Common Sense Media's Youth AI Safety Institute has given Google Search's AI Overview and AI Mode its lowest possible rating (an "unacceptable risk" for kids and teens) after seven weeks of testing found the features failed all five of the group's severe-harm "Red Lines," fabricated facts with confidence, and cannot be turned off by parents, schools, or users.

The assessment, published July 14, 2026, tested more than 2,600 interactions on accounts registered to an 11-year-old and a 15-year-old, both with SafeSearch active.

New IRS data shows that the dreaded 529 plan penalty is far less common, and far less painful, than most families fear.

According to the IRS Statistics of Income division's line item estimates for tax year 2023 (the most recent year with data available, released in June 2026) just 165,152 tax returns paid the 10% additional tax on non-qualified distributions from 529 plans and education savings accounts, totaling $76.6 million. That works out to an average penalty of about $464 per return for people reporting 529 plan distributions.

Out of the more than 160 million individual returns filed for 2023, roughly 0.1% paid this penalty at all.<...

Nelnet has quietly revised its end-of-SAVE-plan FAQ to shorten its notice timeline: every 90-day notice from the servicer will now go out by the end of 2026. The FAQ previously said notices would be delivered between July 2026 and March 2027, a window Nelnet has now cut by three months.

The updated FAQ states: "Nelnet is notifying nearly three million Nelnet borrowers, so we're reaching out in waves. You'll receive your notice by the end of 2026."

Employer contributions to Trump Accounts become legal on July 4, 2026 — one year to the day after the One Big Beautiful Bill Act created the new children's savings accounts. For small business owners, the launch opens a question worth real money: can your business fund your own kids' accounts with pre-tax dollars?

The answer appears to be yes for many owners, but the mechanics matter. The tax break runs through new Internal Revenue Code Section 128, which lets an employer contribute up to $2,500 per year to the Trump Account of an employee or an employee's dependent without the amount counting as...

The job hasn't changed, but the degree required to get it has. Over the past three decades, one profession after another has raised its educational entry price: a bachelor's became a master's...a master's became a doctorate...a short training course became a year of mandatory classes.

These new requirements are adding years of tuition and borrowing for careers that pay roughly what they paid before the new requirements were added. The labor market simply doesn't pay more because you got more education.

Economists call it degree inflation, and the most surprising part isn't the...

A new federal lawsuit is trying to answer a question more than 1.5 million student loan borrowers have been asking: did the Department of Education actually cancel the loans it publicly promised to forgive?

The Project on Predatory Student Lending (PPSL) sued the Department (PDF File) on July 1, 2026, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, after the agency sat on fifteen Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests (some for more than two and a half years) seeking records on how it carried out its announced group discharges.

The College Investor team has...

Student loan borrowers who applied for the SAVE plan but were never officially enrolled are now receiving denial letters from their loan servicers. These are borrowers who submitted an application for SAVE or an old application selecting the option "Lowest Repayment Plan", but their applications were never actually processed. These borrowers had been in administrative forbearance while waiting for an outcome to their application.

Borrowers have 90 days to submit a new income-driven repayment (IDR) application or their SAVE forbearance ends and payments resume on their old plan.

Hundreds of thousands of borrowers submitted IDR applications...

A pair of Democratic bills introduced in May would eliminate one of the oldest restrictions in federal student loan policy: the rule that blocks teachers from counting the same years of teaching service toward both Teacher Loan Forgiveness (TLF) and Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF).

The Teacher Debt Relief Act (H.R.8815), introduced May 14, 2026 by Rep. Jahana Hayes (D-CT) and endorsed by the National Education Association, would end the prohibition that forces teachers to choose one program or the other for a given service period. Hayes calls it a technical correction, but for teachers, it could shave...

Formal 90-day notices began going out to more than 7 million SAVE borrowers on July 1, arriving in waves. Borrowers who don't choose a new repayment plan by their deadline (roughly September 30 for the first group) will be placed on the Standard plan automatically.

In response, a common refrain has emerged in comment sections and forums: "I refuse to switch until I'm notified I have to. That way, if any new court action benefits SAVE borrowers, it will still apply to me because I'm technically still registered under SAVE."

It makes it sound like waiting in the...

For most borrowers after July 1, 2026, consolidating federal student loans no longer offers a real upside — and it can quietly erase progress you've already earned towards loan forgiveness. The one situation where it still helps is getting out of default.

Consolidation used to be a helpful tool for many borrowers. It turned old FFEL loans into Direct Loans, unlocked income-driven repayment and Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF), and let borrowers capture the one-time IDR account adjustment. Those windows have closed. The adjustment is over, FFEL cleanup deadlines have passed, and the menu of repayment plans is shrinking — so the...

The U.S. Department of Education announced a final rule that will, for the first time, strip federal student loan eligibility from college and career programs whose graduates fail to out-earn workers who never enrolled.

The Student Tuition and Transparency System (STATS) and Earnings Accountability rule applies a single standard across every sector of higher education, from public universities to for-profit certificate schools, regardless of an institution's tax status or the credential it awards.

The premise is simple: undergraduate programs must demonstrate that their graduates earn more than working adults who hold only a high...

The biggest overhaul of federal student loans in a generation just took effect. Under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, borrowers who take out federal loans on or after July 1, 2026 face fewer repayment options, hard borrowing caps, and slightly higher interest rates.

While many of these changes apply to new loans going forward, some borrowers do have choices to make. For example, borrowers in the SAVE forbearance will have to start making decisions to change repayment plans.

It's important to remember that current borrowers keep their existing fixed interest rates and access to legacy plans...

Home / News / ED Expands Professional Degree List to 29 Programs After Court Stay

ED Expands Professional Degree List to 29 Programs After Court Stay

Updated: June 30, 2026 By Robert Farrington | < >

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The Department of Education has temporarily widened the types of degree programs that qualify for the higher professional-student loan limits, adding fields like physician assistant...

A federal judge has thrown out the Department of Education's controversial new Public Service Loan Forgiveness rule, ruling it unlawful one day before it was scheduled to take effect.

In a 68-page decision issued June 30, 2026, U.S. District Judge Myong J. Joun of the District of Massachusetts (PDF File) held that the rule was "contrary to law," exceeded the Department's statutory authority, was "arbitrary and capricious," and violated the First Amendment.

His order vacated the rule entirely.

There's another case in the District of Columbia that's also about this same rule, still waiting...

The two largest faculty unions in the country are drawing a line against three-year bachelor's degrees, just as more states moves to make them real.

The American Association of University Professors (AAUP) and the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) issued a joint statement opposing accelerated degrees after Massachusetts approved its first pilot programs. The pushback lands the same week Virginia and Ohio announced a partnership to design their own shorter pathways.

It follows a trend of over 60 colleges and university systems working on building three year degree programs.

Syracuse University Chancellor J. Michael Haynie told the community last week that it will not hit its undergraduate enrollment target for the fall and, as a result, will run a budget deficit "something the University has not experienced in quite some time."

His letter framed the shortfall as the product of national forces: a shrinking pool of 18-year-olds, fierce competition for students, and a drop in international applications tied to visa problems and federal policy.

While that backdrop is true, we believe it to be only partly responsible for Syracuse's downfall. Haynie's letter casts the...

The future of student loan repayment for SAVE borrowers has been finalized by a court settlement, and the exodus will start on July 1, 2026 in tranches of individual borrowers.

According to the most recent communication from the Department of Education, student loan servicers will begin sending official notices to borrowers in SAVE starting July 1, 2026. These notices will come in tranches, roughly two weeks apart.

Once a borrower receives their notice, they will have 90 days to select a new repayment plan. The current available repayment plan options are:

Robert joined the Money Life Show with Chuck Jaffe to talk about the latest updates with student loans: new repayment plan changes and new student loan limits that go into effect this week.

If you have student loans, or are planning on borrowing student loans, here's what you need to know.

Check out the Money Life Show with Chuck Jaffe here.

A coalition of states is pressing a federal judge (PDF File) to halt the Department of Education's new Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) rule before it takes effect July 1, 2026. This comes after the Department moved to add a sworn attestation to the program's certification forms in a Federal Register notice (PDF File).

The new rule lets the Secretary of Education strip PSLF eligibility from employers (including state and local governments) that the Department decides have a "substantial illegal purpose." The form change would require employers to confirm, under penalty of perjury, that they have not engaged in...

The U.S. Department of Education announced that its quadrupling the interest rate discount for federal student loan borrowers who enroll in autopay, raising it from 0.25% to a full 1 percentage point starting July 1, 2026.

Borrowers who sign up for automatic payments (or who are already enrolled) will get a 1% reduction on their federal student loan interest rate. The discount is temporary: borrowers who enroll by September 30, 2026 (or are already enrolled) keep the benefit through June 30, 2028.

Already on autopay? You don't need to do anything. Loan servicers will automatically apply the extra 0.75% on top of the existing 0.25...

Rep. Suzanne Bonamici (D-OR) announced she will introduce a resolution to impeach Secretary of Education Linda McMahon, accusing her of illegally gutting the Department of Education by shifting more than 100 programs to other federal agencies without congressional approval.

The resolution alleges McMahon violated her oath of office, made false and misleading statements to Congress, and broke federal law by transferring the operations of multiple offices to agencies outside the Department — actions Bonamici says only Congress has the power to authorize.

Student loan servicers have started placing automated phone calls to SAVE borrowers, warning them that their loans will reenter repayment when the forbearance ends and that they'll need to pick a new plan or one will be chosen for them.

Some borrowers have begun shared transcripts of the messages online. One automated message from Nelnet tells borrowers their "loans will reenter repayment when the SAVE plan ends" and that they "will need to choose a new repayment plan. If you don't choose a plan, one will be assigned for you."

The call points borrowers to...

International graduate enrollment at U.S. colleges fell again this year, and the financial damage is showing up fast in layoffs, budget deficits, and shuttered degree programs.

For years, foreign graduate students were a quiet engine of university finances: paying full tuition, staffing research labs, and filling master's programs that schools built out to grow revenue. Now that engine is stalling.

Tighter visa policies, thousands of revoked visas, and growing uncertainty about studying in the U.S. have cut into the pipeline, and the institutions that bet most heavily on international enrollment are the ones...

Sixty-two members of Congress are demanding the Department of Education act before millions more borrowers fall into default and they want answers by June 22.

A June 7 letter (PDF File) led by Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), along with Representatives Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) and André Carson (D-Ind.), warns Education Secretary Linda McMahon that the U.S. is facing "the largest student loan default and delinquency crisis on record."

This comes as the entire student loan system is changing on July 1 - from new repayment plans, loan caps, and borrowers in the SAVE plan b...

Over the past several weeks we've heard multiple reports from graduate students about financial aid delays and miscommunication as they start summer classes. For medical, dental, and veterinary schools that start as early as May, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) changes are causing delays and chaos.

One student reported that they received an inaccurate notice claiming they hit the updated graduate borrowing limits, while another was experiencing delayed loan disbursements. The result is fear, uncertainty, and in the case of delayed disbursements, true financial risk as many graduate students rely on their student loans to...

The House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies released its fiscal year 2027 spending bill (PDF File), and it pays for a Pell Grant increase by permanently ending subsidized federal student loans.

The bill cuts the U.S. Department of Education's budget by 10%, or roughly $8 billion, with deep reductions to K-12 programs, Federal Work Study, and education research. It is the first step in a long appropriations process, but the headline tradeoff is clear: students gain a small Pell bump and lose one of the most affordable loans available to them.

The federal student loan system is about to see its biggest changes in decades — and most borrowers have no idea what's coming.

In this episode, Robert Farrington sits down with U.S. Department of Education Under Secretary Nicholas Kent, the top federal official overseeing the $1.7 trillion student aid portfolio, to break down exactly what's changing on July 1 and what you need to do about it.

They cover the end of the SAVE plan and the 90-day clock for borrowers to switch, the two new repayment options (the Repayment Assistance Plan and the new tiered standard pl...

Hampshire College and Anna Maria College have both announced plans to wind down, joining a a list of other colleges that have announced closures this year. Families committing tuition dollars now have a real interest in spotting financial trouble before it surfaces in a closure announcement.

More than 30 New England colleges have closed or merged over the past decade, per the Boston Fed. Huron Consulting Group projects over a quarter of private, four-year schools could close or merge in the next ten years. Forbes' new College Financial Grades report shows clear balance sheet stress at hundreds of...

The price a college advertises and the price a family actually pays out of pocket are two very different numbers, and the distance between them is rarely an accident. Behind the published sticker price sits a system of selective discounts, mandatory fees, and rules that can turn four years of tuition into five or six. Some of these practices have drawn federal scrutiny and lawsuits.

Together they help explain why two students sitting in the same lecture hall can pay wildly different amounts for the same education.

Americans' financial literacy has slipped to its lowest level in a decade, according to the 2026 TIAA Institute-GFLEC Personal Finance Index released this month.

U.S. adults correctly answered just 47% of the 28 P-Fin Index questions in 2026 — a significant drop from the prior year and the weakest result since the survey launched in 2017. The figure has never exceeded 52% over the decade.

The share of adults with very low financial literacy (seven or fewer questions correct) rose from 20% in 2017 to 25% in 2026. The top of the distribution barely moved: just 15% answered 22 or more correctly, down one point from 2017.

The University of Missouri System Board of Curators voted unanimously Thursday to raise undergraduate tuition 4% across all four campuses for the 2026-27 academic year. Graduate tuition will rise 3%.

The increase hits resident undergraduates at Mizzou (Columbia), UMSL, UMKC, and Missouri S&T at a moment when families are already absorbing FAFSA changes, new federal borrowing caps on Grad Loans and Parent PLUS loans, and the rollout of the RAP plan.

A 4% bump also runs slightly above of the national pace for public four-year schools.

California State University, the largest public college system in the U.S., just voted to allow (PDF File) the creation of bachelor's degrees that can be completed in as little as three years. This is a massive shift that could reshape how working adults and community college transfers earn a credential.

The first shortened degrees could launch as early as fall 2027, though 2028 is more likely.

The U.S. Department of Education has started emailing borrowers enrolled in the Saving on a Valuable Education (SAVE) Plan a second round of reminders (which we're dubbing as "courtesy" notices) ahead of the formal transition emails set to start July 1, 2026.

Why it matters: Around 7 million borrowers are still sitting in SAVE forbearance after a federal court order killed the plan. Once a borrower's servicer sends the official notice, a 90-day clock starts to pick a new repayment plan or the servicer will move the borrower into one automatically (likely the Standard Plan). Borrowers who still don't...

Families comparing colleges usually start with the published tuition number. That number is rarely what they will actually owe. While most families don't pay sticker price, another line item is becoming a shocking addition: fees.

Buried in the fine print, the mandatory student fee can add $1,000, $4,000, or even $8,000 to the annual bill before housing and food. At Southern Methodist University (SMU), the general student fee is rising to $4,040 per term in 2026-27, or roughly $8,080 across two semesters, on top of $63,376 in undergraduate tuition and fees published for 2026-27.

Stack on the other charges colleges break...

The U.S. Department of Education, with the Department of Treasury, plans to resume administrative wage garnishment on defaulted federal student loans this fall, restarting involuntary collections after a months-long pause announced earlier in 2026.

The timing will likely reflect the end of the period of time for borrowers to select a new repayment plan. While specific details have not been announced, multiple members of the administration have pointed to getting borrowers back into repayment on their loans.

Student Defense co-founder Dan Zibel joins The College Investor at the ASU+GSV Summit to talk about how colleges are using AI in admissions, grading, and student lending — and why students deserve transparency about it.

Recorded live at the ASU+GSV Summit in San Diego, Robert Farrington sits down with Dan Zibel, co-founder of Student Defense, to talk about how artificial intelligence is reshaping higher education — from admissions decisions to classroom grading to student lending — and what students and families should be asking about it.

UC Irvine's Paul Merage School of Business is cutting tuition on its Flex MBA program by $30,000 and its Executive MBA by $48,000 starting this fall — a reduction of up to 38%.

The school is openly framing the move as a response to new federal graduate borrowing limits that take effect July 1, 2026. However, this move raises more questions than answers.

Why it matters: At the new $99,000 price tag, Merage's Flex MBA squeaks in just below the $100,000 lifetime aggregate cap on federal graduate borrowing established by the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.

The school's pitch: "University of Ca...

Key federal databases that tracked American schools since 1962 is now running on outdated numbers. After Education Department gutted their research arm last year, large portions of the Digest of Education Statistics (covering per-student spending, teacher pay, enrollment, and student safety) have not been refreshed in more than a year.

The Department says new contracts are coming, but the public (and researchers) are operating without current school data in the meantime.

Federal student loan interest rates are heading higher for the 2026-27 academic year, following Monday's May 10-year Treasury Note auction (PDF File). Undergraduate Stafford Loans will carry a 6.52% fixed rate, up from 6.392% a year earlier, with graduate and PLUS borrowers seeing similar increases of roughly 13 basis points.

The new rates apply to federal student loans disbursed on or after July 1, 2026, and remain fixed for the life of the loan.

The payment pause protecting borrowers in the SAVE plan is winding down, with loan servicers set to begin notifying borrowers starting July 1 to move into a new repayment plan.

Once a borrower receives that notice, the clock starts: forbearance ends 90 days after the official notice is sent, which means most affected borrowers will be back in active repayment by the end of September 2026. This means either the borrower selects a new repayment plan, or will default back into the standard repayment plan.

The bottom line - nearly all of these borrowers will have a payment...