U.S. Education September 2025-

Education May 2019 – March 2024

Free Harvard online government classes
As a response to the Trump nonsense, Harvard is offering free online courses with subjects including American Policy, Constitutional Foundations, and more.

22 October
Trump put universities in a bind. U-Va. charted a way out.
Colleges need more viewpoint diversity but not external monitors to enforce it.
(WaPo editorial board) The University of Virginia on Wednesday became the first public institution to reach a settlement with the Trump administration to resolve multiple investigations into its diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies. The deal is probably the best the state’s flagship school could have hoped to secure: It won’t pay any financial penalty, nor will it be forced to hire an external monitor to ensure that there is no DEI on campus.
In July, Columbia University accepted both of those conditions in exchange for the return of withheld research funding.
U-Va. agreed to abide by recent guidance for recipients of federal funding, which disfavors almost all preferential treatment by race or other protected characteristic. To avoid an outside monitor, Mr. Jefferson’s university promises to provide data to the Justice Department every quarter through 2028 and its president will personally certify that the school is in compliance.
Universities understandably want to stop fighting with Trump, who has proven willing to choke off federal funds. Proponents of aggressive affirmative action will no doubt be dismayed by the deal, which leaves the university precious little room to balance its classes or its faculty by race. But they should take heart that the deal seems confined mostly to areas the government has traditionally overseen, rather than more sweeping intrusions on academic freedom and First Amendment rights.

14 September
Trump’s travel ban keeps international students from coming to the US for college
(AP) Thousands of students are among the people affected by the Trump administration’s travel ban and restrictions on citizens from 19 countries, including many who now feel stranded after investing considerable time and money to come to the U.S.
Some would-be international students are not showing up on American campuses this fall despite offers of admission because of logjams with visa applications, which the Trump administration slowed this summer while it rolled out additional vetting. Others have had second thoughts because of the administration’s wider immigration crackdown and the abrupt termination of some students’ legal status.
But none face bigger obstacles than the students hit with travel bans. Last year, the State Department issued more than 5,700 F-1 and J-1 visas — which are used by foreign students and researchers — to people in the 19 travel ban-affected countries between May and September. Citizens of Iran and Myanmar were issued more than half of the approved visas.

4 September
Hundreds of US Colleges Poised to Close in Next Decade, Expert Says
(Bloomberg) A dwindling number of prospective students will drive as many as 370 private colleges in the US to shutter or merge with another institution in the next decade, according to a major higher-education consulting firm.
Huron Consulting Group’s prediction is more than triple the total amount of private, nonprofit two- and four-year college closures that the National Center for Education Statistics calculated in the 10 years leading up to 2020.
The projected closures and mergers will impact around 600,000 students and affect about $18 billion in endowment funds, according to Stokes.
“These are schools where we see red flashing lights and warning signs that they’re in significant financial stress,” he said. Huron declined to disclose the names of schools that they expect will close or merge.
Another 430 institutions with over 1.2 million students and $134 billion in endowments face moderate existential threats, according to Huron, which serves over 580 education clients annually, a bulk of which are four-year public and private universities, according to a July earnings presentation.
In contrast, 114 private, nonprofit colleges shuttered from 2010 to 2020, according to National Center for Education Statistics data, and in the decade prior to that period, 59 schools closed.
The Economics of Small US Colleges Are Faltering