With the U.S. Supreme Court expected to announce its ruling any day now on the legality of President Joe Biden’s student loan forgiveness plan, debates around who should pay for the country’s crippling level of student debt—amounting to more than $1.7 trillion—continue to flood the national discourse. 

What’s less discussed, however, is how we got here in the first place, and what must change to avoid imposing immense financial hardship on yet another generation, write education innovators Michael B. Horn and Scott Pulsipher in this essay.

Photo: Patrick Wall

Dire warnings of teacher shortages are nothing new, especially during the pandemic. But a confluence of warning signs suggest that the country is at a post-pandemic inflection point.

More teachers are leaving the classroom. Teachers who remain appear demoralized and stressed. Meanwhile, fewer young people want to join the profession. These challenges could get better as the pandemic recedes and policymakers respond, or they could shape a generation of teachers and their students. 

Duke University announced last week that it would offer full tuition grants starting this fall to students from North and South Carolina whose family income is less than $150,000.

The new financial aid policy is notable not just for its high income cap and geographic specificity, but also for its timing. It comes in the midst of a weeks-long period of collective anticipation regarding the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in two cases that will determine the fate of affirmative action.