I’ve had two papers rejected in the past week, feeling a bit down about it. Come into work this AM & stop to re-read an article my kid wrote for their HS paper a couple years ago which I taped to my door, on our attachment to numbers (grades, scores… ie pubs, cites). So wise (excerpt in alt text).

Congratulations to everyone who worked their asses off for something that any semi-decent and ultimately self-interested government should have done in penance www.nytimes.com/2026/08/03/b...

Education Dept. to Wipe Out Student Loans of 170,000 More Defrauded Borrowers (Gift Article)

The sprawling case, centered on students defrauded by for-profit schools, has now become the largest class-action settlement in American history.

nytimes.com

Awesome job alert: The Center on Poverty and Social Policy is hiring for a (PhD-holding) research director to manage a national, state, and NYC policy portfolio and supervise their analysts. Apply here: povertycenter.columbia.edu/lead-our-res... #econsky

Thank you Clean Air Act

Adam L@adam-lg.bsky.social · 3w ago

Crazy to think the bad AQI day we're having today in NYC was just "normal" for summer in the 80s-90s. (Note that 2001-5 overlap across the two plots). Data via www.epa.gov/outdoor-air-...

New paper on HAIL Scholarship! Students going to UM bc of HAIL just as likely to graduate & earn a STEM degree as peers, & more likely to graduate within four years Expected lifetime earnings gains of 25% due to increased degree quality and faster graduation www.susandynarski.com/assets/paper...

"Better information, simpler applications, and clearer aid promises can move students toward higher-quality colleges. But they cannot create more high-quality seats." You can say the same about mentoring, advising, and pipeline programs. www.nber.org/papers/w35434

Degrees of Mobility: Shifting Low-Income Students to Higher Quality Colleges

Founded in 1920, the NBER is a private, non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to conducting economic research and to disseminating research findings among academics, public policy makers, an...

nber.org

Just submitted my public comment on OMB’s proposed “Uniform Guidance” rule, and saw that as of 11:59pm yesterday there were 341,699 comments submitted. That’s gotta be a record…? Wonder how many, like mine, will come in on the last day…

I made biscuits from scratch for the first time (for strawberry shortcake) and I know there are lots of ppl that do this all the time to a high level of skill but I’m just really proud that I did something new and I’m sure I screwed up multiple steps but it still tastes so frickin good!

Me, @robertkelchen.com, and Jeff Denning got to chat with NPR about the new loan caps. Also, lol, I've had 15 different rejections in the past few months but I got called a friend of the show on NPR so I'll try to focus on that. www.npr.org/2026/07/01/n...

Can the Trump administration make college cheaper? : Planet Money

Will limiting how much students can borrow force schools to lower their prices? The Department of Education thinks so. It has a new plan to bring down tuition costs. Starting today, July 1st, it’s goi...

npr.org

As a labor economist, I sometimes wonder if we focus too much on AI's potential to disrupt the labor market and too little on its potential to disrupt human capital acquisition

Ethan Mollick@emollick.bsky.social · last mo.

One thing we now know without a doubt as a result of AI is that doing the homework really does matter for learning.

📢 We are hiring 📢 Please spread the word: We are hiring a 🧑‍🎓 Postdoc (up to 6 years, non-tenure track) at the ifo Center for the Economics of Education! Come join our team as junior faculty: www.ifo.de/en/job-offer... Application deadline: July 22

🚨 I'm hiring for a (Senior) Research Associate position to work with me on a broad research agenda focused on teacher labor markets. Great opportunity to be a part of the vibrant @annenberginstitute.bsky.social community of researchers at Brown University. Links in reply Please spread the word

I tuned into NY1 coverage last night just in time to hear Hakeem Jeffries respond to election returns by saying, “We are not in the business of winning…” followed by an excruciatingly long pause, after which I did not hear the rest of the sentence bc family commentary drowned him out 🤷🏻‍♀️

Very excited to get a peek inside the future Uptown Film Center at 99th & Broadway, on the site of the former Metro Theatre. I’m helping spread the word this summer - small donations show community support & help the Center open sooner rather than later! Donate here: uptownfilm.org?give=8NERL6EK

ICYMI (I did!): This story from @merkolodner.bsky.social last month brought me to tears, for many reasons. It will be so hard to repair trust in the Fedl govt, even after a change in admin. Still: People are tough, parents are tough. I am sad, angry, & hopeful ❤️‍🩹 hechingerreport.org/us-citizen-s...

U.S. citizen students face an agonizing choice: Affording college or protecting parents from deportation

‘I don't want to sacrifice my family for my possible success’

hechingerreport.org

This is pretty cool / rewarding to see years of collective research & policy efforts yield some real-world improvements

Chris Hayes@chrislhayes.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Similar to ACA website the initial rollout was ROUGH, but it’s now become an obvious and clear improvement on the status quo ante

some really, really exciting news. we're hiring a two-year reporting fellow to cover higher ed in NYC but especially CUNY!! come work with me and dive into an amazing, complicated and under-covered beat

Higher Education Reporter at THE CITY

About THE CITYThe Organization THE CITY is New York City’s award-winning nonprofit, nonpartisan local news organization. Working across all five boroughs, our stellar journalists bring diverse skills ...

city-report-inc.breezy.hr

Today I learned that my mom who lived in NYC for a hot minute in the early 1970s, had occasion to attend a formal reception at Gracie Mansion while there (?!?!?), for which she sewed her own ballgown 🤯

Super interesting essay, and don’t skip the thread below with additional comments and figures!

Dominique Baker@bakerdphd.bsky.social · 4mo ago

Woohoo, here's my essay with my fav co-author on 30,000 fellowship wins across the Guggenheim, Stanford CASBS, NAEd, National Humanities Center, RSF visiting scholar, and Harvard Radcliffe. Spoiler: it's the people working at prestigious universities www.publicbooks.org/who-gets-gug...

I was rather anxious before, during and after, so this is nice to hear. 😊 Ayesha Roscoe asked great questions!

Brendan Cantwell@cantb.bsky.social · 4mo ago

I think this was the best interview on the topic I have ever heard on a mainstream outlet.

I enjoyed hearing this interview with @jscottclayton.bsky.social out in the wild this morning. Thanks for breaking down college affordability so clearly!

Families across the U.S. are getting college acceptance letters — and tuition bills

NPR's Ayesha Rascoe speaks with economist Judith Scott-Clayton about the cost of college in the U.S. They discuss the difference between sticker and net price and the opaqueness of tuition costs.

npr.org

At LGA too early on a Sunday morning and 1) kudos to the new design emphasis on a quiet & peaceful environment and 2) curses to those who thought it was a good idea to make phone w/o headphone jacks. The airport is so quiet, I can now hear people’s personal internet scroll from across the terminal

Random request: I am making an “I messed up” playlist to try to counter obsessive negative thoughts when I, as a human being on this planet, inevitably mess up or don’t do my best. What would you put on such a playlist?

Totally agree - great conference! I will do my best not to mess it up, no pressure at all :) I simply request that nothing unexpected happen in the meantime. That’s not too much to ask, right?

Jason Grissom@jasonagrissom.bsky.social · 5mo ago

Great conference with great people. @dbassok.bsky.social killed it, obviously. Can’t wait to see even bigger and better next year! (No pressure, @jscottclayton.bsky.social)

What a beautiful dusk this evening in Chicago. Looking forward to seeing folks bright and early tomorrow at #AEFP2026 @aefpweb.bsky.social

Snowy city at night with trees lit from below.

A million things going on in the world but my 14yo is playing piano and singing along to some Billie Eilish sheet music and while I suppose this is a fairly common skill, to get to appreciate it from my own kid in my own household on a random Thursday makes me feel like a trillionaire. 🥰

This thread shows a deliberate defunding of U.S. science, engineering, social science, innovation, and education excellence. It’s a U.S. national security, competitiveness, and economic disaster.

Jeremy Berg@jeremymberg.bsky.social · 6mo ago

NSF Update Funding curve overall. A little bit of progress in the past week, but only a little bit. Now by Directorate... 1/11

Everyone thinking about jobs numbers needs to follow @aaronsojourner.org because he is the BEST out there.

Aaron Sojourner@aaronsojourner.org · 6mo ago

Happy Dec #JobsDay! At 8:30 am ET, @usbls.bsky.social delivers one of the most-important signals abt how economy is changing Forecasts’ center: +55K jobs Unemployment rate (UR) steady at 4.4% Report will reflect normal, annual revision processes but fodder for disinfo: bsky.app/profile/aaro...

Does it seem absolutely surreal that the announcers just immediately came back talking about football just now?!?!?