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Education Department Moves To Break Up Accreditor Power With New Proposed Rule Aug 28, 2026

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The U.S. Department of Education released a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on August 19, 2026 that would rewrite the rules governing how college accreditors are recognized. Accreditors are the private organizations that decide which schools can access federal student aid.

The proposal has a 30-day comment window, half the 60 days the Department often allows, which puts the deadline around late September. If you’ve followed how Education Department rulemaking works, you’ll notice the compressed timeline as a signal the Department wants this finished fast.

The urgency is because this rule is one of the last regulatory puzzle pieces designed to reign in college costs. Accreditors act as gatekeepers to more than $100 billion a year in Pell Grants and federal student loans. Under Secretary Nicholas Kent framed the proposal as a correction for a system that has “contributed to inflated tuition, administrative bloat, and ideology-driven mandates on college campuses.”

The Final SAVE Plan Lawsuit Is Fully Briefed — Here’s When Borrowers Could Get An Answer Aug 27, 2026

Show notes

The U.S. Department of Education filed its reply brief in support of its motion to dismiss in Havens v. U.S. Department of Education on August 17, 2026, closing out the briefing schedule in the last lawsuit still trying to revive REPAYE for roughly 7 million former SAVE borrowers. The filing asks the judge to dismiss the case.

Hours earlier, the Education Department’s lawyers filed a Notice of Corrected Filings walking back a factual claim the agency made on July 29. In an earlier brief, the Department told the court that four of five non-party borrowers who submitted declarations “most recently reported incomes of $0,” which would mean their payments would be $0 under any plan and no irreparable harm existed.

Those borrowers filed counter-declarations on August 7 saying they had reported real income, either directly or through the IRS. The agency investigated, found the borrowers were right, and blamed “technical errors” with its National Student Loan Data System database. It filed corrected versions of both the brief and apologized. Even so, the agency’s core position that the case should be tossed has not changed.

ED Changes Grad PLUS Rule: Credit Hours Now Decide Who Keeps Uncapped Student Loans Aug 26, 2026

Show notes

The Education Department has quietly changed how it decides whether continuing graduate students can still borrow uncapped Grad PLUS loans, and the change is already generating denials for students who have been enrolled.

During an August 12 Federal Student Aid webinar on the implementation of new loan limits and the interim exception for continuing students, FSA staff told schools to calculate “expected time to credential” using credit hours completed rather than time enrolled. That formula determines how much longer a grandfathered borrower keeps access to Grad PLUS after the program formally ended on July 1, 2026.

The National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators called it a significant departure from prior guidance, noting that ED had previously told schools to measure the difference between program length in weeks, months, or years and the portion the student finished before July 1.

Education Department spokesperson Ellen Keast told Inside Higher Ed the approach is “not anything new” and had come up in earlier virtual office hours, though the department did not point to where it was written down. When ED finalized the loan limits and new repayment plans, the written record pointed the other way: the final rule text at 34 CFR 685.102 and the department’s May 20 loan limits FAQ both describe the calculation in terms of time.

Families Spent $34,019 On College Last Year, Up 10% Aug 25, 2026

Show notes

American families spent an average of $34,019 on college during the 2025-26 academic year, a 10% increase from $30,837 the year before, according to the annual Salie Mae and Ipsos study How America Pays for College 2026.

The increase far outpaced published tuition increases, yet families are not backing away from higher education: 91% call college a valuable investment in their student's future, and 84% say they are confident they made the right financial decisions to pay for it.

The 19th edition of the study, based on online surveys of 1,000 undergraduate students and 1,000 parents, arrives at a turning point for college finance. New federal borrowing caps began phasing in for new borrowers this summer, and the survey suggests most families have no idea what's happening with these higher ed reforms.

Unions Sue To Block Student Loan Rule That Caps Nursing And Social Work Borrowing At $100,000 Aug 24, 2026

Show notes

A coalition of four major unions (the AFL-CIO, AFSCME, the American Federation of Teachers, and National Nurses United) filed a lawsuit on August 11, 2026 (PDF File) in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia challenging the Department of Education's Reimagining and Improving Student Education (RISE) rule on setting graduate versus professional student loan limits.

The complaint asks the court to vacate the rule's definition of "professional student" — the definition that determines whether a graduate borrower can access $50,000 per year and $200,000 total in federal loans, or just $20,500 per year and $100,000 total.

The unions collectively represent millions of workers, including nurses, teachers, social workers, librarians, and public health employees, which the new rules classify as "non-professional" for student loan borrowing purposes.

Trump May Forgive Upwards Of $170B In Student Loan Debt Aug 20, 2026

Show notes

When voters think of student loan forgiveness, they often picture executive actions and legal battles. Under President Biden, student loan debt relief efforts dominated headlines, particularly after the Supreme Court struck down his broad cancellation proposal.

But what you may not realize: The Trump administration could be on track to oversee one of the largest dollar amounts of student loan forgiveness in U.S. history, largely because of repayment programs already written into law.

This projection is not about a new sweeping forgiveness plan. Instead, it reflects the mechanics of existing federal student loan programs (some dating back decades) that are now reaching maturity.

Nearly 92% Of U.S. Kids Qualify For The New $1,700 Federal Scholarship Tax Credit Aug 15, 2026

Show notes

An estimated 51.7 million children (91.7% of everyone eligible to enroll in a K-12 school) meet the income test to receive scholarships under the Education Freedom Tax Credit, the federal program launching January 1, 2027, according to a new report released Tuesday by the American Federation for Children.

The analysis is the first state-by-state estimate of who can actually receive money from the program, built on Census population estimates, American Community Survey microdata, and HUD income limits.

The credit was created as Section 25F of the tax code by the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, the same 2025 law that overhauled federal student loan borrowing.

OIG Report: Education Department Cut 40% Of Staff, Gutting Student Loan Oversight Aug 14, 2026

Show notes

The Department of Education's Office of Inspector General has put hard numbers on the Trump administration's push to dismantle the agency, and the findings for Federal Student Aid are stark: entire sub-offices responsible for overseeing loan servicers and certifying schools for federal aid were left with no employees at all.

The report lands as the Department reverses course. FSA is now hiring roughly 380 workers back and held a two-day hiring fair in Washington, D.C. on July 21 and 22 to fill more than 100 open roles.

The flash report covers changes to ED's staffing, operations, contracts, and grants between January 20 and March 31, 2025 - the window that opened with two executive orders directing agencies to prepare for large-scale reductions in force.

Senate Committee Advances Bill To Block Education Department Transfers Aug 13, 2026

Show notes

A bipartisan group of senators is moving to block at least some of the Trump administration's effort to dismantle the Department of Education.

The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee approved S. 5046 on Thursday by a 13-9 vote, sending it to the full Senate. The bill, introduced July 21 by Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) with Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), would bar the Education Secretary from offloading four of the department's offices onto other agencies.

This comes a little more than two weeks after House Republicans sought to make the dismantling permanent with a series of 10 bills completely removing nearly all functions of the Department of Education.

Senate Bill Would Exempt State Student Loans From 2007 Scandal Conflict Rules Aug 12, 2026

Show notes

A bill moving quietly through the Senate would let colleges steer students toward state-run and nonprofit student loans without triggering the federal conflict-of-interest rules Congress wrote after the 2007 financial aid kickback scandal.

Nearly two decades ago, investigators found that the people students trusted most to give neutral advice (their college financial aid officers) were quietly working for the other side of the table. Financial aid officers held stock in the lenders they recommended. Lenders paid schools a cut of the loan volume they steered. Some financial aid offices let lender employees answer their phones.

Because roughly 90% of families take whatever loan their school recommends, a single line on a "preferred lender" list was worth millions to a lender. It also cost borrowers real money, since the school's recommended option is not always the cheapest one.

The cleanup produced settlements, resignations, congressional hearings, and eventually a permanent set of federal rules. This proposed law would change the rules back for a small slice of the private student loan market.

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