In November, the Department of Education released post graduate earnings and debt data broken down by college program — which will have a revolutionary impact on higher education. Students (and policymakers) can now get accurate information about how much recent graduates earned by college and degree (e.g., a Bachelor’s in Physics from Ohio State University). While the...
I have a confession to make. My recent study on state funding of higher education was about the simplest piece of research I’ve done in a dozen years. So was the finding; there’s been no trend of state disinvestment in higher education. But what a ruckus it caused. The key finding entailed simply downloading and graphing data...
“Two days. Two reports citing the same data. Two different conclusions.” That is how Rick Seltzer described the near-simultaneous release of two studies looking at state funding in Inside Higher Ed. The first study was written by myself for the Texas Public Policy Foundation and found that state disinvestment is a myth. The second study, by Michael Mitchell, Michael Leachman, and...
Conservatives have long worried about the Bennett Hypothesis. Named for former Education Secretary William Bennett, it argues that the availability of federal financial aid programs leads colleges to increase tuition faster than they otherwise would. Conservatives have been right to worry. But there’s a way to break that link—by changing how we determine aid eligibility....
When Governor of Alaska tried to cut funding for the University of Alaska by 41 percent, observers were quick to connect it to what they saw as a larger long-term trend — states relentlessly cutting funding for higher education. But there’s a small problem with portraying Alaska as an extreme example of a story playing out...
Eric Helland and Alex Tabarrok’s new book, Why Are the Prices So D*mn High?, has reignited a debate about why the costs of higher education to students and taxpayers have grown so quickly. Their answer traces back to an idea put forth a half-century ago by economists William Baumol and William G. Bowen. Traditionally referred to as Baumol’s...
For many, the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) process can seem either a hazing ritual or a rite of passage. Submitting the form is the gateway into the world of federal financial aid. It’s first step in getting a Pell Grant, a student loan, or a work-study campus job. So why must it...
Last week was an eventful one for higher education. On March 18, President Trump released his proposal for reauthorization of the Higher Education Act. Three days later, the president issued an executive order focused primarily on campus free speech. The order also contains some exciting news about expanded reporting on how much students earn by program (e.g.,...