- Home Depot’s Retool Your School grants
- WIOA combined state plans more than double
- FAFSA changes increase Pell eligibility
Home Depot’s Retool Your School grants
Home Depot is expanding its Retool Your Schools program to include a broader range of four- and two-year colleges. The program aims to empower institutions with limited endowments to enhance their campuses.
This year, the program will award more than $2.75 million across two categories:
- Ten $200,000 Campus Improvement Grants for large-scale, sustainable projects.
- Fourteen $75,000 Innovation Lounge Grants to create modern spaces for students to collaborate and study.
Institutions with student enrollment under 16,000 are eligible to apply. The application deadline is June 7.
WIOA combined state plans more than double
More than twice as many states in 2025 submitted Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) state plans that align education and workforce systems than the previous year, according to the Trump administration.
The departments of Education and Labor on Wednesday announced that 21 states last year filed combined WIOA plans compared to nine states in 2024. The agencies said it’s a result of the administration’s effort to streamline and align programs to help state workforce agencies and improve outcomes for workers and students. The departments cited their jointly issued guidance in April encouraging states to include and integrate career and technical education programs funded under the 2006 Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Act in their combined WIOA state plans.
“As a result, the number of combined plans nationwide has more than doubled, helping states streamline workforce planning, better align valuable credentials with in-demand jobs, reduce administrative burdens, and prepare for Workforce Pell Grant program implementation this summer,” the agencies said in a release.
FAFSA changes increase Pell eligibility
Student eligibility for Pell grants increased for school year 2024–25, after the Education Department simplified the student aid application and updated eligibility criteria, according to a new Government Accountability Office (GAO) report.
GAO found that 9.9 million students were eligible for a Pell Grant in 2024-25. That’s a 6% increase from the previous year, with 31% more students (about 1.9 million) eligible for the maximum award of $7,395 that year. Much of the increase in eligibility was among students with household incomes of $60,001 to $125,000.
The analysis also examined Pell Grant eligibility by household income and assets, number of other family members in college, and race and ethnicity.
