The English language is not strong enough, nor are my skills in using it, to fully describe the unmitigated disaster that the federal program of financial assistance for college students has been, especially in the case of student loans. That program has: Incentivized academic mediocrity and penalized academic merit and accomplishment; Materially raised the cost […]
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Author’s Note: This article is from my weekly “Top of Mind” email, sent to subscribers every Thursday. For more content like this and to receive the full newsletter each week, enter your name and email under “SIGN UP FOR OUR WEEKLY NEWSLETTER, ‘TOP OF MIND,’” located on the right-hand side of the site. The “One Big […]
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The House of Representatives has passed its version of the reconciliation bill, which includes a new accountability system for higher education. Under this system, colleges would be responsible for reimbursing the government for a share of the government losses on loans to their students, with the share being determined by the college’s cost relative to […]
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The Trump administration just issued an Executive Order to prohibit accrediting organizations from imposing “diversity, equity, and inclusion” (DEI) policies on universities. The Secretary of Education shall, as appropriate and consistent with applicable law, hold accountable, including through denial, monitoring, suspension, or termination of accreditation recognition, accreditors who fail to meet the applicable recognition criteria […]
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I have been following some great higher education bills in the states this year. Some of the best policies are in Senate Bill 37 in Texas, a sequel to SB 17 that we saw in 2023. The greatness of SB 17 was to ban “diversity, equity, and inclusion” (DEI) across public universities in Texas. The […]
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The adoption into law of Utah’s Senate Bill 334, inspired by the General Education Act and co-sponsored by the National Association of Scholars, is a much-needed development. Promoting the values and pillars of our shared tradition, from classical education to the preparation of responsible citizenry, there is much to be grateful for, and we hope that this model propagates everywhere in […]
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Classical education is growing rapidly in America—and with good reason. Set aside for the moment whether classical education provides a better character education than mainstream K-12 education. It does a good job simply in conveying basic knowledge and preparing students for college and careers. [R]esearch shows CCE graduates possess uniquely valuable skills for modern employers. […]
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I’ve recently had the honor and the pleasure to serve on the Workgroup assembled by the Florida Department of Education (FLDOE) to help draft Florida’s new K-12 History of Communism standards. I shouldn’t say anything about the draft standards in detail, since they haven’t yet been published, but my fellow workgroup members and the members […]
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Editor’s Note: This article was updated to reflect the current name of the University of Maryland Global Campus, replacing its former name, University of Maryland, University College. An extraordinary number of public state universities now admit a majority of their students from out of state. At the University of Vermont, the number is 75 percent. […]
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Editor’s Note: The following is an article originally published on The College Fix on April 10, 2025. With edits to match Minding the Campus’s style guidelines, it is crossposted here with permission. Texas stands at a crossroads with two companion bills winding their way through the Lone Star Statehouse that aim to reform accreditation by […]
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Author’s Note: This article is from my weekly “Top of Mind” email, sent to subscribers every Thursday. For more content like this and to receive the full newsletter each week, enter your name and email under “SIGN UP FOR OUR WEEKLY NEWSLETTER, ‘TOP OF MIND,’” located on the right-hand side of the site. It was welcome […]
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Editor’s Note: This article was originally published by the National Association of Scholars on April 01, 2025, and is crossposted here with permission. Today, the National Association of Scholars (NAS) celebrates Congress’s bipartisan vote to move all existing operations of the Department of Education (ED) under the purview of the United States Popcorn Board. We are happy to […]
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Good news and bad news for higher education in Ohio. The good news is that SB 1 passed into law on March 28. It promises an end to “diversity, equity, and inclusion,” indoctrination, and political litmus tests at public universities; it increases curriculum transparency, it mandates civic education, and much more. The bad news is […]
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In 2023, the American Anthropological Association (AAA) canceled an accepted session from their annual conference: “Let’s Talk About Sex, Baby: Why biological sex remains a necessary analytic category in anthropology.” AAA’s decision, phrased in today’s academic jargon, was explicitly political. AAA President Ramona Pérez, writing jointly with President Monica Heller of the Canadian Anthropological Society, […]
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Texas universities, similar to Iowa’s Public Schools, maintain affirmative action plans, likely in noncompliance with state legislation, recent executive orders, and the Department of Education’s (ED) latest Dear Colleague letter. Passed in late 2023, Texas’s Senate Bill 17 specifically banned “policies or procedures designed or implemented in reference to race, color, or ethnicity.” Affirmative action plans directly contradict this, mandating race-based “strategies” […]
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Two of America’s prestigious private universities, Vanderbilt and Washington University in St. Louis, recently did something extraordinary: they jointly bought a full paid ad in the Wall Street Journal entitled “Higher Education is at a Crossroads” that asserted: Ideological forces in and outside of campuses have pulled too many universities away from the core purpose, […]
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It is immensely encouraging to see state legislatures proposing and, in some cases, passing bills that would end “diversity, equity, and inclusion” (DEI) indoctrination in public colleges and universities. DEI programs are widespread in higher education, and they do profound harm to students, faculty, and the quality of education. Getting rid of them, however, is […]
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On Feb. 5, U.S. Rep. Dave Joyce (R-OH), in collaboration with Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-NY), introduced the Higher Education Accountability Tax (HEAT) Act, H.R. 1006. By amending the Internal Revenue Code, the bill seeks to hold private colleges and universities accountable for their role in the student debt crisis by increasing taxes on their investment […]
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Ohio Senate Bill 1, passed by the Senate, will be a big step forward for higher education. The bill would protect free speech; forbid discrimination based on race or other group identity; forbid indoctrination by faculty and staff; forbid “diversity, equity, and inclusion” (DEI) programs; and institute an undergraduate General Education Requirement in American government […]
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Author’s Note: This excerpt is from my weekly “Top of Mind” email, sent to subscribers every Thursday. For more content like this and to receive the full newsletter each week, sign up on Minding the Campus’s homepage. Simply go to the right side of the page, look for “SIGN UP FOR OUR WEEKLY NEWSLETTER, ‘TOP OF MIND,’” and […]
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The flurry of activity out of the Trump Administration is getting most of the news commentary these days, but much of higher education is still largely under partial control by state government authorities. Some attention has been on big states like Florida and Texas that have created new research centers not controlled by the woke-academic […]
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