Did You Know? UNC Schools Will Get Millions in COVID-19 Funding

Jan 7, 2021 · · Comments Off on Did You Know? UNC Schools Will Get Millions in COVID-19 Funding

Last week, Congress approved the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021, a $2.4 trillion spending package that includes $23 billion in aid for public and non-profit colleges and universities. The relief package will provide about $286 million in new Higher Education Emergency Relief Funding (HEERF) to UNC system schools. Of that amount, almost $90 million is … Continue reading “Did You Know? UNC Schools Will Get Millions in COVID-19 Funding”

Did You Know? UNC Pell Grant Students Have More Debt Than Their Peers

Apr 30, 2020 · · Comments Off on Did You Know? UNC Pell Grant Students Have More Debt Than Their Peers

The federal Pell Grant program provides need-based grants to millions of college students every year—and costs the government over $30 billion annually. But even with that large investment, Pell Grant students in North Carolina borrow more student loans and drop out of college at higher rates than their peers. According to data from the University … Continue reading “Did You Know? UNC Pell Grant Students Have More Debt Than Their Peers”

New Research Shows Federal Student Aid Is Worse than We Thought

Dec 11, 2019 · · Comments Off on New Research Shows Federal Student Aid Is Worse than We Thought

For years I have railed against the dysfunctional federal student loan program. The availability of cheap federal student loans has enabled universities to increase tuition fees aggressively, helping fund an unproductive academic arms race that, among other things, has led to sizable administrative bloat on most campuses. The proportion of recent college graduates from the … Continue reading “New Research Shows Federal Student Aid Is Worse than We Thought”

How Women Can Avoid the Student Loan Gender Gap

Oct 5, 2018 · · Comments Off on How Women Can Avoid the Student Loan Gender Gap

Every year, the American Association of University Women (AAUW) releases a new report illustrating how women are disproportionately impacted by student loan debt. The average woman graduates with $2,739 more in federal loans than the average male graduate, they argue. But while suggestions to fix this gender debt gap have typically targeted lawmakers, students are … Continue reading “How Women Can Avoid the Student Loan Gender Gap”

Free College Is Just Another Middle-Class Entitlement

Jul 9, 2018 · · Comments Off on Free College Is Just Another Middle-Class Entitlement

Tennessee legislators received a shock in 2012 when a study from Georgetown University’s Center on Education and the Workforce predicted that by 2020, 55 percent of Tennessee jobs would require some kind of postsecondary education or job training. To elected officials in a state where only a quarter of citizens possessed a bachelor’s degree and … Continue reading “Free College Is Just Another Middle-Class Entitlement”

College Sports and Educational Opportunity: Exposing the (Half) Truth

Jun 27, 2018 · and · Comments Off on College Sports and Educational Opportunity: Exposing the (Half) Truth

Conventional wisdom and public perception hold that college sports provide educational opportunities for thousands of student-athletes who could not afford to attend college without them. The National Collegiate Athletic Association lists “providing opportunities to earn a college degree” as at the heart of its mission and boasts that nearly 500,000 student-athletes participate in college sports … Continue reading “College Sports and Educational Opportunity: Exposing the (Half) Truth”

How the president’s "free community college" proposal will affect one state

Jan 16, 2015 · · Comments Off on How the president’s "free community college" proposal will affect one state

The new federal proposal that the president is calling "America’s College Promise" is short on details but has inspired much commentary.

We’ll hear more on Tuesday in the State of the Union address and in President Obama’s next budget proposal, but he gave us enough information about the idea in a speech for us to estimate the potential program’s cost to North Carolina taxpayers.