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.
Figuring out how to pay for higher education had once seemed impossible for 21-year-old Priscila Zapata Chavez, who arrived in Colorado’s San Luis Valley from Chihuahua, Mexico, in 2016. College, if she thought about it at all, was a private fantasy. That changed when she learned about the federal College Assistance Migrant Program, which offers free first-year tuition, room and board, and monthly stipends for thousands of first-generation students from farmworker families across the country. Because of the program, Chavez says she had an “opportunity to become something and someone.”
In October, however, Chavez learned that the U.S. Department of Education had cut off new CAMP funding, and her university, Adams State, would be forced to discontinue its program at the end of the academic year.
About 5.5 million borrowers are currently in default. They haven't risked wage garnishment since the beginning of the pandemic, when policymakers paused the practice.
That's about to change. The Trump administration will resume garnishing wages from student loan borrowers in default in early 2026, according to the U.S. Department of Education. The move comes after a years-long pause in wage garnishment due to the pandemic. Meanwhile, student advocates say the timing of the announcement will almost certainly put significant economic strain on low- and middle-income borrowers.
Federal funding for students pursuing short, job-focused programs brings Pell Grants into a different world, one designed to turn training into wages quickly, often for adults who can’t afford to wait.
If implemented correctly, Workforce Pell could modernize a legacy federal program without watering down its purpose. Or, it could become what skeptics fear: a well-intentioned pathway that exists on paper but never scales to the people it was meant to serve.
A new analysis appears likely to bolster the attempts of some California community colleges to start offering bachelor’s degrees, despite protests from state universities that claim their programs would be harmed.
For more than two years, proposed degrees from seven community colleges have been effectively blocked by California State University campuses, citing a state law that allows them to object to programs they believe duplicate their degrees. The degrees would add to more than 50 others that are already offered at community colleges across the state.
In many ways, 2025 pushed higher education to the brink as the Trump administration found new ways to assert control over colleges and universities, crack down on international students, and seek reforms long sought by conservatives.
As another year begins, postsecondary institutions are bracing for yet more upheavals as they try to navigate the new normal. Time—and 2026—will tell whether the sector is resilient enough to do so.
In early 2023, Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, executed what many viewed as a conservative takeover of New College of Florida. With fewer than 1,000 students, the liberal arts college had long been a draw for nonconformists, where grades were verboten and students designed their own classes and majors.
That quickly changed. Under a new board and president, and as required by a new state law, the school has installed a curriculum emphasizing the traditional Western canon, with “The Odyssey” serving as a foundational text. Gender studies and diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives are out. A Charlie Kirk statue is coming. Many are now asking if one ideological bubble has simply replaced another.
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