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Yesterday, Rep. Mark Pocan (D-WI) and Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN) introduced The Degrees Not Debt Act. This legislation would create a state-federal partnership program with the Department of Education, states, and public colleges or universities in order to ensure college affordability becomes a
Press release/statement
Despite lore from parents and grandparents about the caddying jobs or serving gigs they used to pay for school, today’s young adults know the idea of working your way through college is about as antiquated as milk delivered daily in glass bottles or Mad Men-era martini lunches.
In the media
Jillian Berman
Average Net Price for Low-Income Students Is Unaffordable in all 50 States at both Public Four-Year Colleges and Community Colleges
Press release/statement

How a Shared Definition of College Affordability Exposes a Crisis for Low-Income Students

Research
Mark Huelsman
More bosses are weighing the credit worthiness of job candidates before making a hire — a practice that some lawmakers say unfairly keeps people with bad credit from landing a job. On Thursday, the Senate takes up a proposal to restrict employers in most cases from using financial information such
In the media
Christian M. Wade
Today, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton announced major new additions to her plan to provide debt-free public college and reduce the burden of student debt for those struggling to repay. Clinton’s plan would eliminate tuition and fees for working- and middle-class students, which
Press release/statement

If nearly 70 percent of graduates are borrowing, 30 percent (including 35 percent of public college graduates) are not. Who are these students? What type of family or financial resources do they have at their disposal? What are their work habits? In short, what does it take to graduate debt-free

Research
Mark Huelsman
Talent is equally distributed, but opportunity is not. And while many Americans believe fervently and faithfully in expanding opportunity, America’s internship-industrial complex does just the opposite.
In the media
Darren Walker

If the twin threats to public pensions continue, African American retirees may lose much of the retirement security they’ve gained over the past half-century.

Policy Briefs
Robert Hiltonsmith
Without protecting and expanding public pension systems, black retirees may lose much of the retirement security they have gained in the last 50 years, a new Demos report finds. The public sector has long been a strong source of employment for African Americans, with 21.2 percent of all black women
Press release/statement