Baker Mitchell is a politically connected North Carolina businessman who celebrates the power of the free market. Every year, millions of public education dollars flow through Mitchell’s chain of four nonprofit charter schools to for-profit companies he controls. Read more»

New Department of Education data shows rising default rates on federal loans to parents. Read more»

You know all those seemingly great sales during the holidays? It turns out, they are often a “carefully engineered illusion.” Higher education may seem like a different world, but universities in many ways have been working from the same playbook. Savvier college-bound consumers know that the so-called “sticker price” of tuition and fees at a given college or university isn’t what many – or even most – students pay. Read more»

From jaw-dropping pay and perks at universities to a $1-billion plan to purchase iPads, here are some of 2013’s best accountability stories in education. Read more»

Public colleges and universities were generally founded and funded to give students in their states access to an affordable college education. They have long served as a vital pathway for students from modest means and those who are the first in their families to attend college. But many public universities, faced with their own financial shortfalls, are increasingly leaving low-income students behind. Read more»

We've taken a step back and tried to answer some basic questions about the aid, including how much the U.S. is giving Egypt, what's changed in the years since the Arab Spring and what all the money buys. Read more»

The recent military coup in Egypt has prompted a renewed debate about American aid to the country. Sens. John McCain, an Arizona Republican, and Carl Levin, a Michigan Democrat, have both called for cutting off aid, while the White House has said it’s in no hurry to end the aid. Read more»

As college-bound students weigh their options, they often look to the various statistics that universities trumpet — things like the high number of applications, high test scores, and low acceptance rate. But students may want to consider yet another piece of info: the ways in which schools can pump up their stats. Read more»

Student fees have been something of a known irritant for years, often criticized as a kind of stealth, second tuition imposed on unsuspecting families. But such fees are still on the rise on many campuses. And though their names can border on the comical — i.e., the "student success fee" — there's nothing funny about how they can add up. Read more» 1

When it comes to both mortgages and student debt, the servicers, or companies that handle loan payments, sometimes add roadblocks and give struggling borrowers the runaround. Read more»

Francisco Reynoso is suffering a Kafkaesque ordeal in which he's hounded to repay loans that funded an education his dead son will never get to use — loans that he has little hope of ever paying off. Read more» 2

A little-known legal provision forces the federal government to award contracts to qualifying nonprofit student loan servicers. The shuffle has caused problems for some borrowers. Read more»

While the White House has emphasized easing the burden for student borrowers, some contractors with the Department of Education appear to be exacerbating it. Read more»

It’s no secret that Republicans don’t like the idea of President Obama exercising his power to make recess appointments. As we noted earlier this year, they’ve repeatedly used a procedural move to block the president from making this sort of temporary appointment, even though it’s a presidential power laid out in the Constitution. Read more»

When the Securities and Exchange Commission struck a deal with Citigroup over a failed security that the bank sold to investors, we asked whether regulators had handed Citigroup too sweet a deal. Read more»