The progressive think tank Demos, which has been a leading voice in the progressive policy conversation and, according to Politico, has been consulted by Clinton's team, has laid out some ideas that could influence the agenda that Clinton unveils.
The most specific plan for debt-free college so far comes from Demos, a progressive think tank. It defines a "debt-free" degree as a degree students could pay for by working 10 hours per week at minimum wage while enrolled in college. That means students' cost of attendance not covered by grants and scholarships, including books, tuition, and living expenses, couldn't exceed about $2,500 per year.
Demos calls for the federal government to help states shoulder the cost of higher education.
The push for debt-free college began last September, when Demos, a liberal think tank, issued a plan that would make college debt-free for low- and middle-income families in some states, at a cost of around $30 billion. Four months later the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, or PCCC, began a campaign to press the Democratic candidates to back the idea.
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More than 1.9 million Black Americans work in retail, accounting for 11 percent of the industry’s total workforce. Despite being the second-largest source of employment for Black workers, new data from the NAACP and equality advocacy organization, Demos, finds that the industry is rife with racial inequality and poor earning potential.
Simply put, debt-free college means that every student in America, regardless of their financial means, should be able to attend a public college or university and graduate without student debt.
In weekly calls and in meetings over the past few months, Hillary Clinton’s policy team has been soliciting input from policy experts with ties to Sen. Elizabeth Warren, with the goal of making student loan reform the core of Clinton’s economic agenda.
The general idea is that students who attend a four-year public college would have their tuition and debt reduced almost to zero through a combination of moves. The federal government would increase its aid to states for higher education, so schools could bring down tuition. Pell Grants would be increased for low-income students, and with lower tuition this money could be spent by students on costs like books.
A recent study released by public policy group Demos and the NAACP found that retailers pay black and Hispanic full-time salespeople just 75 percent of what they pay white employees in the same positions. When it comes to cashiers, black and Hispanics make about 90 percent of what their white colleagues earn.
Currently, there are 10 million non-Hispanic whites, 2. 3 million Hispanics, 1.9 million African Americans and 800,000 Asian workers in the retail industry.
The rising cost of attending college has had a serious impact on the finances of most students and their families, but the burden has been distributed unequally.
On Monday the Supreme Court handed down a decision against Abercrombie & Fitch, ruling 8-1 that the retailer’s “look policy” discriminated against a job applicant on the basis of religion. The policy required that staff conform to the company’s ‘All-American’ brand image, and the job applicant was a young All-American Muslim woman who came to her interview wearing the headscarf she dons as part of her religious observation. To the company’s hiring managers, covering your head was not Abercrombie cool.
A new study shows that black and Latino retail workers not only earn less than their white counterparts, but they're also less likely to be promoted or given full-time roles, the Associated Press reports.
The study, conducted by the NAACP and public policy organization Demos, found that in major positions held by retail workers — cashiers, salespeople, and first-line managers — black employees are paid the least, followed by Latinos.
On average, black cashiers are paid $9.17 per hour, with salespeople averaging
Last night, Hillary Clinton announced several important voting reforms: expanded early voting, an end to voter ID laws, felon voting rights restoration and making election day a federal holiday. Most importantly, she came out in favor of universal, automatic voter registration.
Yesterday, presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton visited Texas Southern University, a historically black college in Houston, where she called for stronger election administration practices to protect voters. Along with asking Congress to reboot the Voting Rights Act—which had “its heart … ripped out” by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2013, Clinton said—she called for mandatory voter registration and at least 20 days of early voting.
As we near the two-year anniversary of the Supreme Court gutting the Voting Rights Act and the subsequent failure of Congress to restore it, Demos has found new evidence of racial bias in the passage of voter ID laws.
When it comes to equal pay and promotion opportunities, it appears blacks and Latinos are losing out in the retail industry.
Minorities tend to hold fewer managerial roles and suffer from a significant pay gap when compared with white workers, according to a new paper from Demos, a left-leaning think tank, and the NAACP.
The cost of college has risen 1,120 percent over the past three decades. Today, students are united in the near-universal nature of paying for school through student loans. However, this reliance on student loans does not create a more equal cohort of graduates.
Increasing tuition costs are largely held to be at fault for rising levels of debt. However, the cause of rising tuition is subject to debate. Some believe that public subsidies have encouraged colleges to avail themselves of the “free money” and jack up tuition prices. Others say it is the competition among institutions to build the most expensive and cutting-edge amenities on campus.
