Education Department Moves To Break Up Accreditor Power With New Proposed Rule

College tuition refunds are rare. Many colleges only give a full refund if you withdraw before the first day of class, and most stop refunding anything at all within about a month of the start date. Check your own school's schedule now, because the window closes faster than most families expect. If a withdrawal is on the table, the financial impact of dropping out of college goes well beyond the lost semester.The numbers make this worth taking seriously. For 2025-26, the College Board puts average published tuition and fees at $11,950 for in-state students at public four-year schools and $45,000 at private nonprofit four-year schools. Add housing, food, and other costs and the average full budget is $30,990 at a public four-year school and $65,470 at a private one. If you're wondering when those bills come due, see when you actually pay for college.That's a car-sized check written every semester. Students and parents footing the bill want some protection if something goes wrong, and most don't realize how little protection the school's own refund policy provides. That's a big reason tuition insurance has become a standard line on more college bills.

College athletes are getting paid, and many of them don’t know what to do with it to maximize their long term wealth. The money arrives with no tax withheld, no benefits attached, no HR department explaining anything, and a set of rules that punish anyone who assumes a paycheck is a paycheck.The window is short, too. NCAA data puts the odds of a draft-eligible football player getting drafted at 1.4%, and men’s basketball at 1.0%, while the NCAA’s own GOALS research found roughly 74% of FBS football players believe they’ll go pro. That gap is where the financial damage happens.The money comes from selling their Name, Image, and Likeness, or NIL. And it’s big business in college sports today.Here’s how the money works, what it costs, and what to do with what’s left.

The Education Department has quietly changed how it decides whether continuing graduate students can still borrow uncapped Grad PLUS loans, and the change is already generating denials for students who have been enrolled.During an August 12 Federal Student Aid webinar on the implementation of new loan limits and the interim exception for continuing students, FSA staff told schools to calculate “expected time to credential” using credit hours completed rather than time enrolled. That formula determines how much longer a grandfathered borrower keeps access to Grad PLUS after the program formally ended on July 1, 2026.The National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators called it a significant departure from prior guidance, noting that ED had previously told schools to measure the difference between program length in weeks, months, or years and the portion the student finished before July 1.Education Department spokesperson Ellen Keast told Inside Higher Ed the approach is “not anything new” and had come up in earlier virtual office hours, though the department did not point to where it was written down. When ED finalized the loan limits and new repayment plans, the written record pointed the other way: the final rule text at 34 CFR 685.102 and the department’s May 20 loan limits FAQ both describe the calculation in terms of time.

As of July 1, 2026, new Parent PLUS borrowers are capped at $20,000 per dependent student per year and $65,000 for that student's entire undergraduate career. Before this change, Parent PLUS went all the way up to the school's full certified cost of attendance.For families at expensive schools, that program was the entire plan. It closed whatever the aid package didn't, and it did so without much scrutiny. The problem you notice - $20,000 per year doesn’t translate to $65,000 if your child attends college for 4 or even 5 years… that’s a problem.In partnership with Student Choice, we’re going to break down what borrowing for college looks like, and why you may want to consider an education line of credit.

Borrowers chasing Public Service Loan Forgiveness have spent the past two weeks watching their qualifying payment counts move in the wrong direction. Some lost six months. Some lost more.The fear running through borrower forums is that the Trump administration is quietly unwinding PSLF, or reversing the one-time income-driven repayment account adjustment that brought millions of borrowers years closer to forgiveness. Based on the accounts we’ve reviewed and what the Department has confirmed on the record, that is not what’s happening.What is happening is narrower, more technical, and because the Department has explained almost none of it publicly, considerably more damaging to borrower trust than it needed to be. A banner on StudentAid.gov has told borrowers only that their counts are wrong and that a fix is coming. And here’s what were seeing analyzing dozens of reports and borrower accounts.

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) announced on August 17 that he will introduce the Stop Social Security Garnishment Act of 2026, a bill that would permanently bar the federal government from seizing Social Security payments to collect defaulted federal student loans. Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Ed Markey (D-MA) are cosponsoring the bill, which comes as more than 9 million borrowers are in default (nearly 1 in 4 Americans with federal student loans).The bill itself (PDF File) amends Title IV of the Higher Education Act to add a new Section 493E, which states that no payments due under the Social Security Act can be offset under the federal debt collection statute when a borrower defaults on a federal student loan. The protection would cover retirement benefits and Social Security Disability Insurance, and would take effect immediately if the bill passes.

College is not a risk-free investment - and one $15-a-month decision can save families from a five-figure mistake. GradGuard CEO John Fees breaks down the hidden risks most parents never budget for, from tuition loss and academic fees to dorm fires, theft, and accidental damage that can turn move-in season into a financial disaster.Host Robert Farrington and John Fees get specific about what actually happens when a student leaves school for medical or mental health reasons, why one in three freshmen don’t return, and why the most important college costs are often the ones schools don’t refund. You’ll discover how tuition insurance really works, why the “renter’s insurance” label can hide major exclusions, and what makes a policy a true no-gotcha safety net for college families.John shares the real-life claims that have shaped GradGuard, including dorm sprinkler disasters that can trigger more than $60,000 in damage, the electronic limitations buried in many standard policies, and why pre-existing conditions, concussions, mono, and other legitimate disruptions matter more than most families realize. He also explains why schools are cash dependent, why housing and academic fees are rarely covered, and how the right policy can give students a do-over instead of a permanent financial setback.If you’re sending a freshman to campus, paying tuition out of pocket, using a 529, or carrying student loans, this episode is essential listening before classes start. It’s a practical guide to protecting one of the biggest investments your family will ever make - and avoiding the kind of regret that comes from learning too late what your policy actually covers.John Feesis the CEO of GradGuard, the college protection platform known for tuition insurance and dorm renters insurance for hundreds of schools nationwide.Robert Farringtonis the founder of The College Investor and hosts the conversation, helping families make smarter decisions about paying for college.

The U.S. Department of Education released a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on August 19, 2026 that would rewrite the rules governing how college accreditors are recognized. Accreditors are the private organizations that decide which schools can access federal student aid.The proposal has a 30-day comment window, half the 60 days the Department often allows, which puts the deadline around late September. If you’ve followed how Education Department rulemaking works, you’ll notice the compressed timeline as a signal the Department wants this finished fast.The urgency is because this rule is one of the last regulatory puzzle pieces designed to reign in college costs. Accreditors act as gatekeepers to more than $100 billion a year in Pell Grants and federal student loans. Under Secretary Nicholas Kent framed the proposal as a correction for a system that has “contributed to inflated tuition, administrative bloat, and ideology-driven mandates on college campuses.”

The U.S. Department of Education filed its reply brief in support of its motion to dismiss in Havens v. U.S. Department of Education on August 17, 2026, closing out the briefing schedule in the last lawsuit still trying to revive REPAYE for roughly 7 million former SAVE borrowers. The filing asks the judge to dismiss the case.Hours earlier, the Education Department’s lawyers filed a Notice of Corrected Filings walking back a factual claim the agency made on July 29. In an earlier brief, the Department told the court that four of five non-party borrowers who submitted declarations “most recently reported incomes of $0,” which would mean their payments would be $0 under any plan and no irreparable harm existed.Those borrowers filed counter-declarations on August 7 saying they had reported real income, either directly or through the IRS. The agency investigated, found the borrowers were right, and blamed “technical errors” with its National Student Loan Data System database. It filed corrected versions of both the brief and apologized. Even so, the agency’s core position that the case should be tossed has not changed.

The Education Department has quietly changed how it decides whether continuing graduate students can still borrow uncapped Grad PLUS loans, and the change is already generating denials for students who have been enrolled.During an August 12 Federal Student Aid webinar on the implementation of new loan limits and the interim exception for continuing students, FSA staff told schools to calculate “expected time to credential” using credit hours completed rather than time enrolled. That formula determines how much longer a grandfathered borrower keeps access to Grad PLUS after the program formally ended on July 1, 2026.The National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators called it a significant departure from prior guidance, noting that ED had previously told schools to measure the difference between program length in weeks, months, or years and the portion the student finished before July 1.Education Department spokesperson Ellen Keast told Inside Higher Ed the approach is “not anything new” and had come up in earlier virtual office hours, though the department did not point to where it was written down. When ED finalized the loan limits and new repayment plans, the written record pointed the other way: the final rule text at 34 CFR 685.102 and the department’s May 20 loan limits FAQ both describe the calculation in terms of time.