Outside the Beltway

The policy choices before us are not a dichotomy between off and on.

A disgraced governor is signing a wave of progressive legislation

The update you were probably expecting.

She lost in both of her home states. She shouldn’t be embarrassed.

Is the left unwittingly fueling a reactionary moment?

Dozens of well-off students from the Chicago area are getting college subsidies.

After a series of line item vetoes, the University of Alaska is facing a 41% cut in state funding.

Rural Americans are much less likely to go to college than their urban counterparts. Is there a solution?

Senators Warren and Sanders have both proposed plans to forgive student loan debt and make public colleges tuition-free. That’s easier said than done.

The Democratic Socialist wants to absorb $1.6 trillion of student debt.

There isn’t a lot of legislating going on.

There are better ways to use surplus Pell funds.

Did I leave the Republican Party or did it leave me? Both.

It’s an interesting idea, although one fraught with moral hazard.

US higher education is made up of far more than just the Ivies and other elite schools.

Per-student investment in public colleges has not recovered from the Great Recession.

Despite the obvious connection with the university’s namesake, the word does have other connotations.

In 2016, a crowded Republican field yielded an unlikely nominee. Could history repeat itself in 2020?

In a two-hour rant before an adoring crowd of CPAC sycophants. President Trump displayed everything wrong with him and his Presidency.

Ku Klux Klan jokes, fake lynchings, and the like were routinely depicted even at places like Cornell.

Michael Cohen will invoke his rights under the Fifth Amendment in response to any questions asked in discovery in the civil suit filed against him by Stormy Daniels. That’s really the only option he has.

The Commission on College Basketball recommended an end to the one-and-done rule and other major reforms.

The Trump Administration has suffered another setback in its efforts to repeal DACA.

Cuba has a new President and he isn’t named Castro, but that doesn’t mean we’re going to see significant change in the near future.

The idea that individuals have different “learning styles” is apparently not borne out by the evidence, according to recent research.

Repeated studies have demonstrated their bias against women and minorities. Why do we use them to make employment decisions?

Wisconsin-Stevens Point is shuttering 13 majors, including English, history, political science and sociology while expanding more job-oriented programs.

Salary-based definitions distort the conversation. And lifestyle-based definitions are a moving target.

Combining universal and mandatory (and free) college-board exams with a program for targeting college recruitment of disadvantaged groups could–if coupled with a commensurate financial commitment by the state to such groups–go some distance in bringing more qualified economically disadvantaged groups into higher education. 

The Senate passed a tax cut bill last night, but it leaves a lot to be desired.

Musings on the costs of college.

Judge Neil Gorsuch’s confirmation hearings begin Monday morning, but it’s Senate Democrats who are in the hot seat.

DeVos plays to the CPAC crowd, but insults higher education.

Bernie Sanders admitted, finally, that he likely won’t be the nominee.

More accurately, some thoughts on commentary about higher ed.

In the short term, Justice Scalia’s death will have a significant impact on cases the Supreme Court has already heard, and cases it is scheduled to hear in the next two months.

Hillary Clinton and Marco Rubio have won the endorsement of the Des Moines Register, but it’s unclear how much this will help their respective campaigns.

Paradoxically, the children of affluent parents are less happy than those of the poor.

Massive boycotts and protests likely spell the end of Tim Wolfe’s tenure as president.

One unqualified outsider with a history of saying outrageous things replaces another unqualified outsider with a history of saying outrageous things, at least according to yet another new poll.

Two new Iowa polls show Ben Carson passing Donald Trump in the Hawkeye State, but that’s not necessarily good news for Republicans.

Instead of eliminating the Department of Education, Ben Carson wants to give it a new, bizarre, and dangerous mission.

The marriage equality issue is resolved, but that doesn’t mean the Supreme Court won’t have a lot of high profile cases on its docket over the next eight months.

International relations prof mostly assign readings by male scholars. Female profs are slightly less likely to do so.

The Supreme Court agreed yesterday to wade back into the thorny issue of race and higher education.

Lee Siegel takes to the NYT to explain “Why I Defaulted on My Student Loans.”

A wealthy alumnus has given Harvard $400 million, sparking a heated debate.