"Educating the Top 100 Percent" assesses the decline of higher education funding and offers ambitious policy recommendations to restore the possibility of accessible, affordable education for all. Stephen G. Katsinas, Nathaniel J. Bray, and Martha J. Kanter probe the complex interplay of federal, state, and local policies and illustrate…

Americans now obtain college degrees at a higher rate than at any time in recent decades in the hopes of improving their career prospects. At the same time, the rising costs of an undergraduate education have increased dramatically, forcing students and families to take out often unmanageable levels of student debt. The cumulative amount of…

This book analyzes reliable evidence to tell the true story of student debt in America. One of the nation's foremost experts on college finance, Sandy Baum exposes how misleading the widely accepted narrative on student debt is. Baum combines data, research, and analysis to show how the current discourse obscures serious problems, risks…

American higher education faces some serious problems--but they are not the ones most people think. In this brief and accessible book, two leading experts show that many so-called crises--from the idea that typical students are drowning in debt to the belief that tuition increases are being driven by administrative bloat--are exaggerated or simply…

President Lincoln signed the Morrill Land-grant Act in 1862, launching a nationwide project in public higher education that would build democracy, prosperity, and competitiveness to levels undreamed of 150 years ago. As student costs skyrocket, driven by steep drops in public funding, the viability of that project, like the nation itself, is under…

Much of what is written about colleges and universities ties rapidly rising tuition to dysfunctional behavior in the academy. Common targets of dysfunction include prestige games among universities, gold plated amenities, and bloated administration. This book offers a different view. To explain rising college cost, the authors place the higher…

This book is intended as an overview of the financial management challenges facing colleges and universities. Among the problems identified as affecting institutions are: the demographic decline in the number of 18-year-olds; the belief that tuition costs have become prohibitive for an increasing number of families; reductions in federal subsidies…

This book examines issues in the provision of student financial aid within the context of continuing changes in governmental student aid policies and private sector decisions resulting in larger and larger shares of the cost of higher education being borne by individuals and their families. The two chapters of Part 1 first review the role student…

This book maintains that federal subsidies to higher education have allowed American colleges and universities to overstaff, overspend, and overbuild, creating an economic, academic, and moral crisis in higher education. The book argues that, although American colleges and universities are the envy of the world, government funding has subsidized…

This book provides information to prospective graduate students on how to acquire financial assistance for their graduate programs by explaining (1) what the difference is between undergraduate and graduate aid; (2) aid eligibility; (3) where to go for funding and how much is available; (4) how to be "marketable" to targeted funding sources; (5)…

This book analyzes the financing of U.S. higher education. Chapter 1, "Introduction," discusses education's response to the labor market, causes of the financing crisis and constraints, and justifying change. Chapter 2, "How We Pay for College," examines components of the financing system; determining expected family…

This monograph investigates and discusses the various approaches of innovative financing initiatives in higher education which have developed over the last few years. The 16 chapters and authors are as follows: "Stresses in the Student Financial Aid System" (Martin Kramer); "Evolution and Prospects of Financing Alternatives for…

This report attempts to define the nature and dimensions of the "college affordability crisis." It covers trends in college costs, student ability to pay, and some of the ways in which affordability problems are being addressed. The report finds that while annual growth in college costs has slowed, cost continues to exceed growth in…