New at Can We Still Govern: New reporting is starting to reveal the human toll of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. @pamherd.bsky.social and I have been warning about this for a year. It will get worse. 🧵 donmoynihan.substack.com/p/when-the-o...

When the One Big Beautiful Bill comes due

Real people are losing SNAP. Medicaid will be next

donmoynihan.substack.com

New at Can We Still Govern: Automation of safety net benefits -- changing the default from opt-in to opt-out - offers a means of reducing administrative burdens. What can we learn from people who have been implementing automation in state governments? donmoynihan.substack.com/p/can-we-aut...

Can We Automate the Safety Net?

Lessons policymakers should learn from previous efforts

donmoynihan.substack.com

It is hard to imagine how IES could possibly award $300 million of research funding over the next five months Seems like we're on a clear path to a violation of the Impoundment Control Act www.edweek.org/policy-polit...

Trump Sidestepped Congress on More Than $1 Billion in Ed. Spending Last Year

Newly published documents show how the Ed. Dept. departed from Congress' plans.

edweek.org

"[Admissions officers at university in the study] noted that the policy was only reversed due to pressure from the institution’s board, who wanted to follow the Ivy League’s lead." Article on a new test optional report I co-authored www.insidehighered.com/news/admissi...

Had been waiting for evidence from a network of public universities on the High School GPA versus SAT scores debate. Credit to the authors Joyce, Khosroshahi, Truelsch, Gentsch, and Du. www.nber.org/system/files...

Join the Doctoral Student Community Group’s pre-conference webinar series 🧑‍💻 TOMORROW at 12 PM & 3 PM ET, they’ll host a session on navigating #AEFP2026 as a doctoral student. Register today! aefpweb.org/ev_calen...

Thinking of running an RCT in postsecondary education? MDRC has created a fantastic set of resources to help you in projecting minimum effect sizes, randomizing, and processing data Proud to have helped advise this project! www.mdrc.org/the-rct

This is very good reporting. We live in an uncivilized country.

Mike Hixenbaugh@mikehixenbaugh.com · 6mo ago

Maria is one of hundreds of children, who — like Liam Ramos — have been held at a Texas detention facility where parents say children languish as they’re served contaminated food, receive little education and struggle to obtain basic medical care. Here's our attempt at telling their stories. 2/

Cool workshop in DC in June for higher ed policy academics with less than 10 years of research experience. Deadline to apply is March 1. www.peer-center.org/research/sum...

APPLY NOW: PEER Center Summer Scholars Program — PEER Center

June 3-5, 2026 | Apply by March 1 The Postsecondary Education & Economics Research (PEER) Center invites early- and mid-career academics conducting higher education policy research to apply to pa...

peer-center.org

So all colleges and universities will bring back the DEI stuff they cut when obeying in advance right...............................................................................................................................................right?

W. Carson Byrd@wcbyrdphd.bsky.social · 7mo ago

Re the February Dear Colleagues letter that threatened funding for schools & universities over DEI-related efforts: ‘[Ed Dept]…moved to dismiss its appeal. It leaves in place a federal judge’s August decision finding that the anti-DEI effort violated the First Amendment & federal procedural rules.’

Has wokeness gone too far?

Prof Jenny Rohn@jennyrohn.bsky.social · 7mo ago

Cost of being female lead/corresponding author in biomedical sciences: "[T]he median amount of time spent under review is 7.4%–14.6% longer for female-authored articles than for male-authored articles" even in disciplines where women well-represented. #AcademicSky journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...

Segregation was not just a Southern phenomenon, it was a national issue. Explore the spatial history of racial segregation and discover how it connects to our communities today: greenbookproject.osu.edu #GreenBookProject #CommunityMap #EconSky

People are holding administrative burden parties to collectively take on tasks www.wsj.com/lifestyle/re...

Essay | How to Turn the Bureaucratic Grind of Life Into a Party

We all feel it: the growing stream of administrative tasks sapping our time, spirits and social lives. Admin Night represents a tiny, nerdy resistance.

wsj.com

one of the key benefits of having a federal Dept of Ed has been having a dedicated, experienced professional staff to ensure all students have equal opportunity for an excellent education. this threatens to undo that

Jessica Blake@jessicablake.bsky.social · 9mo ago

@insidehighered.com has received multiple tips that the Department of Education will be signing a number of interagency agreements later today. The agreements would move the responsibilities of key offices to other departments. Stay tuned for more coverage.

The polls are open, Pennsylvania! Our democracy is stronger when we all participate – so if you haven’t already, be sure to cast your ballot before 8pm. For more information, head to pa.gov/vote and make your voice heard.

I’m joining 24 other states in taking legal action to demand the Trump Administration release SNAP payments that help millions put food on the table. We won’t stand by while the President lets our kids go hungry.

This is why we need to donate to food banks now.

Charlotte Clymer@charlotteclymer.bsky.social · 9mo ago

"For every meal that a food bank provides, the SNAP program provides nine. There's no way we can meet that gap. There's no way we can replace every single one of those meals. It is not sustainable for food banks to fill this gap. We were not built to do this."

🚨🚨🚨 And THREE stood up! Penn has joined MIT & Brown in rejecting Trump’s loyalty oath compact. When we join together and fight back, WE WIN! No amount of federal bribery is worth surrendering the freedom to question, explore, and dissent. LET’S GO! #DefendHigherEd @aaup-penn.bsky.social

Penn rejects White House proposal for special funding treatment

With the decision, Penn becomes the third university to decline the offer.

thedp.com

It is an increasingly crummy and unstable job. Rather than worry about pay you should be concerned about the fact that faculty and students have less and less of a voice in their selection, turning college presidents into political appointees

That “may” in the headline is hilariously bad. Cementing rich white rule is (and has long been) the point of most GOP policy and that is definitely the case for selective admissions.

Deborah McDowell@dem8z.bsky.social · 12mo ago

“Any selective admissions process that ignores income, privilege & structural access while targeting race‑based efforts to increase diversity isn’t leveling the playing field. It’s cementing it.” Trump’s Deals With Top Colleges May Give Rich Applicants a Bigger Edge www.nytimes.com/2025/08/07/u...

one of my favorite things about knowing so many amazing researchers is hearing them on @npr.org! I woke up to texts this morning from people saying they heard @asherrosinger.bsky.social talking about hydration!! www.npr.org/2025/08/04/n...

What's the deal with electrolyte drinks — do you need them to stay hydrated?

Seems like nobody's drinking plain water these days. Electrolyte packets or colorful sports drinks are everywhere. But do you need them?

npr.org

🚨 🚨 New dataset 🚨 🚨 I'm excited to share a new dataset + companion paper covering SNAP policy changes & enrollment data, with a focus on COVID-19-era reforms. 📊https://www.icpsr.umich.edu/web/sbeccc/studies/39331 📄https://kelseypukelis.com/files/Pukelis_SNAPcovid.pdf A thread🧵 1/

ICPSR@icpsr.bsky.social · last yr.

New COVID measures archive data from PI @kpukelis.bsky.social on Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (#SNAP) policy and enrollment data: myumi.ch/W6DgA #covid19

It's the same story with Obamacare as with Medicaid, food stamps, student financial aid, and even vaccines. They're not eliminating assistance entirely--at least for now. Just making programs so shitty and so hard to access that no one will miss that support when it's eventually eliminated later on.

Our EEPA paper on the media's role in shaping our understanding of student loans, race, and racism is here! Email me if you don't have access & want a copy. One of my fav papers for a few reasons but, most of all, it's my first paper with my husband 😍 journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.3102/...

A basic red line for defending academic freedom would be not turning over faculty data because they signed an open letter.

Nathan Kalman-Lamb@nkalamb.bsky.social · last yr.

The University of California is actively cooperating with the government witch hunt against some 850 faculty members. cucfa.org/2025/04/cucf...

is anyone thinking about a selective college admissions panel proposal for @appam.bsky.social this year? if you're looking for another paper or have a paper in need of a session, reach out!

The College Admissions Futures Co-Laborative, with Associate Professor @kellyrosinger.bsky.social as a key partner, has secured a $560K grant to study the long-term impact of test-optional admissions on student success—aiming to inform more equitable policies. bit.ly/424Otob

Long-term impact of test-optional admissions focus of grant | Penn State University

Kelly Rosinger, associate professor of education and public policy in the Penn State College of Education, has received a $560,000 grant from the Gates Foundation to study the long-term effects of tes...

bit.ly

The Trump tax plan only works by cutting public services. This incredible visualization combines the potential tax cuts (which mostly go to the rich) and loss of services (mostly borne by the poor). It is a giant wealth transfer from the poorest to the richest. budgetlab.yale.edu/news/250319/...