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Today in Terrible Student Aid Ideas

There’s no scenario in which freezing Pell Grant awards is a good idea.

Blog
Mark Huelsman

The Congressional Progressive Caucus Budget Makes the Right Investment in Higher Education

Policies like this would incent states to return to an era when college could be funded through a summer job, part-time employment, and maybe modest savings when available, for the largest and most diverse generation of students in our history.

Blog
Mark Huelsman

If Everyone Voted, Progressives Would Win

In preparation for the 2016 presidential election, Democrats appear united around one candidate, while the Republican contest remains far from secured. Many on the left, who view Hillary Clinton’s stances as a tame brand of liberalism, have attempted to draft Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., to run. But the progressives do not need a charismatic leader. Instead, they need to invest in unleashing the disgruntled progressive majority.
In the media
Sean McElwee

The 135 Hour Work Week and the Reality of Minimum Wage

What does the minimum wage really buy a full-time worker? Not a two-bedroom apartment, anywhere in the United States, according the National Low Income Housing Coalition. This study uses the minimum wage for each state, and the Fair Market Price of apartments in each state (which is below the average rent). It bases affordability on the renter paying no more than 30% of their wages on rent, allowing for food and other living costs to be taken into consideration.

Blog
Chelsea McKevitt

3 Obvious Reasons for the Racial Wealth Gap in America—It's Time to Fix Them

Owning a home, then equal pay for equal work, and then having a college degree are the three factors that can make the biggest difference in closing the racial wealth gap, which is how non-whites in America are vastly less wealthy than most whites. 
 
If blacks and Latinos owned homes as widely as whites, then median black household wealth would grow by $32,113, and median Latino wealth would grow by $29,213, a new study by Demos, a progressive think tank, and the Institute for Assets and Social Policy at Brandeis University has found.
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In the media
Steven Rosenfeld

How the Supreme Court Is About to Explode America’s Racial Wealth Gap

When discussing race, the conservative argument is best expressed by the famous words of Chief Justice John Roberts: “The best way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race.” Translation: America has done bad things in its history, but those bad things are gone now, so we should move past those horrors and look forward.
 
Conservatives believe that if blacks and Latinos simply work hard, get a good education and earn a good income, historical racial wealth gaps will disappear.
In the media
Sean McElwee
Catherine Ruetschlin

Why America's Racial Wealth Gap Is Really a Homeownership Gap

Owning a home isn't just a fragment of the American Dream, it's the key to it.

In the media
Tanvi Misra

Unjust Public Policies Drive the Massive Racial Wealth Gap in America: Study

The yawning racial wealth gap in the United States is no accident, but rather, driven by unjust public policy decisions—from the re-segregation of education to the redlining of home ownership to poverty wages, according to a new analysis by Brandeis University and the public policy organization Demos.

In the media
Sarah Lazare

How Employer Credit Checks Are Keeping Black People Unemployed

When New York State Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman announced that his office had cut a deal with the three big credit bureaus—Experian, Equifax and TransUnion—to improve the customer experience, the news shook the financial-services world into a frenzy. 
 
“In today’s world, the consumer’s input is less important than the bank or collector’s input,” John Ulzheimer, an expert at CreditSesame, told the New York Times.
In the media
Charles D. Ellison