The GSV Big 10: Nine Terrifying Words

The Manhattan Project, the Role of Soul, Yale being Schooled...

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Visual Capitalist

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The Big 10:

1. I’m Watching the Sacrifice of College’s Soul | NYT

   Longtime New York Times editorialist and current Duke professor Frank Bruni’s analysis of the state of play in higher education: grade inflation and AI are two forces that are destroying the value of universities, but Bruni also swipes at the Trump Administration for its lack of support. Liberal Arts is a pre-profession degree before you know what your profession is. While I don’t think Bruni is wrong with his critique of some of the issues, I’m not sure the answer is to go back to the good old days, even if you could.

2. Publisher McGraw Hill targets $4.2 billion valuation in US IPO | Reuters

   When the ducks quack, you feed them. And the public market “ducks” are hungry for IPOs after shunning new issues for much of the past three years. Not a high-flying tech IPO like Circle and CoreWeave, McGraw Hill has been around since 1888, albeit private under the ownership of Apollo and then Platinum since 2013. Acquisitions such as ALEKS and Engrade give it some AI and digital learning chops, so here is to a successful re-introduction to the public market by one of the granddaddies of education.

3. It’s The Workforce, Stupid | Forza…For Education

   Over 90% of college students say the purpose of college is to get themselves a good job, but less than 15% of college staff think that’s the primary objective. The Sheriff in DC has been a catalyst for rethinking numerous previous modi operandi, and education has definitely been part of this wave. Seamlessly integrating learning with earning is a response to the market, and with 170 million new AI jobs being created versus the 92 million it will eliminate, being AI-first is the numero uno lesson.

4. The Manhattan Statement on Higher Education | Manhattan Institute

   It’s not a news flash that the pendulum has started to swing back to the median, and the conservative Manhattan Institute lays out the consensus complaints about the state of higher education. Lightning rods for controversy such as Chris Ruffo, Victor Davis Hanson, and Ben Shapiro signed the document, as did less pigeonholed conservatives such as Niall Ferguson and Jordan Peterson. One thing is for sure, people are paying attention, and it’s not going to be business as usual.

5. ☀️EP. 16 · Empowering TX Parents: Colleen Dippel & Kelby Woodard | Edreform in 10

   The genie is out of the bottle: Texas’s ESA program, signed into law in May 2025, is the largest of its kind in U.S. history, with $1 billion and 100,000 students eligible. Still, $10,000 per student only reaches 1.7% of Texas’s six million school-aged children—a drop in the bucket. The average spend per student in Texas is $17,000, so this is just a start. Don’t let perfect be the enemy of good—progress, however small, still matters.

6. The Federal Government is Retreating from Student Lending | WSJ

   Over the past 25 years, total student debt has gone from $187 billion to $1.8 trillion. During that time, tuition has gone up 3X, or more than double inflation. Not surprisingly, the percentage of college graduates who think it was worth it has fallen in half to 43%, and if you have debt, 21%. My view from the caboose isn’t too concerned about the Federal Government getting out of the student lending game. As Ronald Reagan said, the nine most terrifying words in the human language are, “I’m from the Government and I’m here to help.”

7. How California pensioners pulled one over on Yale’s investors | Semafor

   Yale’s late, great CIO David Swensen was legendary for creating the endowment model, which relied heavily on a diversified portfolio of illiquid assets—mainly venture capital and private equity funds. For reasons not clearly stated in the article, Yale decided to liquidate some of its funds below 90 cents on the dollar. This was before the Trump Administration started putting the hammer down on elite schools’ endowments. Besides selling below book value, the IPO of Circle gave CALPERS a $100 million immediate boost. Look for more “fire sales” as universities are struggling for cash.

8. In the age of AI, our kid’s writing skills are more important than ever | The Sydney Morning Herald

   Writing skills are more important than ever, yet students’ writing has never been worse. Writing helpers, from Grammarly to the LLMs such as Claude and OpenAI, allow you to partially outsource your brain to communicate with others. While that is a way to complete an assignment, being able to write on your own is at the core of how to be an effective human being. The 7 C’s are the foundation of learning (communication, critical thinking, creativity, collaboration, civics, cultural fluency, and character).

9. University’s operating deficit exceeds $200 million | Daily Trojan

   USC has one of the best brands globally in all of higher education, with one of the wealthiest alumni bases, yet the Trojans are facing significant financial headwinds. International student reluctance and possibly losing $300 million of federal research funding have resulted in hunkering down, laying off staff, and exploring selling assets. What critics have called the “University of Spoiled Children” has an upward challenge on its hands and will need to dig deep to “Fight On.”

10. The STEM Education Bubble Has Burst | The STEM Education Bubble Has Burst

    Conventional wisdom for 20 years has been that every student should go all in on STEM and learn to code. Technology is now replacing the technologist, and the oversupply of computer scientists has resulted in more than double the unemployment of Art History majors. Our view: STEM skills are important, just as reading, writing, and arithmetic are, but not sufficient. The world is always changing and is very adept at going from a demand imbalance to a glut.

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