This paper examines how financial aid reform based on postsecondary institutional performance impacts student choice. Federal and state regulations often reflect concerns about the private, for-profit sector's poor employment outcomes and high loan defaults, despite the sector's possible theoretical advantages. We use student-level data to examine…

Do tuition vouchers and cash subsidies promote educational or labor force outcomes for "non-traditional" students? I use a regression discontinuity design to estimate the impacts of a state aid program with an unobserved eligibility cutoff. Eligibility has no impact on degree completion for students with a preference for community…

California needs 2.3 million more people with postsecondary credentials by 2025, but that goal cannot be achieved at current college completion rates. Overall, only 32 percent of California college students complete credentials on time. Low-income students are much less likely than higher income students to enroll in or complete college, and these…

For-profit, or proprietary, colleges are the fastest-growing postsecondary schools in the nation, enrolling a disproportionately high share of disadvantaged and minority students and those ill-prepared for college. Because these schools, many of them big national chains, derive most of their revenue from taxpayer-funded student financial aid, they…

In the first decade of the 21st century, the nation, the states, and colleges and universities began to grapple with the challenges of globalization, changing demography, the implications of the digital era, and of a less expansive public sector. Although not a transformative period for higher education, the decade saw significant innovations in…

A study is reported that sought to determine the extent of utilization of federal student aid programs at proprietary schools, to assess the role of federal support for needy students enrolled at proprietary schools, and to evaluate the relationship of financial aid to the recruitment and training of students. (JMD)

The General Accounting Office (GAO) examined the extent to which the financial aid provided under Title IV of the Higher Education Act to students enrolled in proprietary schools is being spent to train individuals for demand occupations. Job opening projections in 12 states were used to estimate job demand, the National Center for Education…

The National Association of State Scholarship and Grant Programs/National Council of Higher Education Loan Programs conference on student aid is reported. Following the conference agenda and lists of registrants and conference speakers, the following papers are presented: (1) "Reinterpretation of Hansen's Census Data" (John B. Lee); (2)…