October 2025

Students need accurate, responsive, and timely support to identify and assess the overwhelming array of choices they face in their postsecondary journeys, ranging from comparing student loans and grants, to applying to programs and institutions, to ultimately navigating to and through college and achieving a high-quality first post-college job. Last week, America Forward submitted comments to the Senate Health, Education,

The federal Institute of Education Sciences (IES), housed under the U.S. Department of Education, has played a critical role in advancing high-quality education research and data for more than twenty years. Earlier this year, the Trump Administration laid off nearly all IES staff and canceled numerous research contracts. Subsequently, the Department of Education published a formal request for information on

This summer, Congress authorized Workforce Pell grants as part of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) signed into law on July 4, 2025. Following years of bipartisan efforts, the Workforce Pell provision addressed a long-standing gap in federal law. Prior to OBBBA’s passage, Pell Grants could only be used for programs lasting at least 15 weeks and students could