Each year, many talented students from low-income areas and families either choose not to attend college at all or drop out under the pressure to keep a job.
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, brainchild of the Microsoft mogul, is out to change that. The organization recently unveiled an initiative to double the number of degrees earned by low-income students by the time they reach age 26.
Demos' research on student debt reports an 11 percent rise in credit card debt among college students since 1989, leading to financial hardships that spill over onto the whole family.
Demos Legal Director Brenda Wright helps examine how high limits on individual campaign contributions disproportionately benefit the incumbent in an election.
Voters ranging in age from roughly the late teens to the early 30s, are part of the so-called millennial generation. This is a generation that is in danger of being left out of the American dream — the first American generation to do less well economically than their parents.
Not only is money tight with food and gas prices rising, but credit is tougher to come by and homes are no longer available as an ATM. At the same time, the spread of eco-consciousness into mainstream culture is shining a spotlight on waste and prompting many consumers to reconsider how they shop.
Field investigators who interviewed people leaving state social service offices in the last year in Jackson, Clay and St. Louis counties and St. Louis city said almost none of those people were asked if they wanted to register, according to Scott Novakowski, a senior policy analyst for Demos, one of four national advocacy groups representing the plaintiffs. Three of the sites visited did not have voter registration applications available, he said.
[State Rep. Lois DeBerry] is sponsoring a bill that would prohibit credit issuers from recruiting students on campus or from offering gifts to students on campus to entice them into applying for a credit card, usually at major athletic events. So far, she's having trouble getting the bill through the Legislature.
According to a Demos calculation based on the Survey of Consumer Finances, a higher proportion of women ages 25 to 34 carry credit card debt compared with their male peers-76 percent vs. 67 percent-but the men carry higher amounts of debt, which is what really matters when you're trying to stay on top of monthly bills.
Lisa J. Danetz of Demos, a nonpartisan public policy center focused on expanding democratic participation, affirmed Slater's testimony that registration is not being offered at public agencies in many states.
The authors of "Up to Our Eyeballs: How Shady Lenders and Failed Economic Policies are Drowning Americans in Debt" blame the rising costs of health care, higher education and housing for making "debt the only mechanism available to many Americans for coping with a job loss or a medical emergency or even everyday needs like car repairs and groceries."