Most-clicked story of the week:
President Donald Trump’s fiscal 2027 federal budget proposal calls for cutting $354 million in grants for minority-serving institutions and eliminating key college access programs. Overall, the plan would slash the U.S. Department of Education’s discretionary funding to $76.5 billion, a 2.9% reduction.
Number of the week: $12,082
That is the amount of state and local funding per college student in the 2025 fiscal year, representing a 1% decline from the year before, according to the most recent State Higher Education Finance report. Although state and local support for higher education rose overall — topping $130 billion — enrollment growth outpaced those gains.
Accreditation expert sounds alarm on regulatory proposals:
- Bob Shireman, a higher education expert, slammed the U.S. Department of Education’s draft regulatory proposals on accreditation, arguing in a Substack post that they would allow predatory colleges to escape oversight and severely undermine college independence.
- Shireman — who is also a member of the National Advisory Committee on Institutional Quality and Integrity, which provides recommendations to the Education Department on accreditation matters — said the draft text would allow colleges to go “accreditor hopping” by making it easier to switch agencies if they’re facing disciplinary action.
- Moreover, the draft text would enable the federal agency to “meddle in nearly everything that a college does.” According to Shireman, that’s in part because the proposal would allow the Education Department to assess whether colleges’ academic freedom policies are allowing for “a range of academic perspectives."
State bills that could shape higher ed:
- Alabama’s Senate passed a bill last week that would require public colleges to periodically review tenured faculty members and relegate faculty senates to advisory body status only, Alabama Reflector reported. Additionally, the bill would automatically abolish faculty senates unless college governing boards allowed them to continue. The bill heads to Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey, a Republican, for signature.
- Oregon’s governor signed a measure into law last week that gives Southern Oregon University $15 million in emergency funding. The public university, which was facing a looming cash shortfall, is now required to put together a financial plan that doesn’t require ongoing increases in state support.
- Ohio’s Senate is considering a House-passed bill that would require high schools to offer the Classic Learning Test as a college entrance exam that students can take in addition to the SAT and ACT, the Statehouse News Bureau reported. The CLT, which casts itself as an alternative to the two more established tests, is favored by some conservative lawmakers.
