By Carson Hartzog, The Minnesota Star Tribune

Color-coded folders and notebooks. A fresh stash of pens and pencils. A new outfit.

Millions of American students from preschool through college, and their (often) bankrolling parents, back-to-school shop ahead of each fall. But as prices rise, technology evolves and new products hit the shelves, families are seeking ways to keep checking off the school supply list affordably.

“When I was young, I had $50 to go to the grocery store. I go now, and that’s, like, three or four items,” said Matt Marsh, Minneapolis managing partner at Deloitte. “Everything costs more. So families are getting squeezed a bit, and it’s creating a level of anxiety.”

According to PwC’s inaugural back-to-school survey, nearly 3 in 4 parents said they’ll spend the same or more than they did last year on school supplies, even with higher prices and economic volatility.

“There’s still this underlying element of consumer confidence,” said Kelly Pedersen, a partner at PwC. “Even though we hear a lot of uncertainty in the market, people still need to shop for back-to-school.”

Plan and budget

Before shopping, take inventory of last year’s supplies. About a third of parents plan to reuse items, according to PwC.

Budgeting, paired with a specific shopping list, can prevent impulse buying.

In Minneapolis, parents Deloitte surveyed expected to spend $682 per child this year. That’s 20% more than the national average.

Niki Kroll of Minneapolis typically starts her back-to-school shopping in July and has already noticed higher prices. Various name-brand notebooks, folders and backpacks seem to be more expensive than previous years. But she has had success finding pencils, glue sticks and other basics on sale.

Those surveyed planned to spend less on clothing and more on school supplies. They also plan to spend more of their budget on tech than last year, though experts expect the total of those tech purchases to stay flat in comparison to last year’s $520 per family.

Assess need

As kids progress in school, more advanced classes might require new tech purchases, like a different calculator model, nearly each year. Delaying that purchase if possible or downgrading it — such as buying an older or used version — can free up room for more necessities like binders, scissors and pencil cases.

“Consider asking your child’s teacher what’s essential on day one vs. what can wait until later in the year,” wrote Ted Rossman, Bankrate senior industry analyst, in an analyst note.

Shop now

More than a third of parents PwC surveyed said they’re starting earlier this year to snag better prices and beat the rush.

“There’s this thought that the better deals are out there earlier before the heart of back-to-school in August,” Pedersen said.

Deloitte’s survey found more than two-thirds of Minneapolis parents plan to finish most of their school shopping by the end of July. They were able to cash in on recent sales like Target’s Circle Week and Amazon’s Prime Day. But several retailers are hosting back-to-school promotions through August.

Target announced Tuesday “Back-to-School-idays” discounts from July 27-Aug. 2. The retailer is maintaining its 2024 prices on key items, and some stores will have personalization stations with embroidery and patches for backpacks, lunchboxes, towels and pillows.

Walmart is offering lower prices than last year on select items, such as highlighters, erasers and notebooks.

Use AI

One in five parents told PwC they plan to use artificial intelligence to find the best deals this season.

“The biggest change we’ve seen with AI shopping is the agent concept, basically putting in your shopping list and budget to optimize your list and what you buy,” Pedersen said. “It’s really taking all of the searching work out of having to do back-to-school shopping.”

AI tools like app and website ChatGPT allow users to paste in a list of school supplies and make requests, like “find these items for the cheapest prices online or in-store within 20 miles of Minneapolis.” Users can also ask to search specific stores and keep the total under a certain amount.

Don’t fall for influencers

Deloitte’s data shows parents who use social media are likely to spend 1½ times more on back-to-school than others. Higher education, bigger wages, better access to the internet and more leisure time spent online all play a role.

“Generally, retailers are moving marketing dollars toward influencers, and influencers are creating behaviors that might result in that splurge purchase,” Marsh said.

More than two-thirds of Minneapolis parents said their child’s preferences often steer them to spend more, and 63% are willing to spend a little extra on their child’s first-day outfit compared with 57% nationally.

Make it fun

In Bloomington, Mall of America is hosting giveaways, limited-time promotions and events for back-to-school. Shoppers can scan the Mall of America app once per day for a chance to win a gift card or rewards points. The mall plans to give away more than $10,000 in gift cards between Aug. 11-31.

Deals are also available for the Nickelodeon Universe theme park and Crayola Experience from Aug. 4-Sept. 30.

“For parents and families coming to Mall of America, it’s a one-stop shop,” said Jill Renslow, Mall of America’s chief business development and marketing officer. “It’s a destination where people have that tradition of coming for not only shopping, but to go on some rides or grab lunch.”

Many cities also offer local events for free or low-cost school supplies, just look on city events calendars.

In store vs. online

Younger parents are leading a small resurgence of in-store shopping.

“Every year in our stats, Gen Zs are the ones who are visiting physical stores the most,” Pedersen said. “[They] value in-person experiences, and in some cases, they’re willing to pay a premium price for that.”

Gen Z also reported a higher likelihood of buying in-store. In previous years, younger shoppers more commonly browsed stores to try on or test products but made final purchases online.

Income also plays a role. Families earning under $75,000 are nearly twice as likely to shop only in-store, while higher-income households tend to prefer online shopping.

Be strategic

While inflation has cooled to 2.4%, prices are still up nearly 24% compared with pre-pandemic levels, according to Bankrate.

“It’s not like when the rate goes down, prices go down. They just don’t go up as fast anymore,” Marsh said. “But there’s a lot of economic anxiety about pricing.”

Looking for generic versions of favorite brands or comparing prices across stores can save money. So can thrifting, Pedersen said. About a fifth of shoppers said they’re looking to shop secondhand.

Shoppers can stack discounts by combining a rewards credit card with store promotions or other available offers, which can add up to considerable savings, Rossman wrote in an analyst note.

For Kroll, she enjoys letting her kids pick their most personal items, like lunchboxes. Despite higher prices, those moments are some of her family’s favorite memories.

“We really like shopping for backpacks and things that have more wiggle room for the kids’ own style. The lists have gotten quite specific, so it’s fun when they can pick out their own stuff,” Kroll said. “My son knows immediately what he wants, and my daughter tries on about 10 backpacks while looking in the mirror.”

©2025 The Minnesota Star Tribune. Visit at startribune.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Right now, Michigan kids are struggling with something fundamental — reading. Over the last 20 years, the state dropped from 30th to 44th in 4th-grade reading scores. Last year, only 25 percent of fourth graders were considered proficient in reading.

What can Michigan do about this? Some suggest we should be looking to Mississippi, because that state has dramatically improved its math and reading scores for 4th graders, now ranking in the top 20 after it was at the bottom a decade ago. But Mississippi isn’t flush with cash — it’s America’s poorest state. So how did they do it? And what does Michigan need to do to change its rankings?

To discuss all that, we have Adrea Truckenmiller on The Metro today, an associate professor of special education at Michigan State University.

Listen to The Metro weekdays from 10 a.m. to noon ET on 101.9 FM and streaming on demand.

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The criminal charges were dropped, but the punishments keep coming.

In May 2024, students at the University of Michigan protested outside the campus art museum. They chanted, linked arms, and called on the university to divest from Israel. Some video clips reviewed by The Metro show campus police escalating the situation, pushing their bikes and barricades into protesters. In another clip, an officer pepper-sprays students as they chant and raise their fists. That same month, police violently raided and broke up an encampment at the university, spraying protesters with what students say was a mix of pepper gas and tear gas.

Nearly one year later, the university began disciplining those involved. Some students were fired from campus jobs. Others were permanently banned from future university employment. One recent graduate was let go from a research position for a protest she attended as a student.

Meanwhile, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel dropped all criminal charges she had been pursuing against students amid mounting political pressure and the ongoing devastation in Gaza.

But the University of Michigan continued its internal punishments, labeling peaceful protests as “violence.”

The university also hired outside consultants and private security to surveil student activists, following them on and off campus.

After that revelation came to light, thanks to reporting by Tom Perkins in The Guardian, the university announced it was ending its undercover surveillance program.

Now, several lawsuits say the university retaliated against students not for breaking rules, but for what they believe.

Liz Jacob, staff attorney at the Sugar Law Center for Economic and Social Justice, represents the students and alumni suing the University of Michigan. She joined The Metro’s Robyn Vincent to discuss the lawsuits and the broader implications for free speech on campuses everywhere.

The University of Michigan has yet to respond to The Metro’s request for comment.

Listen to The Metro weekdays from 10 a.m. to noon ET on 101.9 FM and streaming on demand.

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How beautiful is your local college campus?

Travel + Leisure shared their list of the “30 Most Beautiful College Campuses in the U.S.”

Which college was ranked the prettiest of them all? The honor went to Stanford University in California, according to Travel + Leisure:

“The entryway to Stanford is arguably the grandest of any beautiful college campus. A mile-long palm-lined drive leads up to the expansive green oval Main Quad, surrounded by red-roofed buildings and the school’s architectural crown jewel, Memorial Church with its striking mosaic façade. Beauty continues at the Cantor Arts Center, which has 170 bronzes by Auguste Rodin, one of the largest collections outside of Paris. Take in the view of the 8,180-acre campus and the surrounding area—including the San Francisco skyline on a clear day—from the Hoover Tower observation platform.”

Other noted locations include New York’s Bard College, Texas’ Rice University, and more.

Ranking 15th overall, Yale University in Connecticut beat out other colleges like Duke, Wellesley College and The College of William & Mary, according to Travel + Leisure.

“While some campuses cling to their past, Yale embraces changing architectural movements,” according to Travel + Leisure. “The buildings span from the Georgian-style red-brick Connecticut Hall (whose construction predates the Revolutionary War) to the postmodern Ingalls Rink by Eero Saarinen.

“There’s also the School of Management’s Edward P. Evans Hall, a Norman Foster project completed in 2014. Duck inside the wondrous Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, which houses volumes in a six-story glass-enclosed tower, set against translucent grained Vermont marble panels. The most impressive items in the collection are an original Gutenberg Bible and a 12th-century book of Buddhist prayers.”

Find the full list of campuses to make the list here, courtesy of Travel + Leisure.

By COLLIN BINKLEY, AP Education Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration is pressing for a deal with Harvard University that would require the Ivy League school to pay far more than the $200 million fine agreed to by Columbia University to resolve multiple federal investigations, according to two people familiar with the matter.

Harvard would be expected to pay hundreds of millions of dollars as part of any settlement to end investigations into antisemitism at its campus, said the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations. Harvard leaders have been negotiating with the White House even as they battle in court to regain access to billions in federal research funding terminated by the Trump administration.

The White House’s desire to get Harvard to pay far more than Columbia was first reported by The New York Times, which said the school has signaled a willingness to pay as much as $500 million.

Harvard did not immediately comment.

The Trump administration plans to use its deal with Columbia as a template for other universities, with financial penalties that are now seen as a staple for future agreements. Last week, Columbia leaders agreed to pay $200 million as part of a settlement to resolve investigations into alleged violations of federal antidiscrimination laws and restore more than $400 million in research grants.

Columbia had been in talks for months after the Trump administration accused the university of allowing the harassment of Jewish students and employees amid a wave of campus protests over the Israel-Hamas war. Harvard faces similar accusations but, unlike Columbia, the Cambridge, Massachusetts, school challenged the administration’s funding cuts and subsequent sanctions in court.

Last week, President Donald Trump said Harvard “wants to settle” but he said Columbia “handled it better.”

The Trump administration’s emphasis on financial penalties adds a new dimension for colleges facing federal scrutiny. In the past, civil rights investigations by the Education Department almost always ended with voluntary agreements and rarely included fines.

Even when the government has levied fines, they’ve been a small fraction of the scale Trump is seeking. Last year, the Education Department fined Liberty University $14 million after finding the Christian school failed to disclose crimes on its campus. It was the most the government had ever fined a university under the Clery Act, following a $4.5 million fine dealt to Michigan State University in 2019 for its handling of sexual assault complaints against disgraced sports doctor Larry Nassar.

The University of Pennsylvania agreed this month to modify school records set by transgender swimmer Lia Thomas, but that school’s deal with the Trump administration included no fine.

The Trump administration has opened investigations at dozens of universities over allegations of antisemitism or racial discrimination in the form of diversity, equity and inclusion policies. Several face funding freezes akin to those at Harvard, including more than $1 billion at Cornell University and $790 million at Northwestern University.

Last week, Education Secretary Linda McMahon called the Columbia deal a “roadmap” for other colleges, saying it would “ripple across the higher education sector and change the course of campus culture for years to come.”

The Associated Press’ education coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

CHICAGO — Twenty-year-old Eric Mun didn’t want to believe it: Only one kid in the family could make it to medical school — and it wasn’t going to be him.

Mun had done everything right. He graduated high school with honors, earned a scholarship at Northwestern University and breezed through his biology courses.

He immigrated to Alabama from Korea as a toddler. From the quiet stretches of the South, he dreamed of helping patients in a pressed white coat.

But dreams don’t pay tuition. And with new borrowing limits, Mun’s family can only support one child through school.

“My parents already implied that my older brother is probably going to be the one that gets to go,” Mun said.

President Donald Trump’s sweeping “big, beautiful” tax and spending bill, signed into law earlier this month, imposes strict new caps on federal student loans, capping borrowing for professional schools at $50,000 per year. The measure particularly affects medical students, whose tuition often exceeds $300,000 over four years.

Aspiring physicians like Mun have been thrown into financial uncertainty. Many members of the medical community say the measures will send shock waves through a system already laden with economic barriers, discouraging low-income students from pursuing a medical degree.

“It might mean there are people who want to be doctors that can’t be doctors because they can’t afford it,” said Dr. Richard Anderson, president of the Illinois State Medical Society.

Before the passage of Trump’s budget bill, the Grad PLUS loan program allowed graduate students to borrow their institution’s total cost of attendance, including living expenses. The program was slashed as part of a broader overhaul to the federal student loan system.

Now, beginning July 1, 2026, most graduate students will be capped at $20,500 in federal loans per year, with a total limit of $100,000. Students in professional schools, like medical, dental or law school, will face the $50,000 annual cap and a total limit of $200,000.

Mun’s parents work at an automobile assembly plant. Throughout high school, he knew he would have to rely on scholarships and federal loans to pay his way through college.

Mun’s voice faltered. “I’m just trying to remain hopeful,” Mun said.

Also folded into the bill: the elimination of several Biden-era repayment plans, cuts to Pell Grants and limits to the Parent PLUS loans program, which allows parents of dependent undergraduates to borrow.

Proponents of the Republican-backed bill said the curbed borrowing will incentivize medical schools and other graduate programs to lower tuition. The tuition of most Chicago-area medical schools is nearly $300,000 for four years, not including cost-of-living expenses.

Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine has a $465,000 price tag after accounting for those indirect costs, according to the school’s website. Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science trails closely behind at nearly $464,000.

“One of the main concerns about the Grad PLUS program is money that is going to subsidize institutions rather than extending access to students,” said Lesley Turner, an associate professor at the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy.

Still, many medical professionals expressed doubt that schools will adjust their costs in response to the bill. Tuition for both private and public schools has been steadily climbing for decades, up 81% from 2001 after adjusting for inflation, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges.

There’s some evidence that Grad PLUS may have contributed to those tuition hikes. A study co-authored by Turner in 2023 found that prices increased 65 cents per dollar after the program’s introduction in 2006. There was also little indication that Grad PLUS had fulfilled its intended goal of expanding access to underrepresented students.

But Turner cautioned against the abrupt reversal of the program. After accounting for inflation, the lifetime borrowing limits now placed on graduate students are lower than they were in 2005, she said. Many students may turn to private loans to cover the gap, often at higher interest rates.

More than half of medical students relied on Grad PLUS loans, according to AAMC. The median education debt for indebted medical students is around $200,000, with most repayment plans lasting 10 to 20 years. The median stipend for doctors’ first year post-MD was just $65,100 in 2024.

“I think for many reasons, it would have been reasonable to put some sort of limit on Grad PLUS loans, but I think this is a very blunt way of doing it,” Turner said.

In a high-rise on Northwestern’s downtown campus last week, 20 undergraduate students and alums from local colleges gathered for the Chicago Cancer Health Equity Collaborative Fellows program. The eight-week summer intensive offers aspiring medical professionals a deep dive into cancer health disparities information and research. Participants like Mun have been left reeling after the flurry of federal cuts.

Alexis Chappel, a 28-year-old graduate of Northeastern Illinois University, watched a family member struggle with addiction growing up. She was deeply moved by the doctors who supported his recovery, and it inspired her to pursue medicine. But she has no idea how she’ll cover tuition.

“I feel like it’s in God’s hands at this point,” Chappel said. “I just felt like it’s a direct attack on Black and brown students who plan on going to medical school.”

Just 10% of medical students are Black and 12% are Latino, according to AAMC enrollment data. Socioeconomic diversity is also limited: A 2018 analysis found that 24% of students came from the wealthiest 5% of U.S. households.

Dr. Tricia Pendergrast, who graduated from Feinberg in 2023, relied entirely on Grad PLUS loans to fund her medical education. Juggling classes and clinicals, she had little money saved and no steady stream of income. Pendergrast was so strapped for cash that she enrolled in SNAP benefits — a program also cut under Trump’s budget bill.

Now an anesthesiologist at University of Michigan Health, she’s documented her concerns on TikTok for her 48,000 followers.

“It’s not going to improve representation, and it’s not going to improve access,” Pendergrast said. “It’s going to act as a deterrent for people who otherwise would be excellent physicians.”

For low-income students, the application process is already fraught with economic obstacles, Pendergrast said. Metrics like GPA and the Medical College Admissions Test, or MCAT, are heavily weighted in admissions, and may disadvantage students from underresourced schools. Many students also lack mentorships or networks to guide them through the process, she noted.

“I think the average medical student is going to be richer and whiter, and not from rural areas and not from underserved communities,” Pendergrast said.

The elimination of Grad PLUS loans comes amid a mounting nationwide physician shortage. A recent AAMC report predicted a shortfall of 86,000 physicians by 2036. Meanwhile, a significant portion of the workforce is poised to enter retirement: The U.S. population aged 65 and older is expected to grow 34.1% over the next decade.

The shortage is particularly concentrated in primary care. In practice, that means longer waiting times for patients, and an increased caseload on physicians, who may already suffer from burnout.

“If the goal is truly to make America healthy again, then we need to have a strong physician workforce …  We should be coming up with ideas to make it more accessible for people who want to be doctors as opposed to hindering that,” Anderson said.

Sophia Tully, co-president of the Minority Association of Pre-Med Students at Northwestern, said she and her peers have struggled to reconcile with a system that often feels stacked against them. The 21-year-old plans on taking an extra gap year before medical school in an effort to save money.

Tully summed up the environment on campus: “For lack of a better word, people are panicking.”

By CATHY BUSSEWITZ

NEW YORK (AP) — After five years of working long nights as a truck driver, Julius Mosley wanted a change. He found driving unfulfilling, and his teenage son needed him to spend more time at home.

So Mosley took a job as a customer service representative at a telecommunications company near his home. The employee benefits included being able to take job-related classes for free. He decided he wanted to study leadership so he could learn about managing teams and helping people become the best versions of themselves.

His company, Spectrum, paid for a 10-week front-line manager certificate program that Mosley went on to complete. Then it covered the tuition cost for a bachelor’s degree in leadership and organization studies that he’s currently pursuing. The company also promoted him to a management position while he took college courses online.

“It’s completely changed the course of my life,” Mosley said about the education benefit, which took care of his tuition up front instead of requiring him to pay and seek later reimbursement. “It’s truly a blessing to be able to do this.”

As higher education costs have grown to heights many U.S. residents find unattainable or illogical, some adults are looking to their employers for help defraying the expense of college and professional credentials. Nearly half of public and private employers have a tuition reimbursement program for employees, according to the Society for Human Resource Management, or SHRM.

Many employers that provide tuition assistance reimburse staff members up to $5,250 per year because that amount is tax-deductible, said Amy Dufrane, CEO of the Human Resource Certification Institute, which offers credentials to HR professionals.

Some companies offer more, including Bank of America, which provides tuition assistance of up to $7,500 annually, and Spectrum which, in addition to its prepaid tuition program, reimburses employees earning master’s degrees or enrolled in classes that fall outside the scope of its prepaid program up to $10,000 per year.

“For companies who are looking to attract Generation Z and Millennials, it’s a great way to bring them in because they’re keenly interested in how companies are investing in them and the benefits that are available,” said Dufrane.

Because many college graduates start jobs after accumulating student loan debt, about 8% of employers also offer help with student loan repayment, according to James Atkinson, vice president of thought leadership at SHRM.

If continuing education feels out of reach financially or seems incompatible with job demands, experts say there are ways to explore the possibility, either by by making the case to your employer or seeking a position at a place that provides education benefits.

A pay-it-forward model

In traditional tuition reimbursement programs, employees lay out thousands of dollars to pay for tuition, books and fees at the start of a semester, and usually must complete the course with a passing grade before a company would kick in its contribution.

That means employees would often wait four to six months before being reimbursed, which only works for more affluent workers, said Paul Marchand, chief human resources officer at Spectrum.

“The person that can afford to put it on their credit card and sit with $3- or $4- or $5,000 of expenses due back to them and not be concerned about that cost, that is not our average worker,” Marchand said. “Our average worker is making $25, $28, $30 bucks an hour, maybe having a second job, maybe a single parent with kids, … and they’re important workers for us, and we want to help develop them and grow their careers.”

Spectrum launched a program that lets employees sign up for an array of certificates or college courses while paying nothing themselves. The eligible courses and where to take them came from Guild, a Denver company that works with employers on workforce development and tuition assistance.

Walmart offers a similar benefit to its front-line associates, who can enroll in college or certain classes without ever seeing an invoice, according to company spokesperson Jimmy Carter. The benefit also extends to family members of the employees, he said.

Help with loan repayment

As recent college graduates have struggled with debts from college, some employers have added student loan repayment programs as well as tuition assistance.

Morgan Woods, 29, a training analyst at semiconductor manufacturer GlobalFoundries, graduated from college with a $20,000 debt load. Her employer is paying $125 per month toward her student loans, a sum that will increase over time.

Woods now expects to pay off her loans four years earlier than she anticipated doing on her own and hopes it will improve her options as she explores buying a house.

“The fact that I’m now ahead of where I thought I would be a little over a year ago is very nice to see,” she said.

Making the case

Not all employers offer education benefits, and when they do, they’re not always widely publicized. To find out if your employer offers such benefits, ask a manager or a human resources representative.

Show how a course or training directly relates to your role and how it would help you do your job more effectively, Dufrane advised. Even if there’s no formal tuition reimbursement program, your employer might have a training or professional development budget.

“If you’re taking on a stretch role or entering a new industry, you can advocate for training as part of your offer. Say something like, ‘I’d like to take a course to help me get up to speed in this area.’ In my experience, that shows initiative and employers often respect it,” Dufrane said.

You can also approach your boss and say, “I want to move up and I want to invest in myself. What recommendations do you have for me?” Dufrane added.

Finding the time

Fitting in classes, study sessions and paper writing can be daunting when holding down a full-time job, but there are ways to make it work.

Rene Sotolongo, a cybersecurity analyst at the Human Resource Certification Institute, earned a master’s degree in cybersecurity using tuition reimbursement benefits from his employer. To manage his time, he switched to working Monday through Thursday, studied on weeknights and dedicated Friday through Sunday to other schoolwork.

“Without the tuition reimbursement or the organization’s flexibility, there’s no way that I would be able to” earn advanced degrees, said Sotolongo, who is now pursuing a PhD with assistance from HRCI. “It’s rewarding in every aspect.”

Providing flexibility shows commitment to employees, Dufrane said. “You’ve got to be flexible around learning because people have parents they’re taking care of and kids they’re taking care of, and going home at night isn’t always the best time to be writing a paper,” she said.

Fitting in schoolwork while also meeting the needs of a son, a fiancee, a full-time job and a puppy has been challenging for Mosley, but it also provided a way to model studious behavior for his son.

“Instead of me just telling him he needs to do his, now he’s seeing me doing schoolwork, so that actually helped out with him wanting to do his work more,” Mosley said. “We actually take time to sit down together some days to work on our homework, so it’s been a life-changing situation.”

Share your stories and questions about workplace wellness at cbussewitz@ap.org. Follow AP’s Be Well coverage, focusing on wellness, fitness, diet and mental health at https://apnews.com/hub/be-well

By COLLIN BINKLEY, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration is releasing billions of dollars in grants to schools for adult literacy, English language instruction and other programs, the Education Department said Friday.

President Donald Trump’s administration had withheld $6 billion in funding on July 1 as part of a review to ensure spending aligned with the White House’s priorities.

The funding freeze had been challenged by several lawsuits as educators, Congress members from both parties and others called for the administration to release money schools rely on for a wide range of programs.

Last week, the department said it would release $1.3 billion of the money for after-school and summer programming. Without the money, school districts and nonprofits such as the YMCA and Boys and Girls Club of America had said they would have to close or scale back educational offerings this fall.

The release of that money came days after 10 Republican senators sent a letter imploring the administration to allow frozen education money to be sent to states.

The Education Department said Friday the Office of Management and Budget had completed its review of the programs and will begin sending the money to states next week.

U.S. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., was among the Congress members calling for the release of the grants. She said it is important to protect the programs.

“The programs are ones that enjoy longstanding, bipartisan support like after-school and summer programs that provide learning and enrichment opportunities for school aged children, which also enables their parents to work and contribute to local economies, and programs to support adult learners working to gain employment skills, earn workforce certifications, or transition into postsecondary education,” she said.

The Associated Press’ education coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

By COLLIN BINKLEY, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration’s milestone settlement with Columbia promises to bring stability to a university in crisis. It also delivers a crucial win to President Donald Trump in his campaign to reshape higher education.

And at colleges around the country, the deal clarifies the stakes for anyone weighing whether to fight the administration’s demands or concede.

Columbia agreed Wednesday to pay more than $220 million to the federal government to restore federal research money that was canceled in the name of combating antisemitism on campus. That decision offers a contrast to the path taken by Harvard University, which has lost billions of dollars in government funding as its legal battle escalates with no end in sight.

Yet the Columbia deal also raises questions about university independence as the school submits to closer federal oversight.

No sooner had Trump announced the deal than he sent a warning: Numerous other universities, he said, “are upcoming.”

The deal is the first to settle a federal antisemitism investigation since Trump returned to office. It’s also the first agreement with a university touching on so many elements of the president’s agenda, from admissions and campus protests to women’s sports and diversity, equity and inclusion programs.

Columbia agreed to some provisions similar to those that Harvard rejected and called a dangerous precedent. The settlement requires the hiring of new faculty in Jewish studies and a review of academics to ensure “balance.” Columbia will be placed under the watch of an independent monitor and ordered to disclose hiring, admission and discipline data to be audited for compliance.

In what Columbia described as a victory for university autonomy, the agreement includes a clause saying the government has no authority to dictate hiring, admissions decisions or the content of academic speech. Acting University President Claire Shipman said it was “carefully crafted to protect the values that define us” while restoring the university’s federal research funding.

Where some see pragmatism, others see capitulation

Some at Columbia called it the best feasible outcome. Some called it capitulation. Rep. Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., a Columbia graduate whose district includes the Manhattan campus, called it a “cowardly” agreement.

Columbia has effectively waved “the white flag of surrender in its battle at the heart of the Trump Administration’s war on higher education and academic freedom,” Nadler said.

Columbia had been threatened with the potential loss of billions of dollars in government support, including more than $400 million in research grants canceled earlier this year.

David Pozen, a law professor at Columbia, said the settlement raises legal questions about Trump’s strategy of regulation by dealmaking. Instead of applying a single standard across all of higher education, Pozen said, Trump is relying on one-off deals with individual universities as a condition to regain federal funding.

“In short, the agreement gives legal form to an extortion scheme,” he said.

The American Council on Education, which represents hundreds of university presidents, exhorted the administration to “return to following the rule of law.”

“This cannot be a template for the government’s approach to American higher education,” said Ted Mitchell, the group’s president. “Columbia was put in an untenable position by the outrageous actions of the executive branch of the government.”

Lawrence Summers, a former Treasury secretary and former president of Harvard, called the settlement an “excellent template” for agreements with Harvard and other universities. He said it preserves Columbia’s independence while addressing antisemitism and renewing a focus on merit.

“This may be the best day higher education has had in the last year,” Summers wrote on the social media platform X.

Dozens of colleges are facing federal investigations

With the deal, Trump has new momentum in his expanding campaign to bring the nation’s universities in line with his vision. Dozens of campuses are under federal investigation for allegations related to antisemitism, DEI and transgender athletes in women’s sports. Trump has saved his strongest rebuke for elite private universities, yet his administration has also recently turned attention to big public universities including George Mason University.

Among Trump’s backers, the Columbia agreement is seen as a first step to counteract the liberal bias they say has permeated college campuses.

Education Secretary Linda McMahon called Columbia’s reforms a roadmap for universities looking to regain public trust. “I believe they will ripple across the higher education sector and change the course of campus culture for years to come,” McMahon said in a statement.

The settlement follows smaller wins for the administration, including a recent deal with the University of Pennsylvania over transgender swimmer Lia Thomas. Penn agreed to modify school records held by Thomas and to apologize to female athletes “disadvantaged” by Thomas’ participation.

Just days earlier, the president of the University of Virginia agreed to resign amid a Justice Department investigation over DEI policies.

Many university presidents have rallied behind Harvard in its fight against the Trump administration, seeing their own independence jeopardized by the government’s sanctions against the Ivy League school. Harvard, the nation’s oldest and wealthiest university, is often seen as a bellwether for other institutions, and some regard it as the best hope to repel the Trump administration’s pressure campaign.

Now even more rides on Harvard’s case. Earlier this month, Trump said a deal with Harvard appeared imminent, only to lash out at the university this week following a court hearing in one of Harvard’s legal battles.

“A big part of it is going to be how much Harvard gets in the future,” Trump told reporters this week. “And they’re not going to get very much.”

More universities are pulling back from DEI

Even before Trump took office, more universities had been pulling back on DEI and taking other steps to backtrack on what some see as a leftward political drift. Yet if the Columbia agreement becomes a model, it could force an even deeper reckoning.

The agreement requires full compliance with the administration’s interpretation of Title IX, the federal law barring sex discrimination in education. Trump officials have used the law to force the removal of transgender athletes from women’s sports. The deal also requires regular reports to ensure Columbia does not “promote unlawful DEI goals.”

On admissions, the settlement pushes Columbia to limit the consideration of race even beyond the Supreme Court’s 2023 decision ending affirmative action. That decision left open the possibility that universities could consider an applicant’s discussion of how their race affected their life, including in college application essays. The Columbia deal appears to bar such considerations.

It also orders the school to take steps to “decrease financial independence” on international students. Columbia has one of the largest international student populations in the nation, making up about 40% of its enrollment.

How much Columbia ceded in exchange may not be clear for years. There’s also no guarantee that the school is fully in the clear — the agreement leaves open the possibility of future “compliance reviews, investigations, defunding or litigation” by the government.

The Associated Press’ education coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

Wayne State University will field a women’s soccer team in the fall of 2026. It will be the school’s first new varsity sport in over a decade.

WSU’s Director of Athletics, Erika Wallace, says the first order of business is hiring a head coach this year.

“We’re looking at someone who has ties to the area for recruitment purposes,” she says. “We’re also looking at head coaching experience, assistant coaching experience, some club coaching experience as well.”

Listen: Wayne State to offer women’s soccer in 2026

Expanding opportunities for women

Wallace reviewed the athletic program when she took the job and found a need for more women student-athletes. She says adding soccer will help WSU comply with Title IX, a federal law prohibiting sex-based discrimination in education.

“Proportionality is one of the prongs that you look at,” she says. “We have to make accommodations in order to stay relevant and in compliance with Title IX.”

Wallace says this will attract more students to WSU.

“We’re the only school in our conference that doesn’t have women’s soccer,” she says. “People will want to come here and play.”

The support is there

Wallace says funding for the new women’s soccer team will come from the athletic department’s general fund as well as philanthropic donations.

She also says Detroit’s soccer culture will sustain the program.

“We have some of the best clubs in the country here,” Wallace says.

Wayne State has a partnership with Detroit City Football Club, which fields men’s, women’s and youth sides.

Wallace says WSU will make some upgrades to the soccer pitch behind Tom Adams Field before the women’s team starts play.

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NEW YORK (AP) — Columbia University has reached a deal with the Trump administration to pay more than $220 million to the federal government to restore federal research money that was canceled in the name of combating antisemitism on campus, the university announced Wednesday.

Under the agreement, the Ivy League school will pay the $200 million settlement over three years to the federal government, the university said. It will also pay $21 million to settle investigations brought by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

“This agreement marks an important step forward after a period of sustained federal scrutiny and institutional uncertainty, acting University President Claire Shipman said.

The administration pulled the funding, because of what it described as the university’s failure to squelch antisemitism on campus during the Israel-Hamas war that began in October 2023.

Columbia then agreed to a series of demands laid out by the Republican administration, including overhauling the university’s student disciplinary process and adopting a new definition of antisemitism. Wednesday’s agreement codifies those reforms, Shipman said.

BOSTON (AP) — In the latest in series of Trump administration inquiries targeting Harvard University, the State Department said Wednesday it is investigating whether the Ivy League school will remain part of a government program that provides American visas for students and researchers from other countries.

Harvard has faced mounting sanctions and scrutiny from Washington since rejecting demands from a federal antisemitism task force in April. Harvard has filed a lawsuit challenging $2.6 billion in federal cuts and has accused the Republican administration of waging a retaliation campaign.

The statement from Secretary of State Marco Rubio did not say why his department was examining Harvard’s eligibility to take part in the Exchange Visitor Program, which allows foreign nationals to study or work in the United States through cultural and education exchange programs.

It said all sponsors, such as Harvard, “are required to fully comply with exchange visitor regulations, transparency in reporting, and a demonstrated commitment to fostering the principles of cultural exchange and mutual understanding upon which the program was founded.”

A spokesman for Harvard did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The department said the investigation will seek to ensure that its programs “do not run contrary to our nation’s interests.”

The administration also has tried several times to prevent the school in Cambridge, Massachusetts, from hosting foreign students, and President Donald Trump has threatened to revoke Harvard’s tax-exempt status.

Last month, his administration issued a finding that Harvard tolerated antisemitism, a step that could jeopardize all of Harvard’s federal funding, including student loans or grants. The penalty is typically referred to as a “death sentence.”

Harvard’s president, Alan Garber, has said the university has made changes to combat antisemitism and will not submit to the administration’s demands.

The Associated Press’ education coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

NEW YORK (AP) — Columbia University announced disciplinary action Tuesday against students who participated in a pro-Palestinian demonstration inside the Ivy League school’s main library before final exams in May and an encampment during alumni weekend last year.

A student activist group said nearly 80 students were told they have been suspended for one to three years or expelled. The sanctions issued by a university judicial board also include probation and degree revocations, Columbia said in a statement.

The action comes as the Manhattan university is negotiating with President Donald Trump’s administration to restore $400 million in federal funding it has withheld from the Ivy League school over its handling of student protests against the war in Gaza. The administration pulled the funding, canceling grants and contracts, in March because of what it described as the university’s failure to squelch antisemitism on campus during the Israel-Hamas war that began in October 2023.

Columbia has since agreed to a series of demands laid out by the Republican administration, including overhauling the university’s student disciplinary process and adopting a new definition of antisemitism.

“Our institution must focus on delivering on its academic mission for our community,” the university said Tuesday. “And to create a thriving academic community, there must be respect for each other and the institution’s fundamental work, policies, and rules. Disruptions to academic activities are in violation of University policies and Rules, and such violations will necessarily generate consequences.”

It did not disclose the names of the students who were disciplined.

Columbia in May said it would lay off nearly 180 staffers and scale back research in response to the loss of funding. Those receiving nonrenewal or termination notices represent about 20% of the employees funded in some manner by the terminated federal grants, the university said.

A student activist group said the newly announced disciplinary action exceeds sentencing precedent for prior protests. Suspended students would be required to submit apologies in order to be allowed back on campus or face expulsion, the group said, something some students will refuse to do.

“We will not be deterred. We are committed to the struggle for Palestinian liberation,” Columbia University Apartheid Divest said in a statement.

Columbia was at the forefront of U.S. campus protests over the war in spring 2024. Pro-Palestinian demonstrators set up an encampment and seized a campus building in April, leading to dozens of arrests and inspiring a wave of similar protests nationally.

Since returning to the White House in January, Trump has cut funding to several top U.S. universities he viewed as too tolerant of antisemitism.

The administration has also cracked down on individual student protesters. Columbia University graduate student Mahmoud Khalil, a legal U.S. resident with no criminal record, was detained in March over his participation in pro-Palestinian demonstrations. He is now suing the Trump administration, alleging he was falsely imprisoned, maliciously prosecuted and smeared as an antisemite.

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More than 400 students got the opportunity to board a “floating classroom” at Lake Erie Metropark in May as part of an outdoor field-trip experience known as the “Canoemobile.”

 

The program aims to educate kids about the outdoors, local habitats, wildlife, invasive species and more while they navigate waterways on 24-foot-long canoes. 

 

Wilderness Inquiry is a Minnesota-based company that brings the program to schools around the country. The Canoemobile spent five days in the metro Detroit Area, with students from six different schools participating.

 

At the start of the field trip, half of the students put on life jackets, grab paddles and board canoes. The other half make their way to the grass to sit, run and play as they learn more about what they may see — both in and out of the water.

 

When they’re on the water, the kids paddle as a team, navigating the river with the help of a “captain.”

 

Scout Trom, a captain with Wilderness Inquiry, says learning on the water provides more opportunities for students to get curious. 

 

“They’re asking questions about the things we’re seeing, the animals we see, the birds we see, ‘what’s a marsh? What’s different than Lake Erie versus the marsh we’re in?’ And we get to talk about all of that while we’re seeing it,” Trom said. 

“It provides a space for people to feel included in the outdoors and provides the knowledge and the message that everyone belongs, deserves and should have a space in the outdoors — no matter your age, ability, background or identity.”

 

– Scout Trom, Wilderness Inquiry captain

 

She says she hopes the field trip leaves the students with more than just random facts. The goal of the program is to give the kids lasting knowledge of how nature works and how humans can interact with it, she said.

 

“It provides a space for people to feel included in the outdoors and provides the knowledge and the message that everyone belongs, deserves and should have a space in the outdoors — no matter your age, ability, background or identity,” Trom said. 

 

Friends of the Detroit River was the local partner for the project. McKenzi Waliczek, the group’s stewardship director, emphasized the importance of making early connections with nature. 

 

“Oftentimes, just making that connection of, ‘hey, this resource is here, and it needs someone like you to care about it,’ is ultimately the ground floor of what we do and everything else just builds off of that,” Waliczek said.

But getting kids to connect with nature isn’t always easy, Trom said. A lot of the students haven’t been to public parks and most of them have never been on the water.

 

She says some kids hesitate before they board the canoes, while others jump right in.

 

“To see that mix of emotions come out and so very common, a group comes back, and you see everyone with a unified feeling, that in itself, is enough to bring me back to this program, year after year,” she said. 

 

After the kids dock the canoes, they get an opportunity to explore and learn on land.  Three activity stations were set up to teach the kids about local animals, invasive species and habitats. 

 

“We kind of laugh because with the Animal Planet, you know, kids know more about South American animals than they do about what’s in their own backyard,” said Kevin Arnold, a supervisor for Huron-Clinton MetroParks — another partner of Canoemobile.

 

After spending the day outside, the kids packed their bags, boarded buses and headed back to school. 

 

The Canoemobile will be back in metro Detroit for another five days in September, but this time they’ll be on Belle Isle.

 

Willy Tully, external relations director for Wilderness Inquiry, says this is the second time the program visited the area twice in one year, but it’s the first time the program will stay for a total of 10 days. 

 

He also says that the program has been able to visit more often because of funding from the U.S. Forest Service. But they continue to raise money through local organizations to make sure they can keep coming back and to keep kids connected with nature.

 

Visit wildernessinquiry.org to learn more about the program.

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Michigan’s schools have struggled post-pandemic, with students lagging behind in reading and math skills compared to other states.

A coalition of progressive education organizations is seeking to allocate more funding for education in Michigan through the “Invest in MI Kids” ballot initiative. 

The proposal would add a 4-5% tax on single filers who earn over $500,000, or joint filers who earn over $1 million. The group says that would generate about $1.7 billion for Michigan’s School Aid Fund.

Charlie Cavell, Oakland County Commissioner for District 19 and a coordinator for the “Fund MI Future” campaign, joined The Metro on Thursday to share more about this ambitious proposal in its beginning stages.

Use the media player above to hear the full conversation.

Listen to The Metro weekdays from 10 a.m. to noon ET on 101.9 FM and streaming on-demand.

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By COLLIN BINKLEY, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — House Republicans are urging seven U.S. universities to cut ties with a Chinese scholarship program that lawmakers call a “nefarious mechanism” to steal technology for the Chinese government.

In letters to Dartmouth College, the University of Notre Dame and five other universities, leaders of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party raise concerns about the schools’ partnerships with the China Scholarship Council, a study abroad program funded by China.

The program sponsors hundreds of Chinese graduate students every year at U.S. universities. After graduating, they’re required to return to China for two years. In the letters sent Tuesday, Republicans described it as a threat to national security.

“CSC purports to be a joint scholarship program between U.S. and Chinese institutions; however, in reality it is a CCP-managed technology transfer effort that exploits U.S. institutions and directly supports China’s military and scientific growth,” wrote Republican Rep. John Moolenaar, chair of the committee.

The Chinese Embassy didn’t immediately respond to a request by The Associated Press for comment.

Dartmouth said Wednesday it has had fewer than 10 participants in the program over the last decade and already had decided to end its participation. Notre Dame said it began the process of terminating its association with the program earlier this year. University of Tennessee said it had also received the letter and was reviewing the committee’s request.

Letters were also sent also to Temple University and the University of California campuses in Davis, Irvine and Riverside. The committee said it’s opening a review into the program’s “infiltration” of U.S. universities and demanded records related to the program from all seven institutions.

The universities’ partnerships with the council bring up to 15 graduate students a year to Dartmouth, along with up to 60 at Temple and 40 at Notre Dame, according to the letters. Some schools split the cost of attendance with China. Dartmouth, for instance, covers 50% of tuition and provides a stipend to doctoral students.

Among other records, lawmakers are demanding documents showing whether scholarship recipients worked on research funded by the U.S. government.

President Donald Trump and House Republicans have stepped up scrutiny of Chinese students coming to the U.S. In May, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the United States would revoke visas from some Chinese students studying in “critical fields.” During his first term, Trump restricted visas for students affiliated with China’s “military-civil fusion strategy.”

Many U.S. universities acknowledge a need to improve research security but caution against treating Chinese scholars with hostility and suspicion, saying only small numbers have been involved in espionage.

China is the second-largest country of origin for foreign students in the U.S., behind only India. In the 2023-24 academic year, more than 270,000 international students were from China, making up roughly a quarter of all foreign students in the United States. For a majority of them, their college tuition is paid by their families, rather than by the Chinese government. Many stay to work in the U.S., while some return to China after graduation.

Moolenaar has made it a priority to end partnerships between U.S. universities and China. In May, he pressed Duke University to cut its ties with a Chinese university, saying it allowed Chinese students to gain access to federally funded research at Duke. Under pressure from the committee, Eastern Michigan University ended a partnership with two Chinese universities in June.

Last year, House Republicans issued a report finding that hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding had gone toward research that ultimately boosted Chinese advancements in artificial intelligence, semiconductor technology and nuclear weapons. The report argued China’s academic collaborations served as a “Trojan horses for technology transfer,” accusing China of “insidious” exploitation of academic cooperation.

Associated Press writer Cheyanne Mumphrey in Phoenix contributed to this report.

The Associated Press’ education coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.