“Demos applauds President Obama for using the bully pulpit to shine a light on the college affordability and student debt crisis facing our nation. While Congress and state legislatures have failed to lead on this issue, the President’s tour promises to help highlight the dangers of tying opportunity to debt.
Demos has released a new report that highlights the broader impact of student debt. Comparing a household with student loans against one without, the report reveals that student debt permanently impedes upward mobility for millions of Americans struggling to repay their loans.
"The Fisher case invites us all to acknowledge the role public policy has played in widening racial disparities in college access over the past generation, and to press the need for robust policies, from diversity considerations in admissions to debt-free college, to ensure that higher education remains a fair pathway to a diverse middle class in America."
While much of the country’s attention is focused on the need for job growth, a new report to be released Monday, March 4 by national public policy organization Demos reveals the ways in which the use of credit history in hiring acts as a significant barrier to employment and may lead to discriminatory hiring practices, particularly for people of color and the long-term unemployed.
New York, NY -- In his State of the Union last night, President Obama hit on four key issues where Demos is engaged and where progress is long overdue: voting reform, the minimum wage, universal pre-K, and higher education.
On the bipartisan voting commission, Brenda Wright, Vice President of Legal Strategies:
NEW YORK - As the Supreme Court hears oral argument in Fisher v. University of Texas case challenging the constitutionality of the school’s undergraduate admissions program on Wednesday, October 10, Demos stands with the United States Student Association (USSA) along with hundreds of other community, corporate, military and civil rights leaders, students and other allies in support of diversity in higher education.
NEW YORK – As millions of young adults begin their fall semesters across the nation, new findings from a national survey by policy center Demos reveal the relationship between college costs and credit card debt, and its impact on students and their parents.
MIAMI – In just three years Florida’s higher education funding per student decreased 40 percent, according to a new report by national public policy center Demos and the Florida-based Research Institute on Social and Economic Policy (RISEP). As a direct result, Floridian families now spend 25% of median income on the cost of a single year of attendance at a public four-year college. The situation is only looking grimmer, with the recent $300 million cut to public four-year universities.
Washington, DC - The United States Student Association (“USSA”), the nation’s oldest and largest student-run, student-led organization, yesterday filed a brief amicus curiae supporting the constitutionality of the University of Texas’ undergraduate admissions program, which is being challenged before the U.S. Supreme Court in Fisher v. University of Texas, No. 11-345. USSA is comprised of more than four million students with diverse backgrounds who are currently enrolled in American colleges and universities.
New York, NY--Demos views the mortgage servicing deal reached today between a coalition of state Attorneys General and 5 major Wall Street banks as an important stepping stone in the effort to secure justice for homeowners victimized by the foreclosure crisis.
NEW YORK- While they believe that higher education is more important today than it was for their parents’ generation, most U.S. adults age 18 to 34 also view college as harder to afford than just five years ago.
At a telephone news conference this Wednesday, three national policy organizations will release the results of a new nationwide, bi-partisan survey of young adults ages 18-34 about higher education’s importance and affordability, student debt, and Congressional proposals to cut Pell Grants or charge interest on federal student loans while borrowers are still in school.
Olympia, WA— The national June jobs report showed 200,000 more people joined the unemployment lines. In Washington, unemployment is also rising--as jobs shift rapidly from manufacturing to the service sector--and state tuition/student debt is growing fast. Because of these developments, the state’s low- and middle-income families are particularly threatened.
New York, NY – Today,as Congressional battles threaten the future of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the national policy center Demos published a new report that shows how failures of the credit reporting system — and the increasing use of the system's credit reports and scores for non-lending purposes — are having outsized and damaging effects on Americans' economic health.
New York – Today, Demos, a national public policy research and advocacy center that supports fair employment practices, congratulates the Connecticut General Assembly for passing legislation that prohibits employers from using credit reports in employment decisions except in certain circumstances. Demos commends Senate Majority Leader Martin Looney, House Speaker Christopher Donovan and Representative Matthew Lesser for their leadership on this issue. Connecticut is sixth in a growing number of states to ban employment credit checks.
New York – This week, the growing practice of employers screening the credit scores of job applicants was dealt a legal blow after the Court of Common Council of Hartford, Connecticut, passed an ordinance prohibiting the practice as part of the city's employment application and promotion process. The legislation is the first municipal ordinance of its kind in the country.
Demos, a national public policy research and advocacy center that supports fair employment and publishes research hiring practices, celebrates the decision.
New York, NY — As new unemployment figures show a still-staggering 9 percent of Americans out of work, a new report from the policy center Demos examines the degree that low income American families use credit to weather economic shocks, and draws out the impact of credit card debt on families' long-term financial stability.
Raleigh — North Carolina's young adults will continue to face a tough economy--one ravaged not only by recession but also by 30 years of declining opportunity and security for all but the most highly educated and affluent, according to a new report by Demos and the North Carolina Justice Center.