College Board’s Education Pays 2026 Report Confirms: A Degree Still Pays Off

The Department of Education processed more IDR applications in March than any month since court-ordered tracking began, cutting the pending backlog to 553,966. That is down from 576,609 in February and from nearly 2 million in April 2025. The March status report (PDF File), filed today in federal court, also shows IDR loan forgiveness resumed after two consecutive months of zero discharges.

The PSLF Buyback backlog grew to 89,720 pending applications in March, according to the latest court-ordered status report (PDF File) filed today. The Department of Education decided just 3,280 applications during the month. At that pace, borrowers at the back of the queue face a wait of over two years. But here’s the part that isn’t getting enough attention: a significant portion of these applications will likely be denied or closed — not because borrowers don’t qualify, but because they’ll finish PSLF the normal way before their buyback application is ever processed.

College remains a strong financial investment, and the latest data from College Board makes that case with the most recent numbers available. The Education Pays 2026 report (PDF File), shows that workers with a bachelor’s degree continue to significantly out-earn their peers with only a high school diploma and that the gap shows no signs of closing.In 2024, the median earnings of bachelor’s degree recipients age 25 and older working full time were $81,800, compared to $50,600 for high school graduates. That’s a $31,200 difference (62% more) every single year. After accounting for taxes, bachelor’s degree holders took home $22,200 more annually, a 56% premium in after-tax income.The report comes at a time when public confidence in higher education has declined. A 2025 Gallup survey found that the cost of college is one of the top reasons Americans feel less confident about the value of a degree. But the data tells a more nuanced story: one where the financial returns still hold up, even after factoring in tuition, student loan debt, and years of forgone earnings.

Parents buying life insurance or opening retirement accounts usually want to name their children as beneficiaries (typically as a contingent beneficiary after a spouse). It feels like the obvious choice — if something happens to you, the money should go to your kids.But naming a minor child directly as a beneficiary is one of the most common and disruptive estate planning mistakes a parent can make, and it can tie up the very money your family needs most during an already difficult time.The problem is odd: minors cannot legally enter contracts in most states. A bank account is a contract with the bank. A brokerage account with the broker. Minors typically have to have a parent (or guardian) to open said account. And if parent is gone, it gets tricky.When a life insurance company or retirement plan custodian tries to distribute funds to a child under 18, it can hit a legal wall. The money can’t be released. And what follows is a court process that no grieving family should have to navigate.

You spent thousands on an estate plan. You signed the will. You funded the trust. And none of it may matter because a beneficiary form you filled out 15 years ago when you started a new job could override everything.Beneficiary designations on retirement accounts, life insurance policies, and payable-on-death bank accounts are legally binding contracts. They operate entirely outside your will and trust. When these forms are outdated, incomplete, or misaligned with the rest of your plan, the result can be assets going to an ex-spouse, a child being accidentally disinherited, or a six-figure tax bill no one saw coming.According to Caring.com’s 2025 estate planning survey, only 24% of American adults have a will — down from 33% in 2022. But even among the minority who do plan, beneficiary designation errors remain one of the most common and costly oversights. Here are five mistakes you need to avoid.

The U.S. Department of Education, working with its Office of Inspector General, says it has uncovered tens of millions of dollars in fraud and mismanagement tied to COVID-19 pandemic education relief funds. This is part of the Trump Administration's broader push to crack down on waste across federal education programs.Why it matters: Congress distributed roughly $190 billion in Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) funds across three rounds between 2020 and 2021. This is more than three times what the federal government typically spends on K-12 education annually. The Department says much of it went out with weak safeguards and reduced oversight, creating openings for bad actors to exploit.

The Department of Education says it is working to restore the income-driven repayment (IDR) payment count tracker on StudentAid.gov — reversing its own prior statement that the tool would not return.Updated guidance published March 27 on the StudentAid.gov FAQ page states: “The court actions require that we modify the display of the IDR payment counters, which will require additional system changes. We are working to update our systems to make those changes.”The department provided no timeline, no details on what modifications are being made, and no explanation of what “additional system changes” are required.

Receiving multiple college acceptance letters can be both thrilling and confusing. It's a time when students may wonder if it’s permissible to hang onto more than just one of those golden tickets. But you shouldn’t jump to say yes to more than one offer. Each college admissions offer you accept constitutes a commitment and potentially a legal obligation.Here’s a closer look at whether or not you can accept more than one college admission offer and how you should navigate this important decision with potentially lifelong implications.

he Internal Revenue Service announced that taxpayers have opened more than 4 million Trump Accounts. Of those enrollments, more than 1 million families have elected to receive the $1,000 "Baby Bonus" contribution available through the Trump Accounts pilot program.The numbers, based on Form 4547 submissions filed with individual tax returns, signal strong early adoption of a program that could reshape how American families save for their children’s futures.

If you’re a college student or family relying on financial aid, President Trump’s newly released fiscal year 2027 budget proposal (PDF File) could signal major changes ahead. The plan calls for eliminating two long-standing aid programs, freezing Pell Grant awards at their current dollar amount, and continuing the administration’s push to shut down the Department of Education entirely.The proposal, unveiled on Friday, requests $76.5 billion in discretionary funding for the Department of Education, a $2.3 billion (2.9%) decrease from last year. Including both mandatory and discretionary funding, the administration requested $124.4 billion for federal student aid.The budget document describes these moves as putting the department on a “path to elimination,” with programs transferred to other agencies and staff reduced.Here’s what the proposal includes, what it would mean for your wallet, and why it may or may not actually happen.