Category: Trump administration

  • Trump demands $1bn in Harvard dispute

    Trump demands $1bn in Harvard dispute

    The President took to Truth Social on February 3 to announce he was seeking $1bn “in damages” from Harvard University, adding: “This should be a criminal, not civil, event, and Harvard will have to live with the consequences of their wrongdoings.”

    The announcement came hours after the New York Times reported the administration had dropped demands for a $200m payment it had sought from the university for its alleged mishandling of antisemitism on campus.  

    In his post, Trump disputed the New York Times’ story, claiming Harvard had been feeding “nonsense” to the paper, upping his administration’s demands to $1bn and vowing the case would continue “until justice is served”. 

    He claimed Harvard had proposed “a convoluted job training concept” in place of the money, which the president called “wholly inadequate”. Despite previous reports of an imminent deal, Trump’s fresh threats suggest a settlement is now out of reach.  

    According to the New York Times, the administration had reportedly sought $200m, though Trump claimed the amount was “more than $500m, a number that should be much higher for the serious and heinous illegalities that they have committed”.  

    Neither the White House nor Harvard University responded to The PIE News’s request for comment. 

    We are now seeking One Billion Dollars in damages, and want nothing further to do, into the future, with Harvard University

    President Donald Trump

    Harvard has so far refused to settle with the administration, while several Ivy League institutions including the University of Pennsylvania, Columbia University, Brown University, Cornell University, and other high-ranking institutions have reached deals with the President.  

    It has resisted multiple efforts of the administration to bar international students from enrolling, and has successfully defended its federal research funding, with a court ruling the government acted unlawfully in its attempts to strip $2.2bn in grants from the university.  

    Responding to government allegations of antisemitism in April 2025, Harvard president Alan Garber wrote: “As a Jew and as an American, I know very well that there are valid concerns about rising antisemitism” – emphasising the university’s “moral imperative” to fight hate urgently.  

    The university’s website outlines efforts to combat antisemitism on campus, which has included establishing a task force and enhancing training on antisemitism, strengthening disciplinary measures and introducing more support for Jewish students. 

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  • Immigration raids traumatize even the youngest children

    Immigration raids traumatize even the youngest children

    by Jackie Mader, The Hechinger Report
    February 4, 2026

    Last year, Susana Beltrán-Grimm was visiting Hispanic families for a research project about parents and math, when she started to notice a trend. Parents didn’t want to talk about math with the Portland State University professor. Instead, they wanted to talk about their fears as immigration enforcement ramped up across the country. 

    “The concern was, ‘This is happening, and I’m scared to go to work, I’m scared to take my child to the park. I don’t feel comfortable taking them to school,’” Beltrán-Grimm said. Many parents told her, “I’m trying to figure out how I’m not as stressed so I don’t stress my child,” she recalled.

    These comments led Beltrán-Grimm to launch a small pilot study looking at how parental stress and fear around immigration enforcement was affecting children, and specifically, their opportunities to play. Her initial findings painted a clear picture: Parents were so fearful of immigration enforcement, they were avoiding taking their kids to playgrounds and parks. 

    “They’re living in survival mode,” said Beltrán-Grimm. That has consequences for young children, she added, who are now losing out on chances to play and can easily pick up on their parents’ anxiety. “That’s not a good way for a child to develop,” she added.

    Beltrán-Grimm’s initial findings from the pilot study, which is expanding this year to nearly 500 additional families, add to a growing body of research tracking the effects of aggressive immigration enforcement on the mental health of young children. Experts say such policies, like those that have been playing out across the country since President Donald Trump took office last year, are felt not only by immigrant children, but also by children whose families are not at risk of deportation. 

    “Kids know about people being taken, and they worry. That diffused fear just spreads,” said Joanna Dreby, a professor of sociology at the University of Albany. Dreby said she expects this anxiety to affect more children as they see and hear about violent events involving Immigration and Customs Enforcement, like accounts of U.S. citizens getting detained or shot. “As more and more children are being exposed to those severe episodes, then more and more children are going to carry those fears,” Dreby said.

    Related: Immigration enforcement is driving away early childhood educators

    Research shows children can display troubling behaviors when their communities are targeted by immigration enforcement, including increased aggression, separation anxiety and withdrawal.

    Parents and early educators have long reported increased aggression, separation anxiety and withdrawal among children when administrations ramp up immigration enforcement, with worse effects for those who fear enforcement. 

    If that anxiety is left unaddressed, there can be long-term consequences. Exposure to immigration enforcement in childhood has been found to lead to long-term anxiety, PTSD and depression in adolescence and young adulthood. Young children are especially vulnerable to trauma because their brains are rapidly developing during the first five years of life, and that development can be highly influenced by stress hormones. 

    Dreby, who has spent years interviewing and studying children who have experienced immigration enforcement to some degree, said the longer enforcement goes on, the more children can be affected. It’s even more damaging if they witness arrests. “Unfortunately, some of the things we found most harmful for children are exactly the tactics currently being used by federal immigration enforcement agents,” she said. 

    “There is absolutely no reason that immigration regulation has to unfold in this way that’s very public, that’s in front of children,” Dreby added. “That needs to stop immediately.”

    Although parents can often serve as buffers for trauma, they may struggle to do so when they are also overly stressed and anxious. A 2021 study of pre-K students in New York City, for example, found when parents felt higher levels of immigration enforcement threat, children showed lower levels of self-regulation skills, especially around their ability to pay attention. Children in those families also experienced greater separation anxiety and overanxious behaviors.

    “The stress of parents is certainly trickling down to children,” said Suma Setty, a senior policy analyst for immigration and immigrant families at the Center for Law and Social Policy. In her previous research, Setty has heard accounts of children as young as 3 saying they were scared of losing their parents to deportation. “It’s very apparent in their behavior that stress is impacting them, and that has long-term implications,” she added.  

    While interviewing parents, child care providers and professionals who interact with children over the past six months, Setty has heard widespread reports of children having trouble sleeping, showing fear of police, regressing in skills like potty training and being more emotionally reactive. One respondent shared a story about a child who asked her mom to teach her how to cook, so the girl would be able to feed herself if her mom was deported. A child care provider told Setty that children in her program used to be curious about visitors, but now hide behind their teacher when someone new enters the building. 

    In Minnesota, where ICE has engaged in violent clashes over the last month, Sonia Mayren, a Minneapolis-based clinical trainee who specializes in child trauma and works largely with the Latino population, has seen a sharp uptick in anxiety among her patients. Many of the children she serves have regressed behaviorally. In recent months, all of her clients have moved their sessions online. Several have stopped therapy altogether.

    Like Dreby, Mayren is also hearing about children fearing immigration agents even if their family is not at risk of enforcement. “It’s not just, ‘I’m afraid of ICE detaining my friends or family,’ it’s, ‘I’m afraid of ICE in general, because they can come hurt us,’” she said.

    Mayren is telling parents to be patient with children, try to protect them from the news and maintain routines, especially if kids have been pulled out of school. She also encourages parents to find mental health assistance to try to keep kids stable, with the caveat that they may not see much improvement in their kids’ mental health while immigration enforcement remains so aggressive and visible. 

    “We’re just keeping children’s heads above water now because they’re in a state of emergency,” she said. “It’s just survival.”

    This story about immigration raids was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for the Hechinger newsletter.

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  • Hispanic-serving colleges scramble to fill gaps left by federal grant cuts

    Hispanic-serving colleges scramble to fill gaps left by federal grant cuts

    by Olivia Sanchez, The Hechinger Report
    February 3, 2026

    CHICO, Calif. — As an undergraduate studying psychology at California State University, Chico, Gabriel Muñoz thought that his degree might lead him to a career in human resources. Not because he was excited about that prospect — he wasn’t — but because he wasn’t sure what other options he’d have. 

    Then he learned about the university’s Future Scholars Program, in which undergraduate students get paid to do summer research and have access to mentors and professional development workshops. He applied and was accepted, and the experience sparked in him a love of research, he said; now he plans to enroll in a master’s program in psychology at Chico State and go on to earn his Ph.D. and become a college professor. 

    Muñoz had no idea that this program that changed his life was paid for by a federal grant for Hispanic-serving institutions, or HSIs. He learned that on the day he learned it had been terminated. He will be one of the last students to go through it.

    University leaders say Chico State is losing more than $3 million in federal funds, as part of a larger cancellation of more than $350 million in grants to minority-serving institutions (MSIs). Now, around the country, those colleges are hustling to find ways to replace or do without the money, which covered such things as research grants, laboratory equipment, curricular materials and student support programs — budget items whose benefits extended to all students, not only Hispanic students or those from other ethnic groups.

    In making the sweeping cuts last fall, the Trump administration argued that MSI programs were racially discriminatory because, to be eligible for the funding, institutions had to enroll a certain percentage of students from a certain race or ethnicity. To be considered an HSI, a college’s full-time undergraduate enrollment must be at least 25 percent Hispanic.

    Experts emphasize, however, that these colleges serve many low-income and first-generation students, regardless of ethnicity. 

    “The thing about HSIs is that they’re so diverse,” said Marybeth Gasman, executive director of the Center for Minority Serving Institutions at Rutgers University. “They have really large numbers of Latinx students, but they also have large numbers of Black students and Asian students and low-income white students, too. I have to stress how short-sighted it is for the federal government to take this money away.” 

    As Congressional leaders argued over final budget legislation amid the partial government shutdown this week, it appeared that some education funding, including money for HSI grants, would be restored to the proposed budget. But the Education Department would retain the authority to decide how, or if, that funding would be distributed. 

    Chico State is one of 171 HSIs in California and 615 across the country, according to the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities. Less than a third of these institutions have been receiving HSI funding, meaning roughly 200 colleges nationwide are now figuring out how to maintain defunded programs or end them in the way that is least disruptive to students. 

    Related: Interested in more news about colleges and universities? Subscribe to our free biweekly higher education newsletter.

    Created in 1992, the HSI program was designed to help more Hispanic students succeed in college and earn degrees by boosting academic offerings, program quality and institutional stability. 

    Data shows that these students need the boost. Across the country, Hispanic students at four-year colleges graduate at lower rates than their white counterparts — about 52 percent compared to 65 percent, according to a 2023 analysis of 2021 federal data by Excelencia in Education. And 2022 census data showed that only about 21 percent of Hispanic adults had a bachelor’s degree or higher, compared to 42 percent of white adults. 

    Advocates for educational equity say HSI programs help Hispanic students achieve academic success and ultimately help enhance the future of the nation’s workforce. 

    “It is not about affirmative action. This is not about picking students and giving students a plus because they are Black, Latino or otherwise,” said Francisca Fajana, director of racial justice strategy at LatinoJustice PRLDEF, a national nonprofit that advocates for Latino legal rights.“That’s not what this program is about. It’s really about the institutions themselves building capacity.”

    The Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities and LatinoJustice PRLDEF filed a motion to intervene in a federal lawsuit brought by the anti-affirmative-action group Students for Fair Admissions, which argues against HSI funding. That lawsuit, and the solicitor general declaring the HSI program unconstitutional in response, is the reason the Education Department eliminated the program, according to an email from a department spokesperson. Fajana said that although she believes there is a sound case for maintaining the HSI grant program, “this is really a David versus Goliath-type battle.” 

    Chico State, part of the California State University System, has roughly 13,000 students, about 38 percent of whom are Hispanic according to federal data, on a small, grassy campus about an hour and a half north of Sacramento. Though the city of Chico has roughly 101,000 people, the university also serves many rural communities in northern California. 

    Since earning the HSI designation a decade ago, the university has received roughly $26 million in grant funding, said Teresita Curiel, the university’s director of Latinx equity and success. She said the money had allowed the university to provide valuable services to Hispanic and low-income students, but made up only a small percentage of the university’s overall budget. 

    Curiel said that among the programs losing funding is Bridges to Baccalaureate, the umbrella group that provides undergraduate research opportunities and transfer student mentoring for Hispanic and low-income students in the behavioral and social sciences, and one called Destino, which helps students in the College of Engineering, Computer Science and Construction Management to prepare to enter the workforce. 

    A program that provided research fellowships and tuition subsidies to graduate students, known as the Graduate Education Access & Opportunity Program, or Great-Op, will also end as a result of lost federal funding. 

    Related: As colleges lose enrollment, some turn to one market that’s growing: Hispanic students 

    After three remaining HSI grants end contractually in September of this year, the university will have just one active HSI grant: $163,874 from the National Science Foundation to pay for equipment upgrades in the engineering college, according to Curiel. 

    “If we’re going to be successful as a university, we have to intentionally think about how we’re going to support Latinx students — grant money or not,” said Leslie Cornick, Chico State’s provost, who is now working with other campus leaders to make up for lost funding. 

    Sabrina Marquez, who manages the Bridges to Baccalaureate and Future Scholars programs, said that in the two years that the programs’ grant has been active, more than 80 students have been paid to do research, lead summer orientation or serve as mentors to transfer students. The support is worth more than a paycheck, she said, because it often helps students better understand their own interests and opens doors to more options after they graduate.

    Many students who enter the Future Scholars Program don’t really know what it means to do research, Marquez said.

    Ysabella Marin, a senior psychology major who plans to graduate early, said she was one of those students. It wasn’t until she was paired with Gabriel Muñoz through the mentoring program that she learned it was even possible for undergraduates to do research. Her work in the Future Scholars Program focused on the impact of social media on men’s body image. 

    “To me, research was always something that was kind of scary, to be honest,” Marin said. But she felt empowered by her experience — more confident, and more comfortable talking to her professors, she said. And it’s helped her figure out that she wants to enroll in a master’s program to study developmental psychology.

    It’s difficult to quantify the program’s success since it’s only been active for two years, said Ryan Patten, interim dean of the College of Behavioral and Social Sciences. Anecdotally, though, he and Marquez have noticed that it’s helped many students realize their academic interests and develop a sense of belonging on campus. 

    Patten said that some aspects of the program will continue in the spring and summer with leftover money, “and then it ends.” 

    Related: Trump’s admissions data collection strains college administrators

    At other colleges, leaders have been pinching pennies in order to keep similar programs running. 

    At Southwestern College in the San Diego area, college president Mark Sanchez said the school’s leaders are not willing to sacrifice a program that helps first-year students adjust to life on campus. The college serves a binational community of students living in the United States and Mexico; many are the first in their family to go to college. The first-year experience program connects students with mentors for cultural activities and advisers who hook them up with tutoring as needed. Sanchez said the program has been extended to students in their second year, too. Instead of being funded with HSI grant money, Sanchez said, the programs will now be paid for out of the college’s general fund. 

    California State University, Channel Islands has received roughly $40 million in HSI grant funding since earning the label a decade ago, said Jessica Lavariega Monforti, the university’s provost. Most of the money has gone toward programs to support the academic success of Hispanic and low-income students, she said. 

    Among the programs being discontinued is one called Soar at CI, which focuses on helping more Latino students to and through college by using culturally responsive outreach to students and enhancing transfer pipelines from nearby community colleges, she said. More experienced students offered career mentoring to younger students, hosted a podcast and invited alumni to come back to campus to host workshops on career preparedness. Lavariega Monforti said that leaders will try to incorporate aspects of this program into other areas of campus life, but that the university can’t afford to keep it going long-term without the HSI funding. 

    Related: A case study of what’s ahead with Trump DEI crackdowns: Utah has already cut public college DEI initiatives

    Before beginning his first semester at Chico State, Matthew Hernandez, now a senior computer science major, enrolled in both a computer science boot camp (funded through Destino), and a calculus boot camp, both designed to prepare students to thrive in their college classes. Hernandez said that success in the calculus boot camp is measured by a placement test at the beginning and the end, and he went from scoring 44/100 before the boot camp to a near-perfect score by the end.

    Lupe Jimenez, who oversees the Destino program, said the computer science boot camp is unlikely to continue because of the funding cuts. 

    Data from the university shows that students involved in STEM support programs such as Destino were more likely to stay enrolled after their first year (92 percent compared to 86 percent of their peers in similar majors) and more likely to graduate (63 percent graduate within six years, compared to 58 percent of their peers). 

    Natalie Gonzalez, a senior mechatronic engineering major who attended both boot camps with Hernandez, said she spent most of her free time on campus in the Destino student center — studying, getting extra help from the advisers, even dropping by between classes to get a snack. She’s made most of her friends at Chico State through Destino programs, she said, and the student center often feels like a social hub. The center won’t close because it’s home to other STEM support resources, Jimenez said.

    Karen Contreras, who graduated with a degree in biochemistry in December, said she initially had trouble finding her place in STEM as a first-generation college student before she learned about the Chico STEM Connections Collaborative, a program similar to Destino that is funded by an HSI grant that cannot be canceled without an act of Congress. Through that group, she got paid to do research on idiopathic scoliosis in Japanese rice fish. In the fish lab, Contreras found mentors and friends and a purpose within her major. 

    Chico student Isaac Arreola said that when he first started as a student assistant in the office of graduate studies, he didn’t even know what graduate school was. Now, four years later, he’s still working there and is a graduate student himself — thanks to tuition assistance from Great-Op. With that funding gone, he’s been scrambling to find scholarships he can apply for and facing the disappointing reality that he may have to take out loans in order to stay enrolled. 

    Muñoz, too, still has graduate school aspirations, despite limited funding opportunities. With Great-Op off the table, he said he plans to pay what he can out of pocket and apply for student loans to cover the rest.

    Contact staff writer Olivia Sanchez at 212-678-8402 or [email protected]. 

    This story about Hispanic-serving institutions was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for our higher education newsletter. Listen to our higher education podcast.

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  • School closures rarely save much money and often lead to test score declines

    School closures rarely save much money and often lead to test score declines

    by Mara Casey Tieken, The Hechinger Report
    February 2, 2026

    As a researcher who studies school closings and counsels local districts facing closure decisions, I know the pressures are multiple.

    Many districts are facing dropping enrollments. In some places, like Boston, rising housing costs are fueling the decline; in other, more rural, areas, dropping birthrates and a graying population are causing it.

    Lots of students who left public schools for private ones during the pandemic still have not returned, with new voucher programs fueling the exodus. As districts lose students, they also lose state funding. This, coupled with rising costs and uncertain state and federal support, has meant that many districts, including dozens in New York and Maine, have failed to pass school budgets.

    That’s why school closures may seem logical. Close schools, “right-size” districts, save money. Problem solved.

    But, oftentimes, the problem isn’t solved. Because closures usually don’t reduce staff and often incur new transportation or renovation costs, they rarely save much money. They can also lead to declines in test scores in the short term and diminished college completion and employment outcomes in the long term.

    Related: A lot goes on in classrooms from kindergarten to high school. Keep up with our freeweekly newsletter on K-12 education.

    Closures can lead to other problems as well. Absenteeism and behavioral issues may increase. In rural areas, students can spend upward of four hours a day on the bus, often on treacherous routes. Closures can mean job loss and shuttered businesses for local communities. The burden of closure is also unequal, disproportionately impacting Black students and low-income students.

    Unfortunately, school closures might be one of the few remaining issues with bipartisan support, with closures now being considered or enacted all over the country.

    Many are in red states. The West Virginia Board of Education, for example, just voted to close schools in six counties. When Mississippi’s legislature reconvenes this month, it will take up the issue of district consolidation, which typically leads to closures. Several thousand miles away, school boards have been closing schools across Alaska.

    But the closures are under way in blue and purple cities and states, too. New Jersey, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania are considering district consolidation laws that could lead to school closures. The St. Louis Public School Board is proposing closing more than half of its 68 schools; Atlanta is closing 16. Even reliably blue New England is jumping on the closure bandwagon: Despite widespread protests, the Boston School Committee just voted to close three schools; Hartford may also debate closures in the coming months; New Hampshire is considering its own district consolidation legislation; and Democratic lawmakers in Vermont have sided with the state’s Republican governor to embrace his consolidation efforts while the tiny state grapples with its declining population.

    Ultimately, these closures are exactly what President Donald Trump is looking for. He has said little about them, but he doesn’t have to. He’s underwriting them.

    Trump’s desire to dismantle public education is clear. He has ravaged the U.S. Department of Education, moving many of its core functions to other federal departments and firing over a thousand staff. He has reduced federal oversight of public schools and used the Office for Civil Rights to drop protections for public school students. He has withheld federal funds for teacher professional development and services for English language learners. And he has created the first federal private school voucher program, at an estimated cost of up to $51 billion each year. From every front, his administration is launching a major assault on public education.

    At the same time, state and local officials are shuttering public schools: December was filled with news of closures. In fact, perhaps unwittingly, these officials — including those in blue states — may be doing just as much to undo public education as Trump is.

    We need to stop the rampant closing of schools.

    There are more reliable strategies for saving money, such as adopting service-sharing agreements that allow multiple districts to collaboratively manage and deliver key services, like transportation. Multi-grade classrooms and virtual options can relieve staffing pressures, and dual-enrollment programs can help small schools support robust curriculums. Meanwhile, states’ funding formulas are often outdated; examining those for possible cuts and expansions could also offer support to struggling districts.

    Related: Schools are closing across rural America. Here’s how a battle over small districts is playing out in one state

    In the rare cases when closures are necessary, there are better ways to close. We can use accurate data to guide planning, involve local communities in closure decisions and repurpose school buildings as community centers or preschools. We can close more judiciously, keeping schools in low-income and Black communities — the places that states most often neglect.

    We also need policies that address the root causes of closure: not only privatization and federal defunding, but also gentrification, economic restructuring and growing inequality.

    Right now, many Democrats and education advocates are just holding their breath, hoping that a new administration in a few years will quickly reverse Trump’s devastating education policies.

    But they might wake up on the next Inauguration Day and find that, even with a new administration ready to revive public education, there are few public schools left to resuscitate.

    Mara Casey Tieken is a professor of education at Bates College in Lewiston, Maine. She is the author of “Educated Out: How Rural Students Navigate Elite Colleges—And What It Costs Them” and “Why Rural Schools Matter.”

    Contact the opinion editor at [email protected].

    This story about school closures was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for Hechinger’s weekly newsletter.

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  • On a college campus in Minneapolis, a sense of danger and anxiety prevails

    On a college campus in Minneapolis, a sense of danger and anxiety prevails

    by Paul Pribbenow, The Hechinger Report
    January 30, 2026

    Spring semester at Augsburg University in Minneapolis, where I serve as president, began with the sound of helicopters on January 20 — one year after the second Trump inauguration, two weeks after the killing of Renee Good, and four days before the shooting of Alex Pretti. 

    Our campus in the heart of the city is seamlessly integrated with the surrounding neighborhood, so what happens in Minneapolis reaches into the heart of Augsburg. The city offers our students extraordinary opportunities for learning and service; in every discipline, the city acts as an extension of the classroom. 

    The reverse is also true, and what is happening in higher education and in our city right now is unprecedented — a word that has risked losing its meaning through overexposure. Yet I don’t know how else to describe how profoundly the so-called “Operation Metro Surge” has affected our students, faculty, staff, neighbors and community.

    A sense of danger and anxiety permeates Minneapolis. The ongoing federal operation in our streets, the targeting of immigrant communities and the killings of U.S. citizens by federal agents raise profound questions about what justice looks like in practice.

    Related: Fear, arrests and know your rights: How one school district is grappling with ICE coming to town 

    I often think about what this moment means for all of us who serve as college presidents. I firmly believe that we have been called to stand for the historic values that have defined higher education in our democracy for more than 250 years.

    Those values — human dignity, academic freedom, social mobility and the rule of law —must be our North Star no matter what challenges we face. 

    I sincerely hope my colleagues around the country will not face the distressing challenges we have experienced here in Minneapolis. But if they do, perhaps there is something to be learned from our story about what it means to be called to lead in a moment such as this.

    Aside from the helicopters, spring term opened with an unusual quiet on campus. Many more students than usual opted for online classes: After Good was killed, Augsburg immediately pivoted to increase virtual options for students — adding several new online course offerings and increasing caps on existing online courses.

    For some, this decision is about personal safety; others are caring for siblings or family members after a parent was taken by ICE. Some had no choice but to take a temporary leave of absence for the spring; others moved into emergency housing on campus to avoid the risks of a daily commute. 

    In this fraught time, our goal is prioritizing in-person learning as much as possible, while allowing individuals the flexibility to make the best choices they can for their own circumstances. This calculus looks different for every student, faculty member and staffer.

    This work is ongoing, and our academic advisors continue to meet one-on-one with students to navigate the thorny problem of making satisfactory academic progress in a time of personal and collective crisis. 

    At Augsburg, as on many college campuses throughout the U.S. that serve a large number of low-income and first-generation students from diverse backgrounds, these questions are not hypothetical. Our students have been stopped and interrogated by agents in unmarked cars while crossing from one campus building to the next. 

    Many of our Somali American neighbors — including those with citizenship or legal status — are afraid to go out in public, fearing harassment, detainment, or worse. Swatting attacks that have targeted educational institutions around the Twin Cities have prompted multiple evacuations of campus buildings. 

    Most chillingly, ICE  has detained several Augsburg students, including one on campus following a tense confrontation with armed agents in early December. 

    Navigating all of this has been relentless and exhausting. As with any community, Augsburg students, faculty, and staff have diverse viewpoints, including about how best to respond to our current moment. 

    But a truth we hold in common is that education is resistance — not to any political party or administration, but to the forces of dehumanization, violence, and injustice, wherever they are deployed. 

    I am not naïve enough to believe that simply being educated in a university with a deep commitment to the liberal arts will cultivate in the hearts of students that love of the world and their neighbors; they each must make that choice. 

    Related: Opinion: Colleges must start treating immigration-based targeting as a serious threat to student safety and belonging

    But for better or worse, the city is our classroom. Our students are receiving a crash course in what my colleague Najeeba Syeed calls a “lived theology of neighborliness.” 

    In the midst of this crisis, we know that educating students for lives of service has been our core purpose for 157 years. This moment, while difficult, is one we are called to meet in the long arc of higher education’s role in our democracy. The stakes couldn’t be higher.

    Paul C. Pribbenow is the president of Augsburg University.

    Contact the opinion editor at [email protected]. 

    This story about Minneapolis and ICE raids was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for Hechinger’s weekly newsletter.

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  • Sector backs Harvard int’l students in Trump legal fight

    Sector backs Harvard int’l students in Trump legal fight

    This week, the American Council on Education (ACE) was joined by 22 higher education associations filing an amicus brief in support of Harvard against the administration’s efforts to uphold Trump’s June 2025 proclamation barring international students from the institution.  

    “If the federal government may punish a university for its perceived ideology or that of its students, then the marketplace of ideas collapses into a monopoly of dogma,” the brief warns. 

    It urges the court to affirm the preliminary injunction issued by Judge Allison Burroughs last June, which blocked Trump’s attempt to prohibit foreign nationals seeking to study at Harvard from entering the US. 

    The signatories have said the proclamation represents an unprecedented executive overreach threatening institutional autonomy and academic freedom, as well as violating the First Amendment. 

    “Over the last year, the current administration has engaged in an unprecedented effort to coerce institutions of higher education to behave in a manner that reflects the administration’s preferred ideology, including by reshaping their faculty, curriculum and student body,” the document reads. 

    “When Harvard resisted the administration’s unlawful demands, the administration retaliated with extreme sanctions, including the proclamation issued in this appeal.” 

    The case arises from multiple attempts by the Trump administration bar international students from attending the Ivy League institution last spring. 

    Initial efforts were led by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) attempting to strip Harvard of its SEVP Certification, which enables US institutions to enrol international students – a move halted by federal district judge Allison Burroughs.  

    Weeks later, Trump escalated efforts and issued his own presidential proclamation aimed at achieving the same result, which was met with a preliminary injunction from judge Burroughs, who said Trump’s directive implicated core constitutional protections. 

    Appealing judge Burroughs’ decision, the administration argued the proclamation was legal under the president’s immigration authorities – citing the familiar argument relating to national security concerns. This took the case to First Circuit appeals court, where it is now being heard. 

    The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

    Trump’s proclamation cites Harvard’s alleged “violent crime rates” and deficient reporting on foreign students as rationales for the directive, alongside its “entanglements” with the Chinese Communist Party and “discriminatory” admissions practices reducing opportunities for American students.

    If the federal government may punish a university for its perceived ideology or that of its students, then the marketplace of ideas collapses into a monopoly of dogma

    American Council on Education et al.

    The brief argues that the proclamation is “fundamentally inconsistent with institutional autonomy – at Harvard and other educational institutions across the country” and that the administration’s actions are unconstitutional and set a dangerous precedent for all US colleges. 

    “The administration’s actions at issue in this case are directed at Harvard, but they reverberate throughout every state in the nation,” the brief states, arguing that punishing a university for its perceived ideology is “the antithesis of American values”. 

    It highlights the targeted nature of Trump’s directive, which would allow international students into the US seeking to study at any institution but Harvard – signalling the intervention is punitive, not regulatory, the amici said.  

    They emphasise the value of international students, “who … enrich and strengthen our community in innumerable ways”.  

    “But these benefits are unattainable when schools are prohibited from enrolling international students because they do not pass the government’s ideological litmus test.” 

    The brief contextualises the case within the administration’s long-running assault on Harvard, involving the freezing of federal grant funding, threats to Harvard’s tax-exempt status and requests for information regarding Harvard’s international students.  

    The administration’s appeal is expected to be considered in the coming months.

    In the federal funding fight, judge Burroughs found in September 2025 that the administration acted unlawfully when it cut Harvard’s research grants – a case also heading to the court of appeal after the administration disputed the ruling. 

    Despite the ongoing attacks on America’s oldest institution, Harvard’s overseas enrolments rose to their highest level since 2002 this academic year, making up 28% of the total university population.  

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  • Fear, arrests and know-your-rights: How one school district is grappling with ICE coming to town

    Fear, arrests and know-your-rights: How one school district is grappling with ICE coming to town

    by Alexandra Villarreal, The Hechinger Report
    January 23, 2026

    NEW HAVEN, Conn. — “They took her, they took her, they took her.”  

    Those were some of the words Assistant Principal Cora Muñoz could discern while on the phone with the guardian of one of her students. As the caller sobbed and struggled to speak, Muñoz realized that immigration enforcement agents had detained a kid from Wilbur Cross, the high school she helps lead. 

    Again.

    There was a reason why Muñoz was a go-to contact for the student and her guardian: She — and New Haven public schools more broadly — have worked hard to earn the trust of immigrant families in their diverse district, even as the second Trump administration has made it easier for immigration officers to enter schools and launched a mass deportation campaign.

    The district’s teachers and administrators have nurtured deep relationships with immigrant-serving organizations and helped kids access resources — attorneys, social workers, food — when needed. They’ve hosted sessions to inform students about their rights, and sent home cards with legal information in case of an encounter with immigration officers. And when the worst has happened — when someone’s child or parent has been detained, which has occurred over and over in recent months — they have taken immediate action, writing letters in support of the family member’s freedom and raising money alongside a larger coalition of advocates trying to bring that person home. 

    “In these moments where it’s hard, you show up,” said Muñoz, “and you do what you can.”

    Yet nothing has been able to entirely snuff out the fear of deportation inside the city’s schools, say students and educators. That may have contributed to a decline this October in the number of English language learner students enrolling; their numbers dropped by more than 2,000, or nearly 3.8 percent, across Connecticut between fall 2024 and fall 2025, and by hundreds — or 7.3 percent — in New Haven, with many immigrant families who were expected to return to school simply disappearing. 

    Chronic absenteeism rates fell in New Haven during the 2024-25 academic year. But after President Donald Trump took office, students said their families told them to skip extracurriculars or early college courses at a university campus in case immigration enforcement was around. For some, a college degree has started to feel more out of reach, as they adjust their dreams to fit within a new anti-immigrant reality. Teachers have seen kids stop participating in class after friends have been detained and they wonder if they could be next. 

    “I live with fear,” said Darwin, an 18-year-old student from Guatemala who has lived in New Haven for two years. His last name, like those of others in this story, is being withheld for safety reasons. “Sometimes I don’t even want to attend school because it makes me afraid to go out of the house.”

    In many school districts around the country, immigrant enrollment is down, as far fewer asylum seekers are able to reach the United States and some immigrants have chosen to self-deport to avoid the specter of detention. That said, the consequences of Trump’s mass deportation campaign on immigrants’ education vary greatly depending on the community, its demographics and the level of enforcement activity there, said Julie Sugarman, associate director for K-12 education research at the D.C.-based Migration Policy Institute’s National Center on Immigrant Integration Policy. 

    In the Minneapolis area, for instance, where a federal officer shot and killed Renee Good after she dropped off her 6-year-old child at school, districts are offering a virtual learning option for the many kids who are staying home in fear.  

    “We are definitely hearing anecdotally that there are kids not going to school,” Sugarman said. “Obviously, losing a whole year of education or however long they’re not in school, they are missing out on opportunities to develop their content knowledge, to learn literacy, to develop English, and also to develop academic skills in their native language.” 

    Related: Become a lifelong learner. Subscribe to our free weekly newsletter featuring the most important stories in education. 

    With seven institutions of higher learning in the area, New Haven is known as a college town. But it is also a city of immigrants: More than one in six New Haven residents are foreign-born, a statistic that underscores a point of pride for many who welcome the city’s diversity. Families in the public school system speak more than 70 languages. 

    At the Roberto Clemente Leadership Academy, a K-8 school with around 430 students, notices go home in English, Spanish, Pashto and Arabic. The school’s front doors have welcome signs posted in multiple languages. And on a bright red poster in the hallway, photos of beaming children surround a message: “We all smile in the same language.”  

    When Trump, who has argued that immigrants are “poisoning the blood of our country,” nixed guidance in January that had generally restricted U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement from going into schools to arrest people, New Haven Public Schools Superintendent Madeline Negrón was prepared. Ahead of Trump’s inauguration, her team reviewed how the district had protected students during his first term and in what ways they could fortify their response. They developed a district-wide policy on how to act if ICE officers sought to enter their buildings. It involves a series of steps — including legal counsel’s verification of a valid warrant — before immigration agents would ever be allowed in. 

    “Without that, nobody, no one, is going to walk through my doors. Because my obligation is to keep every single one of my children safe,” said Negrón, who also shared the policy in a letter to parents. 

    Negrón led an effort to train all administrators in the protocol, and then those staff helped to train all 2,900 district employees — including custodians, cafeteria workers, teachers, security guards and secretaries.

    Some schools went even further, holding know-your-rights presentations for students and their families. “Things like a judicial versus administrative warrant — you know, I wish that no kid in New Haven needed to know that,” said Ben Scudder, a social studies teacher at High School in the Community. “But we live in a world where they do, and their families do, and so we’re gonna make sure that they get the training they need to do that.” 

    Related: Immigration enforcement is driving away early childhood educators 

    So far, ICE hasn’t tried to enter New Haven’s public schools. But outside of the classroom, arrests and family separations abound.

    In June, a mother and her two children — an 8-year-old boy and a 13-year-old girl, both U.S. citizens — were in their car going to school when vehicles on the street surrounded them and men in ski masks approached. The kids watched, crying, as the immigration agents handcuffed their mom and led her away. 

    Staff members at the Roberto Clemente Leadership Academy, which the kids attend, fundraised for gift cards to grocery stores and delivery services to help their two students. They wrote support letters for the mother’s immigration case, asking for her release. But around a month later, she was deported to Mexico. 

    Now, whenever the younger sibling sees someone in uniform at school — a security guard, a police officer — he asks them why they took his mom, said Adela Jorge, Clemente’s principal. 

    “He’s not able to understand what happened,” Jorge said. “All he knows is that his mother was taken.”

    Soon after that, two Wilbur Cross students were nabbed one after the other. First was an 18-year-old named Esdras, arrested at his summer job, shuffled to detention facilities around the country, and almost put on a removal flight to Guatemala. 

    After more than a month — with the help of advocacy groups, his attorney, the teachers union, government officials and school employees who came together during summer break — Esdras was released. When he returned to Wilbur Cross, he told staff members all he wanted was to be normal, a request they have tried to honor by quietly reintegrating him into classes.

    Then, shortly after the start of the new academic year, another student — the one whose guardian had called Muñoz in a panic — was detained.

    “At first I thought she was mad at me or something,” said 17-year-old Melany, recalling when her friend suddenly stopped responding to phone messages. “But when she didn’t come to school, it really scared me. And I asked the teachers, but they couldn’t tell me anything.”

    Her friend was eventually freed, too. But teachers and administrators say they’re fed up that their students keep being targeted and treated so poorly.  

    “They’re our kids, and they’re being detained in these cages. And the day before, they were eating pizza in our cafeteria,” said Matt Brown, the Wilbur Cross principal. 

    Rumors and fears at times disrupt learning. One day in mid-October, around 10:20 a.m., immigration agents in tactical gear were seemingly staging in a park near a New Haven area college, setting off concerns that students were their targets. But about twenty minutes later, the agents instead hit a car wash in Hamden, Connecticut, arresting its workers. 

    “I don’t know what rights they had in those moments. It didn’t seem like they had any. There were no rights there,” said Laurie Sweet, a state representative whose district includes Hamden. “I think the intention is to cause chaos and make people feel destabilized, and that definitely is what happened.”

    ICE took eight people into custody that day, some of them parents of school-aged children. Tabitha Sookdeo, executive director of Connecticut Students for a Dream, said her organization searched school records for the kids, trying to ensure they were okay. But no one could find them.

    “We just hope and pray to God that they were able to have someone to pick them up from school,” Sookdeo said. 

    Related: What’s happened since Texas killed in-state tuition for undocumented students

    Teachers say all of this has made immigrant students quieter, more reserved, more observant — and more hopeless. Kids who used to exchange greetings with their teachers in the halls now trudge around like the walking dead, or ask for passes to leave the classroom more often. 

    “I’ve seen a lot more sadness, and I’ve seen a lot more students who are good students skipping classes. And it’s for no reason except that they just, you know, they have too much going on emotionally to make them go to their classes,” said Fatima Nouchkioui, a teacher of English as a second language at Wilbur Cross’ International Academy. 

    Sookdeo has noticed a drop in students at her organization’s college access program, as they question why they would try to get a college degree when they don’t know whether they’ll be in the U.S. tomorrow.

    “You’re sitting next to them,” she said of the high schoolers she works with. “And they’re literally shaking.”

    Many of the kids already have a pile of pressures to navigate. In some cases, they are living in the country by themselves, balancing school with jobs that allow them to send money home to parents and siblings. Darwin, for example, came to the U.S., leaving behind his mom and three younger siblings, and lives in New Haven alone — all to give his family members who remain abroad a better life. 

    And then there’s always the next arrest, constantly looming. 

    “Do we anticipate having kids detained again?” said Brown. “I haven’t seen anything that would make me think we shouldn’t.” 

    Contact editor Caroline Preston at 212-870-8965, via Signal at CarolineP.83 or on email at [email protected].

    This story about fear of deportation was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for the Hechinger newsletter.

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  • how fear reshaped America’s appeal to international students

    how fear reshaped America’s appeal to international students

    One year into Donald Trump’s second presidency, the most consequential outcome for international students has not been a single policy, executive order or visa restriction. It’s been the creation of a pervasive climate of fear and the lasting reputational damage that fear inflicted on the United States as a destination for global talent.

    American universities are accustomed to planning around policy change. They model visa delays, compliance shifts and regulatory risk. What they are far less equipped to manage is a climate where uncertainty itself shapes decision-making. Over the past year, that uncertainty has influenced how the US is perceived long before any student applies for a visa or boards a plane.

    And that uncertainty has carried more weight than legislation. 

    Fear without formal policy

    While many expected sweeping changes to student visas or post-graduate work pathways, the administration’s strongest signals emerged elsewhere – in its posture toward universities and the way campuses were publicly framed.

    As universities became targets of ideological suspicion, perceptions shifted well beyond US borders. For international students and their families, studying in America increasingly feels exposed to political risk, even in the absence of formal restrictions.

    That perception has produced tangible effects. Advisors report students asking whether participating in protests could jeopardise their immigration status. Parents seek reassurance that academic disagreement will not trigger scrutiny. Even when the legal answer remains unchanged, the persistence of these questions points to a deeper erosion of trust.

    When campuses are portrayed as adversaries rather than civic institutions, international audiences take note

    Universities as America’s ambassadors

    For decades, America’s universities were among the country’s most effective ambassadors. Long before students arrived in Washington, they arrived in Berkeley, Boston, Chicago and Austin.

    They experienced open debate, academic freedom, pluralism, and the idea that disagreement was not just tolerated but valued. Higher education was one of the few arenas where America’s democratic ideals were not merely stated but lived.

    That role mattered. International alumni carried those experiences home with them, shaping how the United States was understood long after graduation. Universities helped project stability, openness and institutional strength in ways few government programs ever could.

    During Trump’s presidency, that ambassadorial function has weakened. Education begins to look like a liability – and when campuses are portrayed as adversaries rather than civic institutions, international audiences take note. 

    Reputational damage travels faster than reform

    The challenge for the US now is that reputational damage moves faster than policy repair. Even if no new restrictions are introduced, trust doesn’t automatically return. Students make decisions years in advance, guided by word of mouth, social media, and the experiences of peers.

    The UK’s experience after the Brexit referendum offers a cautionary parallel. Applications plateaued well before any formal change to student mobility rules took effect. The perception of hostility alone was enough to shift behavior. The US risks repeating that pattern, particularly as competitor countries work actively to position themselves as stable and welcoming alternatives.

    This matters not only for enrolment numbers, but for the long-term talent pipeline. We know that international students contribute to research, innovation and local economies. Many stay, building companies, staffing laboratories and strengthening entire sectors. When they choose other destinations, the loss compounds over time.

    Less visible, but no less consequential, is the effect this environment has on universities themselves. Many institutions have become more cautious in how they communicate and more guarded in how they engage publicly. Time and attention that once supported international partnerships or student-facing programs are being pulled toward risk management and internal review. These changes rarely register in enrolment data at first, yet they alter how campuses feel to prospective students. For those arriving from abroad, a campus that appears hesitant or constrained is harder to trust.

    What rebuilding trust requires

    The United States remains home to many of the world’s strongest universities. That foundation still exists, but prestige alone cannot offset fear. One year into this presidency, American universities are discovering that reputation alone is no longer enough to secure global confidence.

    Looking ahead to a potential second Trump term, the lesson is not merely about revisiting old policies but about confronting accumulated damage. Even without new restrictions, trust once broken is slow to rebuild. 

    Universities and policymakers must recognise that restoring America’s standing will require more than reversing executive orders. It will require clear commitments to due process, institutional autonomy and the principle that education is not a security threat.

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  • Trump’s national school voucher program could mean a boom in Christian education

    Trump’s national school voucher program could mean a boom in Christian education

    by Anya Kamenetz, The Hechinger Report
    January 22, 2026

    LACONIA, N.H. — Three dozen 4- and 5-year-olds trooped out onto the stage of the ornate, century-old Colonial Theatre of Laconia in this central New Hampshire town. Dressed in plaid, red, green and sparkles, some were grinning and waving, some looked a bit shell-shocked; a tiny blonde girl sobbed with stage fright in her teacher’s arms. 

    No sooner did the children open their mouths to sing, “Merry Christmas! … This is the day that the Lord was born!” than the house lights came up and a fire alarm went off. 

    It was an unusually eventful annual Christmas concert for Laconia Christian Academy. Then again, it’s been an unusually eventful year. In a small, aging state, where overall school enrollment has been dropping for more than two decades, Laconia reported a 130 percent increase in enrollment in its elementary school since 2020 — and began a three-quarter-million-dollar campus expansion on its 140 acres outside town.

     “We are in a season of incredible growth,” the school’s website reads. 

    One reason for the season: Almost every student at the academy is enrolled in New Hampshire’s Education Freedom Account program, said Head of School Rick Duba. Regardless of their family income, they receive thousands of dollars each in taxpayer money to help pay their tuition.   

    In June, New Hampshire became the 18th state to pass a universal private school choice program. After signing the bill into law, Republican Gov. Kelly Ayotte announced, “Giving parents the freedom to choose the education setting that best fits their child’s needs will help every student in our state reach their full potential.” 

    Yet, as these programs proliferate, with significant expansion since the pandemic, Democrats, teachers unions and other public school advocates are raising the alarm about accountability, transparency and funding. And with President Donald Trump passing a federal voucher program to start in 2027, some are concerned about the future of public education as a whole. 

    “I think these programs are the biggest change in K-12 education since Brown v. Board of Ed,” said Douglas Harris, a scholar at Tulane who recently published two papers on the impact of universal private school choice programs. He argues that vouchers were originally introduced in the 1950s in part to resist desegregation by funding white families to attend private schools.

    According to his October 2025 paper, private school choice “allows schools to discriminate against certain students, entwines government with religion, involves a large fiscal cost, and has shown fairly poor, or at best inconclusive, academic results.” Harris said in an interview, “It changes fundamentally all the basic traditions of the education system.” 

    New Hampshire could be a harbinger of that fundamental change. Experts say the state has one of the broadest and least regulated universal school choice programs in the country. “Universal” refers to the fact that families, regardless of income, are eligible for an average $5,200 a year from the government to pay tuition at a private school or supplement the cost of homeschooling. The number of recipients reached 10,510 this year, and it’s likely to grow again next year.

    Related: A lot goes on in classrooms from kindergarten to high school. Keep up with our free weekly newsletter on K-12 education.

    “Universal” also describes the fact that any type of school — or nonschools, such as an unaccredited storefront microschool, an online curriculum provider, a music camp or even a ski slope — can be eligible for these funds. 

    These schools and organizations don’t have to abide by state or federal laws, like those requiring accommodation for students with disabilities or other antidiscrimination laws. A 2022 Supreme Court decision, Carson v. Makin, affirmed the right of parents to use public money, in the form of voucher and education savings account funds, specifically for religious schools. 

    And indeed, it seems that in New Hampshire, as nationally, a disproportionate amount of the funding is going to small Christian schools, particularly to evangelical Protestant schools like Laconia. The Concord Monitor found that in the past four years, 90 percent of the revenue from the previous, income-capped EFA program went to Christian schools. This was true even though most of the state’s private schools are not religious. The Concord Monitor found in the first five years of the program, the top 10 recipients grew in enrollment by 32 percent. With the exception of Laconia, none of these schools responded to repeated requests for comment from The Hechinger Report. 

    But state officials have stopped releasing data on exactly where recipients of the Education Freedom Accounts are using those dollars. They told the Concord Monitor that the data is not subject to public record requests because it’s held by the nonprofit that administers the funds, the Children’s Scholarship Fund of New Hampshire. State officials did not respond to Hechinger queries. The Children’s Scholarship Fund directed The Hechinger Report to its website, which features a partial accounting of less than 10 percent of 2025-26 student. This accounting, which may or may not be representative, showed 671 of these students currently attend Christian schools, 64 attend non-Christian private schools and 50 are homeschooled. 

    A national analysis released in September by Tulane’s Harris of publicly available data showed that in New Hampshire and ten other states with similar policies, vouchers have boosted private school enrollment by up to 4 percent. The increases were concentrated at small Protestant religious schools like Laconia. The federal tax credit scholarship program will allow even more funds in additional states to be directed to these schools. 

    One reason that Christian schools are coming out on top, Harris said, is that this type of school tends to have lower tuition than independent private schools, meaning a $5,000 subsidy can make the difference for more families. The schools do this in part by paying teachers less.

    “ Typically, Christian school teachers see their work as a ministry and are willing to work for significantly less than their public counterparts,” said Duba, Laconia’s leader. He added that he is working with his board to try to pay a “living wage” of $55,000. 

    Related: The new reality with universal school vouchers: Homeschoolers, marketing, pupil churn

    At the Christmas concert in Laconia, after the fire department gave the all clear and the performance resumed, the little ones were tuckered out from the extra excitement. In the theater lobby, Nick Ballentine cradled his kindergartner, Perna, who wore two big red bows in her hair and a dress that read “Merry” on the front in cursive. 

    Ballentine said his family chose Laconia because “it was local and it wasn’t a public school.” He also liked that it was Christian and had small class sizes, but his opposition to public school is staunch: “I don’t like public schools, nor the policies that guide them, because they come from the government.” 

    Duba said that families come to Laconia for the small class sizes, the TimberNook outdoor program that has elementary school students spending five hours each week of class time in the woods, and “ for faith.”

    “They don’t want their kids in public schools where their kids are being taught by people who don’t express faith in Christ,” he said. While the school doesn’t require students to have a “profession of faith” to attend, there are lessons about the life of Jesus in preschool, daily prayers and service mission trips for the high school students as far away as Rwanda. 

    Duba said the biggest “social issue” that drives families away from public schools and toward schools like his is “ sexuality and gender identity.” The Concord Monitor previously reported that many of the schools that are the top recipients of aid in New Hampshire won’t admit students who have anyone in their family who is openly LGBTQ+ or supports gay or trans rights. Laconia Christian Academy’s nondiscrimination policy says it does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national and ethnic origin, but it doesn’t mention sexual orientation or gender identity. Asked about the policy, Duba declined to comment. 

    Like other private schools, these schools also aren’t required by law to serve students who have disabilities. The state says 8.47 percent of EFA recipients are in special education, compared to 20 percent in the state’s public schools. 

    Adam Laats, an education historian at Binghamton University, said these universal school choice programs are part of a long history of conservative evangelical Protestants seeking to make existing public schools more Christian in character on the one hand and divert public money to explicitly Christian schools on the other. 

    “For 100 years, public schools have been the sort of litmus test of whether the U.S. is a Christian nation,” he said, citing battles over teaching evolution, sex education, prayer in schools and more recently climate change, the treatment of race and American history, LGBTQIA rights and book banning. 

    Alongside the culture wars in public schools, said Laats, there have been successive waves of founding and expansion of Christian private schools: “There’s a burst in the 1920s, the next big bump comes in the ’50s and a huge spike in the 1970s, during the height of busing, when for a while there was one new school opening a day in the U.S. of these conservative evangelical schools.” 

    Laats agrees with Harris that the 1950s and 1970s booms were in part responses to desegregation efforts. But, he said, previous enrollment booms have eventually faded, because “it’s expensive” to educate students and offer amenities like sports and arts education. “That’s why the Christians have pushed hard for vouchers.” 

    Related: Arizona gave families public money for private school. Then private schools raised tuition 

    Funding fairness is a hot-button issue right now in New Hampshire. 

    In the summer of 2025, the State Supreme Court found that New Hampshire’s schools are officially inadequately funded. School funding in the low-tax, live-free-or-die state depends heavily on local property taxes, which vary radically area to area. The state spends an average of 4,182 per head; the court found it should spend at least $7,356. 

    So far, the overall percentage of New Hampshire students enrolled in public schools has remained steady at 90 percent. That implies most of the ESA money, so far, is subsidizing families who already were choosing private schools or homeschooling, rather than fueling a mass exodus from public schools. 

    Yet some districts are feeling the bite. According to recently released data from the state, in the small town of Rindge, 29 percent of students are EFA recipients — the highest of any community in the state. 

    “It is taking money away from public education,” said Megan Tuttle, president of New Hampshire’s state teacher union. “If you have a couple kids that are leaving the classroom to take the money, that doesn’t change the staffing that we have at the schools, heat, oil, electricity, all those types of things. And so, what’s happening is the money’s leaving, but the bills aren’t.”

    Duba looks at the math differently, pointing out that the EFA doesn’t equal the full cost of educating a student. “Let’s say I took 30 kids from Laconia. I did not, but for the sake of argument,” he said. “ They don’t have to do anything with those 30 kids anymore. They’re gone.”  

    This year, the advocacy group Reaching Higher NH calculated that the education savings account program will siphon $50 million from the state’s $2.61 billion education trust fund, and it will grow from there. “We’re functionally trying to fund two systems,” said Alex Tilsley, the group’s policy director. “And we couldn’t even fund one system fully.” 

    As the program grows in New Hampshire, the opposition is growing too. 

    “There’s broad opposition to EFAs from the teacher unions, from public school groups and from voters,” sums up Tilsley.* “It’s not generally speaking a highly favored policy across the state.” But with a Republican trifecta in control of state government, school choice in New Hampshire is not going anywhere. And with a national education tax credit program in the offing, more states will soon face these debates. As in New Hampshire, the federal money will be able to be used for private schools, homeschooling costs or anything in between. 

    *Correction: This sentence has been updated to correct the spelling of Alex Tilsley’s last name.

    Contact editor Caroline Preston at 212-870-8965, via Signal at CarolineP.83 or on email at [email protected].

    This story about Christian schools was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for the Hechinger newsletter.

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  • OPINION: Colleges need to recruit more men, but Trump’s policies are making it difficult

    OPINION: Colleges need to recruit more men, but Trump’s policies are making it difficult

    by Catharine Hill, The Hechinger Report
    January 20, 2026

    While attending a gathering of Ivy League women years ago, I upset the audience by commenting that a real challenge for U.S. higher education was the declining participation of men in higher education, not just the glass ceiling and unequal pay faced by women.  

    At the time, I was president of Vassar College (which did not become co-ed until 1969). We surveyed newly admitted students as well as first-year students and learned that the majority expressed a preference for a gender-balanced student body, with as co-educational an environment as possible.  

    With fewer men applying, that meant admitting them at a higher rate, something some other selective colleges and universities were already doing. While, historically, men were much more likely to attain a college degree than women, that changed by 1980. For more than four decades now, the number of women on campuses has surpassed the number of men.  

    Related: Interested in innovations in higher education? Subscribe to our free biweekly higher education newsletter. 

    These days, 27 percent more women than men age 25 to 34 have earned a bachelor’s degree, according to the Pew Research Center. Aiming for greater gender balance, some colleges and universities have put a “thumb on the scale” to admit and matriculate more men.  

    But the end of affirmative action, along with the Trump administration’s statements warning schools against considering gender identity (or race, ethnicity, nationality, political views, sexual orientation and religious associations) in admissions, could end this preference. 

    To be clear, I believe that the goal of admissions preferences, including for men, should be to increase overall educational attainment, not to advantage one group over another. Economic and workforce development should be a top higher education priority, because many high-demand and well-paying jobs require a college degree. America should therefore be focused on increasing educational attainment because it is important to our global competitiveness. And the selective schools that have high graduation rates should give a preference to students who are underrepresented in higher education — including men — because it will get more Americans to and through college and benefit our economy and society.  

    Preferencing students from groups with lower overall educational attainment also helps colleges meet their own goals.  

    For schools that admit just about all comers, attracting more men — through changes in recruitment strategies, adjustments in curricula and programs to support retention — is part of a strategy to sustain enrollment in the face of the demographic cliff (the declining number of American 18-year-olds resulting from the drop in the birth rate during the Great Recession) and declining international applicants due to the administration’s policies.  

    Colleges that don’t admit nearly all applicants have a different goal: balancing the share of men and women because it helps them compete for students.  

    Selective schools don’t really try to admit more men to serve the public good of increasing overall educational attainment. They believe the students they are trying to attract prefer a co-educational experience. 

    We are living in a global economy that rewards talent. When selective colleges take more veterans, lower-income students and students from rural areas and underrepresented groups, the chance of these students graduating increases. That increases the talent pool, helping to meet employer demand for workers with bachelor’s degrees.  

    The U.S. has been slipping backward in education compared to our peers for several decades. To reverse this trend, we need to get more of our population through college. The best way to do this is by targeting populations with lower educational attainment, including men. But by adding gender to the list of characteristics that should not be considered in admissions decisions, the Trump administration is telling colleges and universities to take the thumb off the scale for men.  

    I suspect this was unintended or resulted from a misunderstanding of who has actually been getting a preference in the admissions process, and in assuming incorrectly that women and/or nonbinary applicants have benefited.  

    Over the last 15 years or more, some attributes, including academic performance, have likely been traded off in order to admit more men. How big these trade-offs have been has differed from college to college and will be hard to calculate, given all the student characteristics that are considered in making admissions decisions.  

    I’m in favor of making these trade-offs to contribute to improved overall educational attainment in America.  

    But given the Trump administration’s lumping of gender with race, college and university policies intended to attract men will now face the same legal challenges that affirmative action policies aimed at improving educational attainment and fairness face.  

    Differential admit rates will be scrutinized. Even if the administration doesn’t challenge these trade-offs, rejected women applicants may seek changes through the courts and otherwise, just as happened with regard to race.  

    Related: Trump’s attacks on DEI may hurt men in college admission  

    Admitting male athletes could also unintentionally be at risk. If low-income has become a “proxy” for race, then athletic admits could become “proxies” for men. (Some schools have publicly stated that they were primarily introducing football to attract male applicants.) 

    Colleges and universities, including selective ones, are heavily subsidized by federal, state and local governments because they have historically been perceived as serving the public good, contributing to equal opportunity and strengthening our economy.  

    Admissions decisions should be evaluated on these grounds, with seats at the selective schools allocated according to what will most contribute to the public good, including improving our nation’s talent pool.  

    Targeting populations with lower-than-average college-going rates will help accomplish this. That includes improving access and success for all underserved groups, including men.  

    Unfortunately, the current administration’s policies are working directly against this and are likely to worsen educational attainment in America and our global competitiveness.  

    Catharine “Cappy” Hill is the former managing director of Ithaka S+R and former president of Vassar College. 

    Contact the opinion editor at [email protected]. 

    This story about men and college was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for Hechinger’s weekly newsletter. 

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