U.S. Teens Rank 23rd In Math, 10th In Reading On The 2026 Global Exam

American 15-year-olds tied for 10th out of 91 worldwide school systems in reading on the 2025 PISA exam, released September 8. In math, they tied for 23rd. Science was the bright spot for the U.S. at 13th.U.S. reading dropped 14 points from 2022. New York Times reporting puts that near the worst American result since PISA began in 2000.But it’s important to note that the general learning decline is worldwide. Reading across rich countries fell 28 points from 2015 to 2025, and math fell 22 points. One in five 15-year-olds now misses the basic skill level in all three subjects, up from 16% in 2022.More than 760,000 students took the test. About 4,600 were American, spread across 144 schools. Here’s where the U.S. stands.

How much should you have in a 529 plan? The short answer: about $96 a month from birth, or roughly $37,000 by the time your child is 18, if your goal is to cover a solid chunk of in-state tuition and fees.If you want to pay for everything at a public university, housing and food included, plan on about $630 a month gets you to $245,000 at 18. Everything in between helps, and so we break it odwn.The real trouble comes from rising tuition costs and how much every "college savings calculator" says you need to save for your child's education. According to The College Board, the average published price for 2025-26 is $11,950 in tuition and fees at a public four-year in-state college and $45,000 at a private nonprofit college. Add housing and food and the average total budget is $30,990 in-state and $65,470 private. Plug those into a calculator with a "pay it all" assumption and you're told to save $1,300 a month. Add that to your own retirement savings and there's nothing left.When you start plugging those numbers into the college savings calculator, suddenly you're supposed to start saving over $500 per month for your child. Then, add that into your own savings for retirement, and you're not going to have anything left for yourself each month!So let's dive in and see how much you should have in a 529 plan.

Sallie surveyed 511 U.S. scholarship applicants (both students who won at least one award and students who applied but never won) and published the results as The Scholarship Winner Playbook. The findings point to a short list of behaviors that consistently showed up among winners: starting early, applying in volume, getting essays reviewed, and reapplying after rejections. It’s a useful data set for anyone working through how to find college scholarships right now.The headline numbers: 63% of winners started applying during high school or earlier, about 1 in 3 winners (34%) collected 3 or more awards, and winners applied to roughly twice as many scholarships as non-winners. The number of scholarship applications you submit matters, which is one reason scholarship search websites that surface lots of matches quickly have become a standard part of the process.If you’re looking for a free tool to find college scholarships, check out The College Investor’s Scholarship Search Tool. Our team curates the scholarships listed.

The Federal Reserve’s G.19 consumer credit release published September 8 put outstanding student loan debt at $1,858.2 billion at the end of the second quarter of 2026. That is up $55.6 billion from $1,802.6 billion a year earlier, a 3.1% increase. This is also the first time the national student loan balance has gone above $1.85 trillion.Total consumer credit grew at a 4.2% seasonally adjusted annual rate in July to $5.19 trillion. Federally held consumer credit (Direct Loans, Perkins, and Ed-held FFEL) was $1,605.6 billion, roughly flat since March, even as millions of borrowers move onto new repayment plans.It’s important to remember that Q3 is typically when the federal balance sheet sees the biggest jump in student loan debt as fall enrollment hits the books.

Reps. Bill Foster (D-IL) and Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA) introduced the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Inclusion Act of 2026, which would update what counts as a qualifying payment under Public Service Loan Forgiveness in two ways: it would let payments under graduated, extended, and the new tiered standard plans count during a borrower’s first 60 months, and it would treat months spent in administrative forbearance as qualifying payments for borrowers working in public service.It was referred to the House Committee on Education and Workforce the same day it was introduced, with nine cosponsors.This first provision is a win for many borrowers who’ve found themselves in the wrong repayment plan (especially graduated – which we’ve called a trap). These borrowers have seen their payment counts drop as a result.The second provision is especially important for the roughly 7 million borrowers who spent more than two years in the SAVE forbearance. Under current law, those months earn zero PSLF credit unless the borrower buys them back. Under this bill, they would count automatically, with no lump-sum payment and no application.

Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Senate Bill 960 and Assembly Bill 2694 on September 18, 2026, rewriting the rules for bachelor’s degrees at California community colleges. Starting January 1, 2028, each district’s allowance of new bachelor’s programs will range from 2 to 12, and the number depends on how many of its students finish or transfer.The two measures, by Sen. Christopher Cabaldon (D-Napa) and Assemblymember David Alvarez (D-San Diego), are legally joined: SB 960 states it takes effect only if AB 2694 is also enacted. Newsom’s office listed both as signed in its September 18 legislative update.They replace the framework set by AB 927 in 2021, which allowed up to 30 new programs statewide per year and barred any duplication of Cal State or UC degrees.For families weighing what college costs in California, the change means more four-year credentials priced at community college rates.

Several of the most selective colleges have adopted generous financial aid policies that provide free tuition to low- and moderate-income students. Depending on the college, the income threshold for free tuition ranges from $100,000 to $250,000.MIT was the first to offer free tuition for families with income under $200,000 starting with the 2025-2026 academic year. Harvard matched the offer within months. Since then, other colleges have announced similar policies for the 2026-2027 academic year, including Rice at $200,000 and the University of Chicago at $250,000.Here’s a ranked list of the top offers, why colleges are doing this, and how the gaps between these policies create a new angle for financial aid appeals. If you’re still early in the process, start with how the college admissions process and financial aid fit together.

Colleges have a "type" of student they are looking for when they make admissions decisions, and not all of it shows up on the application checklist. Understanding these factors can give you a real leg up in the college admissions process this fall.Getting in is harder at the top than it has ever been. The average acceptance rate at four-year, not-for-profit colleges was 73% in fall 2022, according to the National Association for College Admission Counseling. Most Ivy League schools admit in the single digits (see our breakdown of Ivy League acceptance rates and why acceptance rates keep falling).Schools talk openly about academic performance, extracurricular involvement, and the personal essay. Other factors get far less airtime, even though most schools disclose them if you know where to look. Below are the factors colleges weigh most, seven less obvious ones that can tip a decision, and how to check what any school on your college list actually values.

A bipartisan House bill would add farm and ranch work to the list of jobs eligible for Public Service Loan Forgiveness. H.R. 9974, the Young Farmer Success Act, was introduced by Rep. Glenn Thompson (R-PA) alongside Reps. Joe Courtney (D-CT), Monica De La Cruz (R-TX), and Nikki Budzinski (D-IL), and referred to the House Committee on Education and Workforce.The text of the bill amends Section 455(m)(3)(B) of the Higher Education Act to treat full-time work as an “employee or manager of a qualified farm or ranch” as a public service job. A qualified operation is one with at least $35,000 in gross revenue from agricultural product sales in 2026, indexed to inflation in later years. Borrowers would still need 120 qualifying payments, the same rule that applies to every other job category on the PSLF list.

The Treasury Department and IRS released proposed regulations that would deny 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status to any private school that “adopts, maintains, or enforces” a policy discriminating on the basis of race, color, or national or ethnic origin, including policies designed to benefit minority students.The proposed rule focuses on admissions, scholarships, student loans, athletics, and every other school-administered program. The agencies estimate it could affect as many as 18,000 private schools and roughly 750,000 students who may qualify for race-based scholarships. This is happening as the Trump Administration is pushing back against race-conscious education policy.“Schools rebranding race-based preferences as equitable, inclusive, or diversity-enhancing does not change their discriminatory nature,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in the announcement, first reported by the Daily Caller.The regulations would apply to taxable years beginning after May 31, 2027, which the IRS says gives schools time to rewrite policies. This makes sense after the policy debate that came when the administration tried revoking Harvard’s tax-exempt status in 2025.