While a federal court has temporarily blocked government shutdown layoffs, education policy experts warn that key U.S. Department of Education programs remain at risk, potentially affecting funding and support for schools nationwide including Rhode Island.

Rhode Island College (RIC) will waive its $50 application fee on October 15, 2025, for the fourth annual Apply to RIC for Free Day. The waiver applies to all Rhode Island residents applying to undergraduate, graduate, or Bachelor of Professional Studies programs, including transfer students. Applicants should use code APPLYFREE25 when submitting applications except graduate students who do not need a code. RIC President Jack Warner notes the school welcomed 2,000+ new students this fall, the largest incoming class in 15 years.

The ACLU of Rhode Island sent a letter to Brown University President Christina Paxson urging her to "forcefully and publicly reject" a new Trump administration "compact" sent to nine universities that would impose conditions to receive federal funding. The compact would restrict university employees from speaking out on political issues, limit foreign student enrollment, and require the university to deny the existence of transgender students while claiming to promote a "marketplace of ideas" that prohibits anything that would "belittle" conservative ideas.

Brown University will eliminate 48 positions and leave 55 vacant jobs unfilled as part of efforts to trim spending by 2.5% and close a $30 million shortfall in fiscal year 2026 operations. The cuts, announced in a September 22 letter from President Christina Paxson and university leadership, come despite an August agreement with the federal government that restored NIH funding in exchange for ideological concessions including binary gender definitions in athletics and housing.

Rhode Island Commissioner of Elementary and Secondary Education Angelica Infante-Green outlines the state's strategy to address science achievement, where about two-thirds of students miss proficiency benchmarks. Rhode Island includes science assessment results in school accountability ratings and has strengthened graduation requirements to specify multiple required lab classes. The state has expanded career and technical education programs by 60 percent since 2019, now offering over 318 programs connecting to high-demand STEM fields.