Even before the downturn, millions of households were experiencing difficulties meeting the most basic expenses. Now, as families experience declining home values and tightened credit markets, many are falling behind on their mortgage and credit card payments.
To increase postsecondary success among low- to moderate-income students, we must reform financial aid and provide additional financial supports to help students cover the cost of living expenses.
"We've got to deal with the conflicts. If I hire S&P or Moody's to be my consultant and show me how I can do this and that to get an investment-grade rating or [an] even higher rating, they obviously have a conflict of interest there."
"That's right. I think the compensation model... where the issuer pays for the rating is really at the heart of the conflict problem..."
In today's knowledge-based economy, a college degree is a necessary qualification for entry to the middle class. Over the last 30 years, as real wages for workers with only a high school diploma have fallen, the life outcomes for those with college degrees have diverged from those with only high school degrees. In 1977, for example, there was only a 6 percentage-point difference in home ownership rates between those with college educations and those without. Today, there is a 20 percentage-point difference.
Over the past decade, rents and home prices in major cities across the country have escalated rapidly. As young adults transition from college into the workforce, already owing an average of $20,000 in student loan debt, securing affordable housing in the current market can pose an overwhelming challenge.
Debt has become a generation-defining characteristic for today's young adults. The problem often begins with student loan debt, which today affects both community college and university students. In addition, today's young adults are relying more on credit to cover basic living expenses, particularly during those first few years in the workplace. As starting salaries have failed to keep pace with rising student loan bills, housing costs or health care costs, for many young adults the credit line becomes a lifeline.
Job security and stability were defining characteristics of the U.S. labor market from the 1950s to the mid-1970s. A large portion of the workforce was unionized, and workplace benefits such as health insurance and pensions were standard. Today, young workers can no longer expect to work at a company with the intention of staying until retirement. Union membership has dropped to just 8.6 percent of the private-sector workforce, and benefits are becoming increasingly rare. Job instability is the new reality.
Health care costs are rising sharply, placing stress on employers, individuals, and families. As employers look to rein in benefit costs, they are increasingly turning towards health insurance options that feature greater employee cost sharing through higher deductibles, co-payments, and other forms of out-of-pocket expenses. Others are dropping coverage entirely. Financially stretched low- and middle-income families, however, can scarcely afford these higher medical expenses.
Basic demographic data reveal much about the need for better access to the voting process.
Studies have shown that 20% of the population of the U.S. has one or more disabilities and that approximately 10% of that number live with severe disabilities and that about 20% of U.S. adults with disabilities — more than 8 million potential voters — say they have been unable to vote in presidential or congressional elections due to barriers at or getting to the polls.
In this preliminary analysis, Demos finds that the right to provisional ballots was violated across the country on November 2, 2004. While all the data on provisional balloting have yet to be collected and assessed, available evidence suggests that Congress and the states must revisit provisional ballot statutes, regulations and procedures if the original "failsafe" voting mandate is to be fully realized.
The Brennan Center for Justice, Demos and the Legal Action Center call upon the New York State Board of Elections to end the systematic practice of illegally disenfranchising thousands of eligible voters. A survey of 63 local election boards conducted late last year by the Brennan Center and Demos found that more than one-third of local boards, including four in New York City, are disenfranchising former prisoners and probationers who are eligible to register and vote under state law.
This new Demos report, published in collaboration with Business Ethics Magazine, explores growing efforts by state and local governments to ensure corporate accountability. It looks at the changing role of state treasurers, labor pension funds, and others working to demand more responsible business practices at a time when national reform proposals have been stalled in Congress.
States are failing low-income communities and our nation's democracy by not adequately complying with federal law that requires human services agencies to provide voter registration services.
One of the most often-cited reasons for the STEM achievement gap is a lack of skilled and trained STEM teachers. The greatest percentage of under-qualified teachers at the K-12 level is found in STEM disciplines – 40 percent of high school math teachers and 20 percent of science teachers in high needs areas lack a higher education degree in the subject they instruct.
According to all available data, the voter participation rate of the first Americans, American Indians and Alaska Natives, is among the lowest of any ethnic group in the country. There are complex historical and cultural reasons that make the issue of voting among American Indians and Alaska Natives unique.
In February and March 2012, Demos surveyed a nationally representative sample of 997 low- and middle-income American households who carried credit card debt for three months or more.