“The Supreme Court ruling in 2023 banning race-conscious college admissions led to declines in Black and Latino admissions at highly selective universities. At many other schools, the opposite occurred,” the New York Times reports.

“Overall, freshmen enrollment of underrepresented minority groups increased by 8 percent at public flagship universities. The analysis, by a nonprofit organization, Class Action, concludes that those schools were among institutions that benefited as a result of higher rejection rates for Black and Hispanic students at the nation’s 50 most selective schools.”

“At those top 50 schools, Black freshmen enrollment was down by 27 percent and Latino enrollment down by 10 percent.”

“President Trump said he is seeking $1 billion in damages from Harvard University, the latest escalation in his administration’s fight with the institution over alleged antisemitism,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

“Trump posted on social media after the New York Times reported that his administration had dropped its demand for a $200 million payment to the government to settle the dispute.”

“President Trump has backtracked on a major point in negotiations with Harvard, dropping his administration’s demand for a $200 million payment to the government in hopes of finally resolving the administration’s conflicts with the university,” the New York Times reports.

The Trump administration is demanding the University of Pennsylvania turn over names and personal information about Jewish members of the school’s community as part of the administration’s stated goal to combat antisemitism on campuses, The Guardian reports.

But some Jewish faculty and staff have condemned the government’s demand as “a visceral threat to the safety of those who would find themselves identified because compiling and turning over to the government ‘lists of Jews’ conjures a terrifying history.”

“Harvard University enrolled a record number of international students in the current academic year, even as the Trump administration sought repeatedly to curb student visas and funding for the Ivy League school,” Bloomberg reports.

“The Trump administration will begin to garnish the pay of student loan borrowers in January, the Department of Education said Tuesday, stepping up a repayment enforcement effort that began this year,” the New York Times reports.

The Department of Education has moved to terminate one of former President Joe Biden’s most popular student loan forgiveness plans — impacting millions of Americans, ABC News reports.

Gov. Greg Abbott (R) announced a plan to open Turning Point USA chapters in every high school in Texas, the Texas Tribune reports.

Said Abbott: “Let me be clear: Any school that stands in the way of a Club America program in their school should be reported immediately to the Texas Education Agency.”

“President Trump has claimed for months that his administration and Harvard University were close to a monumental deal to end his extraordinary pressure campaign against the university,” the New York Times reports.

“Even some at Harvard say that a deal appeared imminent this summer. But eight months after the rupture between Harvard and the government blew open, no deal has materialized.”

“The talks have stumbled around arguments about where any money will go.”

Rose Horowitch: “Accommodations in higher education were supposed to help disabled Americans enjoy the same opportunities as everyone else. No one should be kept from taking a class, for example, because they are physically unable to enter the building where it’s taught. Over the past decade and a half, however, the share of students at selective universities who qualify for accommodations—often, extra time on tests—has grown at a breathtaking pace…”

“The change has occurred disproportionately at the most prestigious and expensive institutions. At Brown and Harvard, more than 20 percent of undergraduates are registered as disabled. At Amherst, that figure is 34 percent.” 

Said a professor at a selective university: “You hear ‘students with disabilities’ and it’s not kids in wheelchairs. It’s just not. It’s rich kids getting extra time on tests.”

Almost two-thirds of registered voters say that a four-year college degree isn’t worth the cost, according to a new NBC News poll, a dramatic decline over the last decade.

 Just 33% agree a four-year college degree is “worth the cost because people have a better chance to get a good job and earn more money over their lifetime,” while 63% agree more with the concept that it’s “not worth the cost because people often graduate without specific job skills and with a large amount of debt to pay off.”

New York Magazine: “Last winter, the U.S. federal government released the results of its semi-annual reading and math tests of fourth- and eighth-graders, assessments that are considered the most authoritative measure of the state of learning in American elementary and middle schools. In nearly every category, the scores had plunged to levels unseen for decades — or ever.”

“Larry Summers won’t finish out the semester teaching at Harvard University, heeding calls that he step away from the classroom after the recent release of correspondence between the academic and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

“Harvard University will open a probe into individuals mentioned in the Jeffrey Epstein files recently released by Congress, after the documents showed a close relationship between its former president, Larry Summers, and the late convicted sex offender,” Reuters reports.

“The Trump administration announced on Tuesday an aggressive plan to continue dismantling the Education Department, ending the agency’s role in supporting academics at elementary and high schools and in expanding access to college,” the New York Times reports.