In the 2013 Tomás Rivera lecture, Francisco Cigarroa, chancellor of the University of Texas system, discusses how a major shift in the demographics of the United States is having a profound effect on K-12 and higher education.

Researchers from the Georgetown University Center on Education and Workforce, Anthony Carnevale and Nicole Smith, examine the challenges working students face and the impacts of these challenges on completion and debt. Working and paying tuition and fees "as you go" is no longer an option for the majority of America's college students;…

Within more recent years, there has been a gravitation of non-traditional adult learners to higher education. Despite the motivational factors associated with this decision, it is evident that compared to the traditional learner, the non-traditional learner journey in higher education is equipped with numerous barriers. Such barriers can hinder or…

When Americans talk about access to a college education, they tend to narrow the acceptable boundaries of the conversation. They ask why the cost of college has gotten so out of control compared to the costs of other goods and services, and they sometimes talk about the closely related subject of financial aid. But very rarely do Americans discuss…

This document contains a transcript of prepared remarks for Secretary of Education Arne Duncan to the House Education and Labor Committee. The Secretary discussed provisions for education in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and the State Fiscal Stabilization Fund to supplement state budgets. The Secretary also noted an expanded…

College savings plans, which operate in 20 states, work on a simple premise: parents or grandparents place a lump sum in a contract or make monthly payments that guarantees the money will be sufficient for an equivalent of tuition and fees in a set period of time in the future. The state can guarantee the return by virtue of pooled assets. States…

New federal spending on student aid is unlikely to improve college access. The increase in access in higher education in America largely came before massive federal involvement in student financial aid programs. Evidence suggests that federal subsidies for student aid may be counterproductive. Modest provision of financial assistance serves to…

This study analyzed the impact tuition savings plans are likely to have on household savings. State-sponsored college savings programs rely mainly on tax incentives to motivate parents to save for their children's education in earmarked accounts. The first such programs were prepaid tuition plans, and other types of qualified tuition savings…

In recent years, there has been a growing interest in college access and with it, a growing concern about the debt incurred by students. Analysts on all sides suggest a variety of causes and solutions to this very complex problem. This paper presents a collection of informational items that can be seen as both disparate and connected. We can see…

This study used an expected utility framework with a mean-lower partial moment specification for investor utility to determine the asset allocation and the allowable contribution limits for qualified state-sponsored tuition savings plans. Given the assumptions about state policymakers' perceptions of investor utility, the study determined the…

In order to examine the link between offering financial aid and a potential student's decision to attend a particular college, a case study of matriculation and financial aid offerings at a private, four-year liberal arts college in the northeast was undertaken. The study was prompted by a fourth straight year of significant decline in the…

Student success in college has never been more important. The economic advantage to baccalaureate degree holders remains substantial, with college graduates averaging a million dollars more in lifetime earnings than high school graduates. There is also the long list of non-pecuniary benefits of college--intellectual development and critical…

This document records responses by University of California President Richard C. Atkinson to questions posed by the California Citizens Commission on Higher Education regarding issues and challenges facing California's colleges and universities. Responses indicated that (1) state funding constraints make access to education the principal policy…

In the 1998 Amendments to the Higher Education Act, Congress directed the National Center for Education Statistics to conduct a new study of higher education costs paid by institutions and prices paid by students and their families. This report contains commissioned papers prepared in support of this study and a summary of a meeting convened to…

This paper examines changes in the distribution of family income over 30 years, estimating the effect of parental resources on college education, and noting the fact that families at the bottom of the income distribution were much poorer in the 1990s than the 1970s, while the opposite was true for families in the top quartile. Data came from three…