New York, NY — Americans faced a massive rise in credit card debt during the 1990s, according to a new study released today by Demos. "Borrowing to Make Ends Meet" found that while low-income and elderly Americans have been hit hardest by the debt boom, Americans of all stripes are suffering under the burden of high-interest credit card debt.
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.
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.
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.
Community college credentials can play a vital role in creating economic security for young adults while at the same time rejuvenating career opportunities.
New York, NY — As President Obama calls for massive increases in Federal college grant aide in the 2011 budget, a new report by the policy center Demos shows how one-and two-year postsecondary degrees are vital tools for moving people into living-wage jobs.
“It’s a lot of debt out there. But that debt and the burden of that debt is not necessarily being felt equally. It’s extremely difficult for borrowers of color in particular."
“We think of education funding, particularly at the state level, as a spending issue, but it’s myopic,” said Mark Huelsman, a senior policy analyst at Demos, a left-leaning think tank. “There are all kinds of second order effects to investing in education — homeownership or wealth building is certainly one of them. If you don’t spend the money on students now and that means that they’re less likely to go to college or they’re more likely to take on debt, that is going to impact their future economic activity.” [...]
Black students are far more likely to take on debt for a degree than white students, and young black households have more student debt despite fewer educational opportunities and a more uncertain payoff in the job market.
It’s worth noting, first of all, that black and Hispanic college students are more likely to have to borrow to pay for a college education and that they end up having to borrow more money to cover college costs. A study from Demos analyzing federal data found that 86 percent of black students and 87 percent of Hispanic students got loans to attend private universities, compared to 72 percent of whites.
Rather than try to dismantle one of the few tools we have to keep this problem from getting worse, this administration should take a more nuanced and comprehensive approach toward making our campuses more reflective of our society, particularly for the most diverse generation of students ever.
I’ve met a lot of white people who believe that black students get so much financial aid and scholarships that they don’t have to pay for college. [...]
The share of student loan borrowers who entered repayment owing $20,000 or more doubled — from 20% to 40% — between 2002 and 2014, according to a report published Wednesday by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. What’s more, the share of borrowers entering repayment with $50,000 or more in debt tripled during the same period, the CFPB report found, jumping from 5% to 16%.
Two years ago, 54 percent of Republicans told Pew colleges had a positive impact on the direction of the country, according to that survey. That fell to 43 percent last year and 36 percent this year. Democrats, meanwhile, have gradually become more positive about higher education, with 72 percent this year viewing higher ed as having a positive effect, up from 65 percent in 2010.
Even so, observers on both the left and the right said the Education Next findings are interesting but not necessarily surprising.
“If we care about getting more people to and through college, we can’t do it on the cheap,” said Mark Huelsman, a senior policy analyst at Demos, a left-leaning think tank. “We’re not going to get the outcomes we want, unless we put in the public investment necessary to do so.” [...]