Markus Andrews

Vocational training and certificate programs could reap the benefits of a high-stakes battle between Harvard University and the White House.
President Donald Trump said on Monday he is considering taking grant money from Harvard and giving it to trade schools.
Interest in short-term credentials is on the rise, but, in most cases, the payoff does not compare to that of a four-year degree.

In the escalating standoff between Harvard University and the White House, trade schools could come out on top.
As part of a broader crackdown at the nation’s wealthiest and most elite Ivy League schools, President Donald Trump recently signaled that he would divert funds from Harvard to financially support vocational training.

“I am considering taking THREE BILLION DOLLARS of Grant Money away from a very antisemitic Harvard, and giving it to TRADE SCHOOLS all across our land,” Trump posted on Monday on Truth Social.
It’s unclear how the president’s plan might work, and there would be many obstacles associated with redirecting federal funding. But the president’s comments underscore a changing perspective around alternative career pathways.
In an interview on CNBC Wednesday, U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said, “the paradigm, looking at education, is shifting.”
“More adults, who are looking to upskill, are looking at different programs — two-year or short-term programs,” McMahon said on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.” “We believe there are other ways to train people to make a good living for their families in this country, and maybe not go into the debt of four-year universities.”
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The rising cost of college and ballooning student loan balances have played a large role in changing views about the higher education system.
Overall, college enrollment is still climbing, but largely driven by gains at community colleges as more students choose shorter-term credentials at a lower cost.
Undergraduate enrollment increased across the major institutional sectors this spring. However, community colleges notched the largest uptick, rising 5% year over year, according to a recent report by the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center. Undergraduate certificate program enrollment also jumped from a year ago, and is now up 20% since 2020.
“This is great news for community colleges, and especially for those with strong vocational programs,” said Doug Shapiro, the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center’s executive director. “Four-year colleges can also feel good about higher numbers of undergraduates this spring, but their growth rates are slower.”

Is college still worth it?

Increasingly, high school students are questioning whether a four-year degree is worth it.
Roughly 42% of high school students say they are pivoting to technical and career training or credentialing, or are planning to enroll in a local and less-expensive community college or in-state public school, according to a separate survey of 1,000 seniors, juniors and sophomores by the College Savings Foundation. That’s up from 37% last year. 
A shortage of skilled tradespeople, due to experienced workers aging out of the field, is also boosting the number of job opportunities and pay in those roles.  
“Career programs at community colleges provide students with accessible, affordable and accredited credentials and certificates that lead to jobs in their local communities and in the global economy,” said Walter Bumphus, president and CEO of the American Association of Community Colleges. 
“In President Trump’s first term we were able to partner with the U.S. Department of Labor to increase the number of apprenticeship programs and services across the nation, garnering 22,000 registered apprentices across 633 occupations, illustrating what is possible when we harness the power of partnering with the nation’s community colleges,” Bumphus said in an email.

However, as lower-income students increasingly choose to attend community colleges or career training programs, there may be consequences for their longer-term financial standing, other reports show.
Attending college once provided a similar wage premium for students regardless of their parents’ financial standing, but that’s changed in recent years, according to a working paper by the National Bureau of Economic Research. 
As “lower-income students have been disproportionately diverted into community and for-profit colleges,” their return on investment has suffered, the report found: “Higher-income students now derive greater average observational value from going to college than the lower-income students.”
In other words, despite efforts to improve college access, wealthier students, who are more likely to enroll in four-year schools, get a bigger payoff.

What is an Ivy League degree worth?

Meanwhile, getting an Ivy League degree has a “statistically insignificant impact” on future earnings, according to a 2023 report by Harvard University-based nonpartisan, nonprofit research group Opportunity Insights based on admissions data from several private and public colleges.
Even attending a college in the “Ivy-plus” category — which typically includes other top schools like Stanford University, Duke University, the University of Chicago and Massachusetts Institute of Technology — rather than a highly selective public institution, has benefits, the report found. It nearly doubles the chances of going on to an elite graduate school and triples the chances of working at a prestigious firm.
Further, it increases students’ chances of ultimately reaching the top 1% of the earnings distribution by 60%, the Opportunity Insights report found. 
“Highly selective private colleges serve as gateways to the upper echelons of society,” the group of Harvard and Brown University-based economists who authored the report said. “Because these colleges currently admit students from high-income families at substantially higher rates than students from lower-income families with comparable academic credentials, they perpetuate privilege.”
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For 2025, the Section 199A deduction for qualified business income, or QBI, is worth up to 20% of eligible revenue, with some limitations.
This applies to so-called pass-through businesses, including sole proprietors, partnerships and S-corporations, along with some trusts and estates.
The House Republican bill would make the deduction permanent, raise the maximum tax break to 23% and make changes to the phase-outs.

Nitat Termmee | Moment | Getty Images

How to tell if you have qualified business income

The QBI deduction applies to so-called pass-through businesses, which report profits or losses on individual tax returns.
This includes partnerships and S-corporations, along with some trusts and estates. Sole proprietors, such as freelance, contract and gig economy workers, also qualify.
For 2025, the tax break starts to phaseout when taxable income reaches $197,300 for single filers and $394,600 for married taxpayers filing jointly. The deduction can be reduced or eliminated completely, depending on your earnings and type of business (more on that below).

For tax year 2022, the most recent data available, there were roughly 25.6 million QBI deduction claims, up from 18.7 million in 2018, the first year of the tax break, according to IRS data. 

However, the deduction has been controversial because “most of the benefits flow to taxpayers with a lot of income,” said Erica York, vice president of federal tax policy with the Tax Foundation’s Center for Federal Tax Policy.
“These are not taxpayers who work a W-2 job and earn a salary,” she said. “They’re business owners who receive business profits on their individual tax returns.”

How the QBI deduction could change

Currently, certain white-collar professionals — doctors, lawyers, accountants, financial advisors and others — known as a “specified service trade or business,” or SSTB, can’t claim the QBI deduction once income exceeds certain limits.
There’s also an income phaseout for non-SSTB businesses, but that doesn’t go to zero.  
The House bill would change the phaseout calculation, which could provide a bigger tax break for certain SSTB owners, said certified financial planner and enrolled agent Ben Henry-Moreland, senior financial planning nerd for advisor platform Kitces.com, who analyzed the bill last week.

If enacted, the higher 23% deduction could offer “some [tax] benefit” for all income levels, but the phaseout changes would primarily benefit higher-income SSTB owners, he said.
The House proposed QBI deduction changes would be “more generous and more valuable to higher-income people, especially those in certain industries including lawyers and lobbyists,” Chye-Ching Huang, executive director of the Tax Law Center at New York University Law, wrote in early May. More

The Trump administration on Wednesday rescinded Biden-era guidance urging employers to be cautious before adding cryptocurrency and related digital assets like bitcoin, NFTs and meme coins to 401(k) plans.
President Trump’s paper wealth has soared after launching a $TRUMP meme coin.

President Donald Trump departs the White House on May 22, 2025. Trump is traveling to his Trump National Golf Club in Virginia where he is holding a dinner for the top investors in his $TRUMP cryptocurrency.
Kevin Dietsch | Getty Images News | Getty Images

The Trump administration on Wednesday relaxed barriers in 401(k) plans to buying cryptocurrency and related digital assets like NFTs and meme coins.
The Labor Department rescinded guidance put in place by the Biden-era Labor Department in 2022 that aimed to safeguard 401(k) investors from such digital assets.

At the time, the Biden labor officials cautioned employers to exercise “extreme care” before making crypto and related investments available to their workers. They cited “serious concerns” about the prudence of exposing investors’ retirement savings to crypto given “significant risks of fraud, theft, and loss.”
The Trump Labor Department has withdrawn that guidance in full.

‘Neither endorsing, nor disapproving of’ crypto

The agency said the standard of “extreme care” cited by the Biden administration is not found in the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, or ERISA.
“Prior to the 2022 release, the Department had usually articulated a neutral approach to particular investment types and strategies,” the Trump Labor Department said in a compliance assistance bulletin issued Wednesday.
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The department said that it is “neither endorsing, nor disapproving of” employers who decide that adding crypto to a 401(k) investment list is appropriate.
The Labor Department’s reasoning extends to cryptocurrencies and “a wide range” of digital assets like “tokens, coins, crypto assets, and any derivatives thereof,” it said.
Knut Rostad, president of the Institute for the Fiduciary Standard, an advocacy group, called the Trump administration’s move a “big mistake.”
“As a huge general rule, crypto doesn’t belong in a 401(k), period, end of sentence,” he said.
Rescinding the guidance “sends the wrong message by eliminating a yellow caution light and putting in place a green light” for employers and 401(k) investors to use crypto, Rostad said.
The move comes at a time when President Trump has launched a $TRUMP meme coin that’s added billions of dollars in paper wealth to his net worth and led Democratic senators to call for an ethics probe.
President Trump has pledged to make the U.S. the “crypto capital of the world.”

What the shift means for 401(k) investors

Some observers will likely view the Labor Department move as an olive branch to the pro-crypto crowd, signaling to employers that they can add digital assets to their 401(k) lineups at will and without consequence, said Philip Chao, a certified financial planner and retirement plan investment consultant.
“That may be the intended message,” said Chao, the founder of Experiential Wealth in Cabin John, Maryland. But he added, “I think it’s the wrong message.”

ERISA bestows a fiduciary duty on employers and company officials overseeing their 401(k) investments. At a high level, that legal responsibility means employers must put the best interests of 401(k) investors first and act prudently when choosing which investments to offer (or not offer).
That duty still exists — meaning it’s not a given employers will rush to offer crypto. Doing so might risk being sued by 401(k) investors in the future if their crypto investment goes belly up, Chao said.
In this sense, the Labor Department’s move is “not necessarily controversial,” he said.
“In reality, it’s saying we should treat crypto like any other asset,” Chao said.
There was some pushback against the Biden-era guidance among retirement plan advisors at the time it was issued because it seemed to single out a specific asset class. However, he understands the rationale.
“Crypto is such a new thing and there’s no regulation or protection, even a reasonable understanding of it,” Chao said. “And there still isn’t enough.”

Stephen Hall, legal director and securities specialist at Better Markets, an advocacy group for financial reform, believes the Biden-era guidance likely saved millions of investors from “grievous losses” when crypto prices plunged during the “Crypto Winter” of late 2022.
“During that time, the collapse of Do Kwon’s scam stablecoin project Terra Luna, and the bankruptcies of FTX, Celsius, Voyager Digital and BlockFi created a domino effect, sending crypto prices crashing and resulting in billions of dollars of customer funds frozen as courts sorted through the wreckage,” Hall said in an e-mailed statement. More

As the battle between Harvard University and the Trump administration escalates, the White House moved to stop scheduling interviews for student visa applicants.
College experts advise international applicants not to panic.
“You may have an advantage in the eye of the storm,” says Jamie Beaton, co-founder and CEO of Crimson Education, a college consulting firm. 

Jamie Beaton has built a career helping students from around the world gain admission to Harvard University and other top-tier institutions.
Now, days after the Trump administration banned Harvard from enrolling international students and stopped scheduling appointments for student visas, Beaton, co-founder and CEO of Crimson Education, a college consulting firm, is advising his clients to “ignore the chaos.” 

Getting into an Ivy League school like Harvard is a yearslong process, Beaton said. For recently admitted applicants, current students and this year’s graduating class, he says, “remain steadfast in that goal.”
And for Harvard hopefuls, particularly from abroad, there could be a benefit to applying in the upcoming cycle even amid the ongoing political strife. “You may have an advantage in the eye of the storm,” Beaton said, as some applicants turn their attention to other schools.
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Over time, Harvard has become the gold standard of the Ivy League. As of last year, Harvard’s acceptance rate was just under 4%, down from more than 10% two decades ago. Roughly 18% of the Class of 2028 is from abroad.
“I think Harvard’s brand on the world stage is so strong and so viral, it would take a long time to lose some of that trust and excitement,” Beaton said. “The brand can take a lot of big hits.”

Of course, students are justifiably nervous as the federal government continues to fire blows at one of the nation’s oldest and most venerable institutions of higher education.
“It’s been a roller-coaster ride since last Thursday,” said Fangzhou Jiang, a student at Harvard’s Kennedy School and co-founder of Crimson Education. 

A glimpse into the Harvard University campus on May 24, 2025 in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Vcg | Visual China Group | Getty Images

Harvard, Trump battle over international enrollment

On Tuesday, the Trump administration moved to stop scheduling new interviews for international students seeking visas to come to the U.S. and said it plans to expand social media vetting of foreign students, effectively disrupting international enrollment. Politico first reported the stop to new student visa interviews.
In the escalating standoff between the federal government and Harvard, the White House also attempted to terminate Harvard’s student and exchange visitor program certification and cancel all remaining federal government contracts with Harvard, which are worth a reported $100 million.
The latest moves come after Harvard refused to meet a set of demands issued by the Trump administration’s Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism.
“The whole instability or uncertainty is quite damaging,” said Jiang, who has a student visa and would consider transferring across the country to Stanford University, where he is pursuing a dual degree.

“It is a privilege, not a right, for universities to enroll foreign students and benefit from their higher tuition payments to help pad their multibillion-dollar endowments,” Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in a statement Thursday.
A federal judge in Massachusetts on Friday temporarily halted the Trump administration’s ban on international students, following a petition from Harvard. A hearing is set for Thursday, May 29, to determine whether the temporary order should be extended.
“This is a critical step to protect the rights and opportunities of our international students and scholars, who are vital to the University’s mission and community,” Harvard’s president, Alan Garber, said in a statement. On its website, the Harvard International Office says, “Harvard is committed to maintaining our ability to host our international students and scholars.”
Beaton predicts that by the time college applications are due this fall, the university and the federal government “will come to a compromise.”

Why international enrollment is so important

“International students make up such a vital part of the undergraduate student population,” said Robert Franek, The Princeton Review’s editor-in-chief.  
Further, foreign students typically pay full tuition, which makes international enrollment an important source of revenue for Harvard and many colleges and universities in the U.S., according to Franek. 
Altogether, international student enrollment contributed $43.8 billion to the U.S. economy in 2023-24, according to a report by NAFSA: Association of International Educators.
During that academic year, the U.S. hosted a record number of students from abroad, marking a 7% increase from 2022-23, according to the latest Open Doors data, released by the U.S. Department of State and the Institute of International Education. 

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A federal judge has blocked the Trump administration’s plans to transfer the country’s $1.6 trillion student loan portfolio to the Small Business Administration.
For now, borrowers’ federal student loans will still be held by the Education Department.

People walk past the headquarters of the U.S. Small Business Administration in the Southwest Federal Center area on March 24, 2025 in Washington, DC. 
Chip Somodevilla | Getty Images

A federal judge’s recent order may foil President Donald Trump’s plans to transfer the country’s more than $1.6 trillion student loan portfolio from the U.S. Department of Education to the Small Business Administration.
Judge Myong J. Joun of U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts wrote in his May 22 preliminary injunction that the Trump administration was required to reinstate more than 1,300 Education Department employees and was blocked from carrying out Trump’s directive “to transfer management of federal student loans and special education functions out of the Department.”

In other words, federal student loans will stay with the Department of Education, for now.
Trump had announced on March 21 a plan to transfer more than 40 million student loan accounts to the SBA.
“They’re all set for it,” the president said of the SBA at the time. “They’re waiting for it.”
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Madi Biedermann, deputy assistant secretary for communications at the Education Department, slammed the judge’s decision.

“Once again, a far-left Judge has dramatically overstepped his authority, based on a complaint from biased plaintiffs, and issued an injunction against the obviously lawful efforts to make the Department of Education more efficient and functional for the American people,” Biedermann wrote in a statement to CNBC on Thursday.
The Trump administration requested the order be stayed pending an appeal of the decision.

Transfer would have ‘increased confusion’

The development that student loans will remain in the Education Dept. for now is good news for borrowers, said Sarah Sattelmeyer, a project director at New America and senior advisor under the Biden administration.
“Instead of increasing efficiency, the movement of the Department’s core functions would have increased confusion and decreased the effectiveness of programs that students depend on to access education,” Sattelmeyer said.
Consumer advocates are worried that a mass transfer of accounts between federal agencies could trigger errors, or compromise federal student loan borrowers’ privacy. Those problems have occurred during much smaller transfers between loan servicers.
Advocates also raise concerns about how a change in agency might affect borrower protections and programs such as Public Service Loan Forgiveness.
The Small Business Administration has no experience relevant to the management of federal student loans, said higher education expert Mark Kantrowitz.  

It would ultimately require an act of Congress to move the loan portfolio to the SBA, Kantrowitz said. The Higher Education Act of 1965 spells out that the Education Department’s Federal Student Aid office is responsible for the debt, he said.
Adding to advocates’ criticism over Trump’s proposed transfer was his administration’s announcement in March that the SBA’s workforce would be reduced by 43% — leaving fewer people to manage this new responsibility.

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Circle, the issuer of the popular USDC stablecoin, has launched its initial public offering, looking to raise about $624 million at a $5.65 billion valuation
The company plans to sell 24 million shares of Class A common stock at an expected price range of $24 to $26 apiece
Circle’s USD Coin (USDC) has roughly $62 billion in circulation, according to CryptoQuant, and its market cap has grown 40% this year.

Launched in 2018 by crypto firm Circle, USDC is now the second-biggest stablecoin globally, with more than $30 billion worth of tokens in circulation.
Nurphoto | Getty Images

Circle, the issuer of the popular USDC stablecoin, has begun its long-awaited initial public offering process, looking to raise about $624 million at a valuation around $6 billion.
The company, led by CEO Jeremy Allaire, said Thursday in a filing that it plans to sell 24 million shares of Class A common stock in total – 9.6 million to be sold by the company and another another 14.4 million by existing shareholders – at an expected price range of $24 to $26 apiece, valuing the company at around $5.65 billion. It would have a valuation of about $6.7 billion when including outstanding options and other stock, according to Reuters.

Cathie Wood’s ARK Investment Management has indicated interest in purchasing up to $150 million of the shares, per the filing. Circle also said it will grant the underwriters a 30-day option to purchase up to 3.6 million additional shares.
Shares will be listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker CRCL. Circle’s IPO prospectus was filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission at the beginning of April.
Circle’s USD Coin (USDC) has roughly $62 billion in circulation and makes up about 27% of the total market cap for stablecoins, behind Tether’s 67% dominance, according to CryptoQuant. Its market cap has grown 40% this year, however, compared with Tether’s 10% growth.
The stablecoin sector specifically has been ramping up as the industry gains confidence that the crypto market will get its first piece of U.S. legislation passed and implemented this year, focusing on stablecoins. Last week, the Senate voted to advance the first crypto legislation, which would create a regulatory framework for stablecoins. Trump has said he wants to see crypto regulation on his desk and ready to sign by August before Congress goes into recess.
Circle’s IPO could have investment implications for Coinbase, a cofounder of USDC and major distribution vehicle for the stablecoin. The crypto services company and exchange has a 50% revenue sharing agreement with Circle and also makes 100% of the interest earned by USDC products on the Coinbase platform. 

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong has said Coinbase has a “stretch goal” to make USDC the number 1 stablecoin in the world.
Historically, stablecoins have been used primarily for trading and as collateral in decentralized finance (DeFi), and crypto investors watch them closely for evidence of demand, liquidity and activity in the market. More recently, their ability to move dollars quickly and cheaply across borders has become more popular with banks and fintech companies.
Additionally, rhetoric around their ability to help preserve U.S. dollar dominance – by exporting dollar utility internationally and ensuring demand for U.S. government debt, which backs nearly all dollar-denominated stablecoins – has grown louder.
This story has been updated with further detail on Circle’s valuation.
—CNBC’s Nick Wells contributed reporting

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