Postgraduate education

A Ballotpedia analysis finds Colorado's 2024 ballot measures are the hardest to read in the nation, averaging a 33rd-grade reading level against a national average of 17th grade. Amendment 83, which would establish a constitutional right to hunt and fish, tops the list nationally at a 48th-grade reading level. In response, Amendment 85 asks voters whether future ballot questions should be capped at an eighth-grade reading level, following a model used in New York; state lawmakers separately passed a plain-language law this year. Critics, wary of the measure's backing by conservative group Advance Colorado, warn simplification could reduce transparency and invite legal challenges. Amendment 85 requires 55% approval to pass.

JD Mazuera Arias, who represents Charlotte City Council's District 5, is marking one year since becoming the first Latino elected to the body. Born in Colombia in 1998, he immigrated with his family to the U.S. as an infant, settling in east Charlotte in 2001. Undocumented for much of his childhood, he lived under DACA protections as a "Dreamer," graduated from East Mecklenburg High School and Queens University of Charlotte, and later earned a graduate degree in New York City before becoming a naturalized citizen in 2021.

After returning to east Charlotte, he ran for office citing long-standing neglect of the majority immigrant, Latino and Black working-class district, pointing to the decade-long vacancy left by Eastland Mall's demolition. Elected in November 2025 at age 28, he is also the first Gen-Z member of the council. Over his first year, he has backed creation of the city's first international relations office, aimed at expanding immigrant services and foreign investment, while saying he hopes future Latino leaders won't face the same "first" milestone.

U.S. Rep. Shomari Figures, D-Mobile, has introduced legislation to reverse federal student loan restrictions on graduate and professional students that were enacted under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, the tax and spending law President Trump signed on July 4, 2025.

That law capped graduate student borrowing at $20,500 annually and $100,000 in aggregate, and professional student borrowing at $50,000 annually and $200,000 in aggregate. It also eliminated the Grad PLUS loan program for new borrowers and set a $257,500 lifetime cap on combined undergraduate and graduate federal borrowing. Once students hit these limits, they must seek private financing, which often carries stricter credit requirements.

Figures' bill, the Restoring Opportunity for Advanced Education Act, would eliminate the lifetime borrowing cap, restore Grad PLUS loans, and return federal lending rules to their pre-2025 framework. Figures argues the current limits restrict graduate and professional education to those who can pay costs upfront, undermining broader access to advanced degrees.