us "for a generation."

It's an open secret in academia that schools are losing to AI, said James D. Walsh in New York magazine. Most students in the country today are "relying on AI to ease their way through every facet of their education." ChatGPT takes their notes in class, summarizes textbooks, and writes their essays. Students have all but forgotten how to think on their own; one philosophy professor said she caught students "using AI to respond to the prompt 'Briefly introduce yourself and say what you are hoping to get out of this class.'" Many professors say they can usually tell when students use AI on their assignments, but the scale of cheating has put teachers "in a state of despair," questioning their educational purpose. Some professors are covinced "the humanities, and writing in particular, are quickly becoming an anachronistic art elective, like basket weaving."

The cheating is so rampant that honest students have to go to great lengths to prove their innocence, said Callie Holtermann in The New York Times. "The specter of AI misuse" looms to the point where students "described persistent anxiety about being accused of using AI on work" they had completed honestly. Some students have begun recording their screens to retain video evidence of their sincerity or using word processors that track their keystrokes. Their wariness seems warranted: Numerous studies have found that AI detection software used by schools routinely misidentifies work as AI-generated.

There's a simple answer to AI cheating, said John J. Goyette in The Wall Street Journal: Ban technology in schools. Eliminate online classes. Retire take-home exams and "administer in-class evaluations such as blue book essays, oral exams, and chalkboard demonstrations." Enforce a clear policy "that prohibits AI use" for writing papers "and imposes serious consequences." Reduce class sizes and restore Socratic conversation "to its position of prominence in the classroom."

Get real, said D. Graham Burnett in The New Yorker. The solution to cheating is not to pretend "that the most significant revolution in the world of thought in the past century isn't happening." At Princeton, where I teach, nearly every syllabus warns that the use of ChatGPT or other AI tools will be punishable by a visit to the academic deans. Students are scared to even visit an AI site for fear of the consequences. "This is, simply, madness. And it won't hold for long." My colleagues rightfully fret about the ability to detect if a student is cheating. But instead of fretting, we should consider this a gift. Since we "can no longer make students do the reading or the writing," we need to "give them work they want to do" and help them do it. AI might actually teach the teachers how to educate again.

'A Canadian defense buildup could restart a beautiful friendship'

Greg Pollock and Imran Bayoumi at The Washington Post

The U.S. and Canada have "enjoyed a close security partnership and a shared perception of how to defend against the primary threats facing North America," but this is "no longer the case," say Greg Pollock and Imran Bayoumi. President Donald Trump "must realize that Canada's defense investment decisions may not always align with his priorities." If Canada's prime minister "can put Canada on a credible path to meeting its defense commitments, the bilateral relationship could be headed toward a much more stable footing."

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'We desegregated schools 71 years ago. We still have more work to do.'

Russ Wigginton at USA Today

It has been "71 years since the Brown v. Board of Education decision," and "our country is reminded of how far we've come, and how much work remains, through the lens of education," says Russ Wigginton. The Department of Justice's "recent removal of 1960s-era safeguards" could "threaten the spirit of that landmark ruling." One of the "greatest challenges is an attack on the very foundation of education via the ongoing threats to free thought and critical inquiry."

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'Trump's tariffs are a lobbyist's dream'

Christian Schneider at the National Review

Donald Trump "seems to view the free market as a game board on which he controls the pieces," says Christian Schneider. His "dizzying tariff announcements throttle innovation and product development, injecting uncertainty into a functioning market." Firms "must petition Washington for exemptions, unleashing a lobbying bonanza that lets the White House dispense carve‑outs to political friends." Business plans "die in limbo because managers don't know whether the next presidential tweet will turn their imported component into contraband."

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'The misinformation campaign trying to bring down abortion pills'

Rachel Jones and Jamila Perritt at The Nation

Medication "abortion is safe, effective, and widely accepted by patients and providers, which makes it a prime target for political attacks founded on misinformation," say Rachel Jones and Jamila Perritt. Promoting "shoddy science is not a new tactic of the antiabortion movement." If "legislators and administrative officials got their way, then hundreds of thousands of people across the country could lose access to mifepristone," denying them "access to a safe, effective and well-studied method."

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As the Trump administration broadens its crackdown on international students, those students and their families are looking abroad to complete their education. The world's young scholars are seeking alternatives to U.S. colleges and universities.

Foreign students are "in chaos" as the White House threatens their American education, said The Hill. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in late May that the administration had paused new student visas, would "aggressively revoke visas" for Chinese students, and suggested the U.S. could cap international student admissions at all American colleges at 15% of total enrollment. The administration believes foreign students study in America for "political purposes, not educational or scientific ones," said Jay Greene, a senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation.

The 'world's gain'?

The world's "star students" are now looking instead to universities in Asia and Europe, said NBC News. There are "plenty of foreign governments and universities" eager to cultivate the talents of young people who have long come to America and "helped make the United States a global tech and scientific leader." One likely winner will be China. The country is set to become "significantly more attractive than before to students and researchers from the Global South," said Simon Marginson, a professor of higher education at the University of Oxford.

"Every ambitious Chinese parent" has longed to send their child to Harvard University, said Alex Lo at The South China Morning Post. Now they are having second thoughts. "What's the point of investing millions in your child's education" if they can suddenly be deported because of a presidential whim? That will be America's loss, but it will be the "world's gain, and not the least China's." Chinese students are likely to stay home rather than trying out their luck in an "increasingly hostile, not to say racist, America."

The U.S. is "not going to lose its appeal overnight," said Karishma Vaswani at Bloomberg. It will remain a "coveted" place for many foreign students to study because of the "potential to find lucrative employment after graduation." But Canada and the U.K. are already "poised to scoop up disillusioned applicants." So are Australia and New Zealand. Hong Kong, Tokyo and Malaysia additionally stand to benefit, as Trump makes the U.S. a "far less inviting option" for students who want to "study, grow and build their future."

'Shooting itself in the foot'

The losses will be felt not just on U.S. campuses but in "local and state economies, as well," said The Washington Post. During the 2023-24 school year, roughly 1.1 million foreign students contributed $44 billion to the American economy. Those students "pay rent, they go to restaurants, they travel," said Nicholas Barr, a professor at the London School of Economics. America is "shooting itself in the foot big time."

America is "putting its economic engine at risk," said David L. Di Maria, the vice provost for global engagement at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, at The Conversation. The irony is that Trump's crackdown will "hamper" his administration's "America First" goals for the "economy, science and technology, and national security." Pushing away foreign students who study science and engineering will "ultimately redirect talent to other countries, allies and adversaries alike."

With the school year coming to an end at American universities across the country, colleges are taking a step to avoid the ire of the Trump administration: canceling affinity graduations. These events are optional ceremonies meant to highlight the diversity of student bodies, but some universities are rethinking their plans to host them as the White House promotes an anti-DEI platform at colleges.

Despite this, many students on these campuses are fighting back against the administration's anti-DEI push. Harvard University has been in the spotlight the most, but other schools have also seen similar actions from students.

A widespread backtrack

The U.S. Department of Education began working to eliminate diversity programs after President Donald Trump signed an executive order calling DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion efforts) "radical and wasteful." Following this, a slew of universities decided to backtrack on hosting affinity graduations. Harvard has been the most notable college to do so, and will "no longer provide funding, staffing or spaces for end-of-year affinity celebrations," the university said in a statement.

This marks a notable change for the Ivy League institution, as Harvard previously "hosted ten affinity celebrations for the Class of 2024, including for Arab, Black, Indigenous, Latinx, first-generation, low-income and Asian American, Pacific Islander and Desi graduates," said The Harvard Crimson. But Harvard is just one "among several universities across the country that have canceled affinity graduations," said CNN. The University of Kentucky, the University of Louisville, the University of Notre Dame, Wichita State University and others have all canceled various affinity events.

Students left scrambling

Even with the White House's actions resulting in some affinity graduation cancellations, students at these schools are "scrambling to find ways to still host the events," said CNN. This includes many students and student-led groups that are creating their own diversity ceremonies.

At Harvard, members of the Harvard Black Alumni Society "raised $46,000 for this year's event after the university announced April 28 that it would no longer fund the ceremonies," said NBC News. Another canceled ceremony had been designed to highlight Harvard's LGBTQ+ students, so a "small group of students organized an independent event" instead. Harvard's Asian American Alumni Alliance was also able to host an "unforgettable affinity celebration honoring the Class of 2025" with 500 guests, the alliance said on Facebook.

At Ohio University, one student "arranged for his alma mater's Black alumni weekend to go forward this spring after the university canceled it," said The Associated Press. And other schools are pushing back against Trump by not stopping their events. This includes California State University, Long Beach, whose affinity graduations were "held as planned this semester," said the Long Beach Current. This included graduation ceremonies held for American Indian students, Cambodian students, Latino students, Pacific Islander students and others, according to the university's website.

As a result, some say affinity graduations are likely to continue in some form. The White House is "forcing students and faculty to think creatively beyond the university and work around it," said Antar Tichavakunda, a professor of race and higher education at the University of California, Santa Barbara, to CNN. "I don't think this will be the end of culturally specific graduations. I just think it might be the end of universities supporting them."

Donald Trump has revoked Harvard University's ability to enrol international students, who currently make up over a quarter of its intake.

In a dramatic twist of his "escalating battle" with the Ivy League institution, the Trump administration has also said that thousands of current students must transfer to other universities or leave the country, said The Associated Press.

What did the commentators say?

"How can the federal government dictate which students a private university can and cannot enrol?" said The New York Times. In reality, the US government has "enormous power" over who is allowed to enter the country to study.

Colleges and universities use a "vast" database, known as SEVIS, or the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System, to "manage and track" the enrolment of international students. But this database is operated by the Department of Homeland Security; Trump is exploiting this "vulnerability" by revoking Harvard's access to it, effectively banning overseas students.

The DHS claimed that Harvard has allowed "anti-American, pro-terrorist agitators" to assault Jewish students on campus. Department officials also alleged that Harvard has collaborated with the Chinese Communist Party, hosting and training members of a Chinese paramilitary group as recently as last year.

This turn of events "drastically escalates" the dispute between the White House and the university, said CNN. Trump had frozen more than $2 billion in funds last month when Harvard said it wouldn't "concede" to his "demands", including reforming its international student programme.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Harvard could restore its status as a host institution for foreign students if it complied with a list of demands within 72 hours. The demands include "requests for a range of records", such as disciplinary records for international students, plus "audio and video recordings of protest activity", said ABC News.

Harvard is likely to challenge the ban in court. The move will "certainly draw a very strong legal challenge", Elliot Williams, former counsel to the Senate Judiciary Committee, told CNN.

Although there are "well-established" legal processes in place for revoking a school's certification, said Williams, it doesn't seem that Trump's administration has complied with them, so the university would have a "strong basis" for a legal challenge.

What next?

The government's stance could deter overseas students from studying in the US at all, Pippa Norris, a lecturer at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, told The Guardian. "Why would any further international students apply to America, not just Harvard, if they can't know that they’ve got a guaranteed place?"

The administration's actions are likely to benefit other top universities, like Oxford and Cambridge. "The best of the brightest could apply wherever they would," she said. "America, again, is going to have problems as a result."

The Supreme Court appears ready to "bury what remains of church-state separation," said Mark Joseph Stern in Slate. During oral arguments, the court's conservative majority signaled sympathy toward a bid by two Catholic dioceses in Oklahoma to create the nation's first taxpayer-funded religious charter school. Oklahoma's Republican attorney general, Gentner Drummond, sued to block the opening of St. Isidore of Seville, arguing a religious public school would violate state law and the First Amendment's prohibition of government establishment of religion. But to the conservative justices, those arguments amount to little more than "anti-religious bigotry." Justice Brett Kavanaugh complained that Oklahoma's charter program was "open to all comers"—including schools focused on science and Chinese language—"except religion." If, as seems likely, the court compels Oklahoma to fund St. Isidore, it will "transform U.S. public education." Restrictions on religious charter schools in 46 states will be struck down, and every American will be forced "to subsidize the indoctrination of children into faiths they may not share."

Drummond's religion-establishment argument doesn't stand up to scrutiny, said The Wall Street Journal in an editorial. The attorney general has warned that if St. Isidore is approved, Oklahoma taxpayers could be forced to fund religious charter schools that most "would consider reprehensible," including ones run by Islamist extremists. But if Oklahoma approves religious charters from multiple faiths, "how is that an 'establishment of religion'?" Precedent is on St. Isidore's side, said Michael Toth and Gavin Schiffres in National Review. The court ruled in 2022 that Maine's exclusion of sectarian schools from a state tuition program violated the First Amendment's ban on religious discrimination. "Withholding a public benefit from students solely because they attend a religiously affiliated charter school is no less discriminatory."

If St. Isidore prevails, "more difficult controversies await down the road," said Stephen L. Carter in Bloomberg. Liberal Justice Sonia Sotomayor wondered during arguments what will happen if a state-funded religious charter school boycotts part of a state-approved curriculum, such as the teaching of evolution. Will courts allow that under the free exercise clause? And what if a school like St. Isidore decides to block the admission of students from other faiths or those with gay parents? However the court decides in this case, it's clear "the issue of religion and education is far from resolved."

Attention "left-wing culture warriors," said Ed Whelan in National Review: Religious families will not accept indoctrination. At the Supreme Court last week, a group of Christian and Muslim parents in a Maryland school district asserted the right to opt their elementary-school-age children out of lessons that use books celebrating same-sex relationships and a transgender child. The lessons, they argued, contradicted the religious teachings they wanted to pass on to their children. They "haven't challenged the curriculum itself" or promoted book banning; they've just asked the district to revert to its pre-2022 policy of allowing opt-outs. In response, the parents say, board members accused them of "hatred" and "aligning with racist xenophobes." If that's true, it's "inexcusable," said Stephen L. Carter in Bloomberg. One group's values should not take automatic precedence over another's, and "a humble respect for diversity is better than a cold and unblinking exercise of authority." That's why a majority of justices are likely to rule in the parents' favor.

The parents' case is "part of a larger campaign," said Robyn Nicole Sanders in Slate. Religious conservatives are waging a political battle "to weaponize parental control as a tool of exclusion"— to define exposure to different ideas and people as a moral offense. The point of teaching such material is to prepare children for a pluralistic society in which LGBTQ people exist, can legally marry, and form families. What if the court decides "parental conscience can trigger opt-outs" from any book or lesson they don't like? Would that include evolution or climate change? Texts containing photos of girls without head coverings? At that point, "the very premise of a shared public education begins to fracture."

As a parent in the district, "I deeply resent the whole mess," said Megan K. Stack in The New York Times. I'm skeptical of the board's claims that allowing opt-outs would be logistically complicated and would do emotional damage to children with same-sex parents or family members. But the religious parents, too, have done plenty of grandstanding by insisting "they can't properly rear their children in faith if the kids get exposed to a few picture books." In the modern, online world, kids will sooner or later be exposed to everything. This divisive battle has been "a demoralizing spectacle" of mutual intolerance and disrespect. Whatever the court decides, "it's already too late for our community to win."

What happened

The Supreme Court's conservative majority Wednesday signaled a willingness to allow public funding for explicitly religious charter schools.

Who said what

Wednesday's oral arguments concerned a bid by the Catholic dioceses of Oklahoma City and Tulsa to launch a religious charter school, St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School, funded through the state's public charter system. Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond (R) sued to stop the plan and the state Supreme Court agreed it violated Oklahoma's constitution.

The case, "one of the biggest on church and state in a generation," could now hinge on whether five conservative justices agree that charter schools are "private entities seeking public grants rather than extensions of the public school system," The Wall Street Journal said. That's "significant," The Washington Post said, "because the government can require public schools to be nonsectarian, but it can’t restrict private schools from teaching religion."

What next?

A victory for St. Isidore's would "extend religion's extraordinary winning streak at the Supreme Court" and "further lower the wall separating church and state," said The New York Times. With Justice Amy Coney Barrett recusing herself, the only court conservative to suggest "recent high court precedent might not require recognition of religious charter schools" was Chief Justice John Roberts, the Journal said. A 4-4 tie would uphold the state ruling against St. Isidore's. Despite his "probing questions of both sides," the Post said, Roberts has "consistently sided with religious parties to expand the role of faith in public life."

What happened

Harvard Monday sued the Trump administration in federal court over its withholding of $2.2 billion in federal grants and contracts, arguing it violates the university's First Amendment rights and federal civil rights law. The Trump administration froze the funding and threatened other punitive measures last week after Harvard rejected its sweeping demands for internal changes and government oversight.

Who said what

Harvard presents the "first major hurdle" in President Donald Trump's "attempt to force change at universities that Republicans say have become hotbeds of liberalism and antisemitism," The Associated Press said. "Targeting research funding which has fueled scientific breakthroughs" has "become an easy source of leverage."

The Trump administration "has not — and cannot — identify any rational connection between antisemitism concerns and the medical, scientific, technological, and other research it has frozen" for "arbitrary and capricious" reasons, Harvard said in its lawsuit. The "consequences of the government's overreach will be severe and long-lasting." Harvard President Alan Garber said. "Taxpayer funds are a privilege," White House spokesperson Harrison Fields said, and the "gravy train of federal assistance to institutions like Harvard" is "coming to an end."

What next?

Harvard appears to have a solid case, as it "looks as though the administration is just sort of doing what it wants to without real concern for what the law is," University of Pennsylvania law professor Kermit Roosevelt told The Washington Post. If Harvard wins, other targeted universities will likely fight back against Trump administration demands, but a loss in court could spell the "end of the resistance."