This week’s information highlights debates about privatizing federal scholar loans, shifts in how the Training Division operates, broader monetary traits, and renewed federal steering urging faculties to handle rising default danger.
Right here’s a fast have a look at a very powerful tales shaping increased training and scholar funds this week for February 26, 2026.
🎓 Headlines at a Look
- The Training Division is in ongoing talks about privatizing federal scholar loans.
- ED launches new interagency agreements affecting federal teaching programs.
- Greater training faces monetary sustainability challenges and enrollment shifts.
- The Training Division urges faculties to undertake greatest practices to cut back mortgage defaults and shield federal help entry.
Would you want to avoid wasting this?
1. The Training Division urges faculties to undertake greatest practices to cut back mortgage defaults and shield federal help entry.
The U.S. Division of Training confirmed that it’s persevering with discussions about probably promoting elements of the federal scholar mortgage portfolio to non-public lenders.
Undersecretary Nicholas Kent acknowledged ongoing stakeholder conferences however burdened no closing choices have been made. Proponents argue privatization might improve competitors and cut back prices whereas critics warn it might weaken borrower protections, remove income-driven reimbursement plans, and expose debtors to increased charges.
➡️ Affect: A shift to non-public administration of federal loans might basically change reimbursement choices and protections for hundreds of thousands of debtors, particularly these with low credit score scores or searching for forgiveness.
2. Training Division Launches New Interagency Agreements
The Division of Training introduced new interagency agreements that reassign some federal training capabilities (together with overseas present reporting and college security programming) to departments comparable to State and Well being and Human Providers.
The strikes are a part of what the Training Division calls efforts to streamline federal operations and higher serve college students and households, although critics fear it might complicate oversight and delay funding supply.
➡️ Affect: How federal packages are administered impacts all the things from monetary help entry to compliance burdens on faculties and districts — and potential delays or uncertainty can ripple into scholar companies and planning.
3. Greater Training Sector Faces Monetary Stress and Enrollment Shifts
A new report from Deloitte underscores brewing monetary stress throughout U.S. faculties, pushed by declining enrollments, demographic shifts, and evolving federal monetary help coverage. Presidents at many establishments say they see continued downward strain on enrollments (significantly on the graduate stage) and rising danger of institutional closures or mergers within the coming years.
➡️ Affect: Fewer college students and price range strain can translate into tuition will increase, program cuts, or decreased campus companies — choices that have an effect on value and high quality for present and future college students.
4. Training Division Urges Faculties to Undertake Finest Practices to Scale back Mortgage Defaults
The Training Division issued steering this week urging faculties to strengthen default prevention and reimbursement help as scholar mortgage reimbursement totally resumes after pandemic reduction pauses.
The steering comes amid rising nonpayment charges throughout establishments and highlights that greater than 1,800 faculties now have nonpayment ranges at or above 25%, which danger translating into even increased official cohort default charges.
I shared on LinkedIn this week what number of faculties have been proof against supporting their college students and alumni with their scholar loans traditionally.
➡️ Affect: Rising defaults not solely hurt borrower credit score however can jeopardize a school’s skill to supply federal Direct Loans and Pell Grants — touching each scholar’s entry to reasonably priced training.
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Editor: Colin Graves
The put up This Week In School And Cash Information: February 26, 2026 appeared first on The School Investor.
