Lumina Foundation is working to increase the share of adults in the U.S. labor force with college degrees or other credentials of value leading to economic prosperity.
After months of speculation, President Donald Trump signed an executive order Thursday directing Education Secretary Linda McMahon to hasten the closure of the U.S. Department of Education. The complete elimination of the agency would require the approval of Congress.
Labor and civil rights groups are blasting the administration for the move, while state officials and lawmakers say they're not prepared to take on the full responsibility of education policy. Trump's latest order will likely be met with more legal challenges.
In October 2023, Columbia University’s new president stood outside Low Library and posed a foundational question. “What,” she asked, “does the world need from a great university in the 21st century?”
The president, Nemat Shafik, argued that the world required much. Rigorous thinkers who were grounded in the age’s great debates. Researchers whose breakthroughs could transform societies. Universities that extended their missions far beyond their gates. Seventeen months later, Shafik is gone, and the Trump administration is offering a far different answer.
Pinnacol Assurance isn’t the kind of company most people think about, unless they’re having one of the worst days of their lives. And the workers’ compensation industry certainly isn’t on the minds of high school students mapping out their future.
Or at least it wouldn’t be if not for Julie Wilmes and the company’s apprenticeship team. Their job is to make Pinnacol a desired destination for Denver’s high school students. And the imperative is strong.
In two months, Leslie Brunelli will take next year’s budget to the Washington State University Board of Regents for approval. As in recent years, the document will reflect dropping enrollment—but it will also most likely include a decrease in state aid.
That’s enough to pose real concerns about what cuts might be needed to balance the budget. However, the possibility of abrupt funding reductions by the Trump administration heightens the risks for officials such as Brunelli, who are currently confronting an almost unprecedented budget season.
Katrina Armstrong is no stranger to a crisis. On Armstrong’s first day as physician in chief at Harvard University’s Massachusetts General Hospital in 2013, terrorists set off bombs near the finish line of the Boston Marathon, killing three people and injuring nearly 300 others. Staff at Mass General responded immediately, activating emergency protocols and mobilizing trauma teams and other resources to treat the victims.
But as the interim president of Columbia University, Armstrong is navigating a crisis that no medical training can prepare her for, one that threatens the financial health and public standing of Columbia.
Student loan borrowers are already facing a myriad of challenges. The SAVE plan, a Biden-era income-driven repayment program that reduced payments for eight million borrowers, remains stuck in limbo as a legal challenge continues.
Now, a new threat looms on the horizon: potential changes to the federal tax treatment of student loan forgiveness and repayment.
