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Saving State U: Why We Must Fix Public Higher Education

Date: February 24, 2010

Time: 6:00 PM

220 Fifth Avenue, 5th Floor
New York NY 10001

 

As today's young adults struggle to balance the rising costs of a postsecondary education with countless other financial obligations, many public universities are burdened with budget cuts, intensified admissions competition, and debt. These factors collectively drive up the cost of tuition and make a previously accessible college degree virtually unaffordable to many. The stakes of these new economic challenges are high; they make it more difficult for low- to moderate-income students to graduate, undermine the quality of education that students receive, and in the process, hamper the best path to upward mobility for the next generation of young adults.

Join Demos, the CUNY Campaign to Defend Education, the Professional Staff Congress/CUNY, and The New Press for the New York book launch of Saving State U: Why We Must Fix Public Higher Education by University of Massachusetts economist Nancy Folbre. Folbre will be joined by David Hoskins, a student organizer with the CUNY Campaign to Defend Education, and Steve London, Associate Professor of Political Science at Brooklyn College, to discuss the current state of public higher education and the key debates and challenges affecting public universities in America today. Nancy Cauthen, Director of the Economic Opportunity Program at Demos, will moderate.

 

About the Speakers:

Nancy Folbre is professor of economics at the University of Massachuetts, Amherst. She is the author and co-author of several books, including The Invisible Heart, The War on the Poor (with Randy Albelda), and Saving State U, which will be published this month by The New Press.

David Hoskins is a student organizer at The City College of New York. Hoskins works with the CUNY Campaign to Defend Education and is currently organizing for the March 4th National Day of Action to Defend Education. Prior to moving to New York, he worked as a union organizer in Washington, D.C.

Steve London is Associate Professor of Political Science at Brooklyn College, CUNY and First Vice President of the Professional Staff Congress, the union representing 22,000 faculty and staff at the City University of New York. London’s current research and writing focuses on state governments’ defunding of public higher education and the growth of the two-tier labor force.

Nancy K. Cauthen (Moderator) is Director of the Economic Opportunity Program at Demos. She brings nearly two decades of experience researching and analyzing public policies that prevent and reduce economic hardship. Prior to joining Demos, Nancy spent 10 years at the National Center for Children in Poverty at Columbia University, where she served as Deputy Director and Director of Family Economic Security.

A wine and cheese reception will follow the discussion.
This event will be webcast live at www.demos.org.

For more details and to RSVP, click here, or contact Jinny Khanduja at jkhanduja@demos.org or 212.389.1399.

To read more about Demos' work on student loans and higher educaton, click here.

With: Nancy K. Cauthen

Tags: Middle Class | Student Loans and Student Loan Debt | Economic Challenges of Young People | Prosperity & Opportunity

Read: Work Less, Study More & Succeed | Graduated Success