Welcome back to After the First 100 Days, Inside Higher Ed’s weekly roundup of news from the Hill to the Oval Office. I’m your host, Jessica Blake, Inside Higher Ed’s federal policy reporter.
It’s Day 326 of the second Trump administration, and just 19 days remain in 2025. Not that we’re counting or anything. This week, the Education Department labeled 23 percent of colleges as “lower earnings” and started to move forward on accreditation reform. But I’ve spent this week tracking talks on a new expansion to the Pell Grant known as Workforce Pell. ED appears on track to wrap up negotiations today, but a few issues remain up for debate—and it’s neg reg, so anything can happen.
Compared to the last round of negotiated rule making, this week’s session has been collegial and technical. Under Workforce Pell, short-term job training programs have to meet various eligibility criteria to get access to the same pot of funding as traditional Pell Grant awards. The legislation, passed over the summer, directed the Education Department to partner with state governors, workforce boards and higher education offices to identify in-demand short-term programs that should qualify, but the law is murky on which agencies do what. That’s where this week’s discussions come in.
Some of the key issues for the negotiation committee include:
- What duties fall to the states or accreditors when it comes to determining eligibility
- How to treat apprenticeships and other non-credit-based programs
- How much employers should be able to contribute to these training programs
- Whether online programs need to be deemed eligible by every state they hope to enroll students from
- How to measure job-placement rates
We’ll have more Monday about whether ED meets its self-determined deadline.
On the Hill: Republican-backed legislation to make the cost of college more transparent advanced Thursday, and even some Democrats jumped on board. The two bills would create a universal net price calculator and require colleges to follow a standard format for their financial aid offers. Lawmakers said both measures are a way to address declining public trust in higher ed. But colleges worry the bills won’t achieve their intended goal and only lead to more work. Your co-host, Katherine, has more here.
In the last few months, we’ve seen the Senate and House education committees tackle college pricing at hearings, so expect to hear more about this issue in 2026. It’s clearly a priority for lawmakers.
On Tap for Next Week:
- The National Advisory Committee on Institutional Quality and Integrity is meeting Tuesday, and we expect to learn more about the Trump administration’s plans regarding accreditation reform. The meeting has already been delayed twice, and now Education Secretary Linda McMahon has appointed five new members to the 18-person committee. We’ll be paying close attention to what those new advisers have to say.
That’s it for Week 47. Thanks for reading! We have one more issue left before our holiday publishing break, and we’re already doing a bit of reflecting on the last year. What did you learn about higher ed in 2025, and what are you watching for in 2026? Let me know at jessica.blake@insidehighered.com.
As always, if news breaks this afternoon or over the weekend, you can find the latest at InsideHigherEd.com. In the meantime, I’ll be enjoying a weekend of holiday parties and sitting under a heated blanket with a cup of hot cocoa.
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