Hello and welcome back to The Markup, Inside Higher Ed’s weekly roundup of all things higher ed policy. I’m your host, Jessica Blake, IHE’s federal policy reporter.
Before we dive into the happenings of Washington, let’s take a quick peek at what’s happening in the states, shall we?
This week in Texas, a court ruled that Idris Robinson—a philosophy professor at Texas State University who was fired for non-university-affiliated comments he made about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict—must be reinstated with pay. This continues a trend of rulings in favor of academic freedom, despite Republicans’ attempt to crack down on what they call discriminatory liberal ideology.
Meanwhile, in Kentucky, alumni of Kentucky State University are suing the government to block a new law that would exert significant control over the historically Black land-grant university. And in Iowa, state regents are looking to implement controversial higher education policies through regulation that lawmakers failed to codify into law.
This Week’s Big Story
Now, back to D.C. On Thursday, Education Secretary Linda McMahon made her second appearance on Capitol Hill to defend her budget proposal for fiscal year 2027.
During her first testimony before the Senate appropriations subcommittee in late April, McMahon was bombarded with questions about her department’s controversial attempt to siphon off responsibilities, as well as its publicly opposed plan to limit loans for a wide array of graduate degrees, including in nursing. But through it all, she continued to defend the plans, calling them an effort to shrink the “bloated bureaucracy” and lower college costs.
This time, Democrats from the House Committee on Education and Workforce grilled the secretary about the same topics, as well as all the backed-up complaints in the Office for Civil Rights and the future of TRIO, a collection of grant programs designed to uplift first-generation and low-income learners.
Republicans, on the other hand, applauded the agency for delivering on reforms that will improve student outcomes and “return education to the states,” giving state leaders the chance to make decisions with local interests in mind.
“Despite relentless attacks and a slew of misinformation campaigns about our efforts to return education to the states, we have always made clear that shifting authority back to the states would not come at the expense of essential federal support and programs, the vast majority of which predate the department itself,” McMahon said. “Today’s budget request is unequivocal proof that when the Trump administration makes promises, we keep them.”
