Loeffler will receive an honorary degree, as will Morten Lauridsen, a classical musician and recipient of the National Medal of Arts; Heather McGhee, a public policy advocate; Elissa Montanti, the founder of the Global Medical Relief Fund; and Andrew Young, a civil rights activist, politician, and former aide to Martin Luther King Jr. [...]
Last week, Betsy DeVos and the U.S. Department of Education did something uncharacteristic. In an extraordinary announcement, the Department argued that states do not have authority to oversee student loan companies operating in their states and that regulation should be left to the federal government. [...]
Last week, I asked the research group Morning Consult to conduct a poll on education. The main question gave parents a list of schooling levels — high school, community college, four-year college — and asked which they wanted their own children to attain. The results were overwhelming: 74 percent chose four-year college, and another 9 percent chose community college.
But what we know about today’s college students doesn’t support the notion that such a large share of students would be using their loan money for spring break would be using their loan money for spring break, said Mark Huelsman, a senior policy analyst at Demos, a left-leaning think tank. [...]
[M]ore and more Americans are realizing student debt has become a widespread financial problem: 92% of American voters said as much in a recent study by policy think tank Demos.
D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) has signed a law that will create publicly financed elections, reversing her previous opposition to a plan that advocates say will help curb money’s influence in District politics.
Bowser announced that she was throwing her support behind the Fair Elections Act, which was approved unanimously by the D.C. Council in February. The law, which will first affect elections in 2020, will steer millions annually toward the campaigns of local candidates and is aimed at reducing their reliance on deep-pocketed donors. [...]
Faced with jobs that don’t pay enough to make ends meet, health-care costs that break the budget, and public services exposed to countless rounds of cutbacks despite a growing economy, working people will push back. And, like the teachers across the state of West Virginia who walked out on strike for nine days and won meaningful raises and a freeze in health costs for all the state’s public employees, working people who push back sometimes win. [...]
As we celebrate International Women’s Day, we are thankful for another year of power, spirit, and the vision for a more equitable future in the face of a system and political leaders who try to convince us otherwise. Today (and every day) we amplify the voices of the mentors who guide our creative visions, those who inspire and shift us into action, and the centuries old history of women, femmes, and allies whose voices and stories continue to shape the movement. [...]
Heather McGhee is stepping down from her role as president of Demos this summer. She’ll remain as a distinguished senior fellow and the think tank will launch a search for the next president in March.
HEATHER MCGHEE STEPS DOWN AS PRESIDENT OF DEMOS:Heather McGhee will step down from her role as president of Demos this summer and will become a distinguished senior fellow with the group. Starting in March, the left-leaning think tank’s board of directors will look for a new president.
Heather McGhee, who has been with left-leaning think tank Demos for the past 15 years, has announced that she will transition out of her role as president. She’ll become a distinguished senior fellow at the organization. In the four years McGhee spent at the helm, Demos’s budget increased from $8 million to $14 million. The think tank will begin searching for a new president next month.
In every state except Wyoming, the share of revenue that public colleges receive from tuition — aka students and families — has grown since 2001, according to an analysis released Thursday by Demos, a left-leaning think tank. And in 24 states, tuition covered more than half of public colleges’ revenue in 2016. Compare that to public colleges of the past, which got much of their money from state and local funding, and kept the costs for families relatively low. In some cases, they were even free.
A new analysis comparing how much members of Congress paid for their schooling to the costs of today’s students backs him up. When the members of the House of Representatives went to college, the average cost for a year of school was $8,487 in today’s dollars, according to the study published Thursday by Demos, a left-leaning think tank.
At 6:30 p.m. Thursday, Empire State Indivisible will host its monthly “What’s Happening in Albany” panel at the Fourth Universalist Society on the Upper West Side. This installment will focus on voting reform, with a panel consisting of Ari Berman, Mother Jones’ voting rights reporter, Susan Lerner of Common Cause/NY, Naila Awan of Demos, and State Senator Brian Benjamin.
The high-priced ads, which could reach an audience of more than 100 million, are just the latest indication that catering to student loan borrowers can be big business. Companies are now offering credit cards with rewards geared to student loan help and tools to help borrowers monitor their debt. Employers are even looking to lure talent with benefits packages that include student loan help.
But progressive groups say that the Ohio law goes too far. They argue the state’s methods kick off eligible voters while leaving ineligible people on the rolls, and that Ohio doesn’t make it clear that people will lose their chance to vote if they don’t respond to the state’s mailer. “Their real agenda, in my view, is to get people off the rolls so they don’t participate,” says Stuart Naifeh, senior counsel at Demos, a liberal think tank.