Income inequality is substantial for people 65 and over, but less pronounced than it would be without Social Security and Medicare. A new brief offers a look at what the distribution of financial resources would be like in their absence, and addresses how proposed changes should be analyzed.
Colleges and universities are relying heavily on contingent faculty to increase flexibility and reduce costs, yet little is known about whether such savings actually result in lower overall costs or if the money saved on instruction is being spent in other areas. This brief documents the financial trade-offs being made ...
Community colleges are an essential component of America’s higher education system. This report focuses on the high costs of the low retention and completion rates that are far too typical of community colleges.
A data brief from the Delta Cost Project at AIR focuses on financial struggles of colleges and universities two years after the onset of the Great Recession. Among other findings, the data show that among nonprofit colleges and universities, community colleges suffered the greatest financial hardships of the decade. ...
This spotlight takes a look at the history of Title I, how the program has changed over time, and how it affects children, schools, families and education policy. Experts weigh in on the program's past and future in interviews, briefs, and blogs.
Of all the talks that parents should have with their children, a frank conversation about college costs and debt should be the least uncomfortable. In this blog post, Donna Desrochers discusses the importance of talking with teenagers about real college costs and the real life consequences of one of the ...
Parents and students want to know: Who or what is to blame for the skyrocketing (up 50 percent in 10 years) cost of a college education? In this blog post, Donna Desrochers delves into a new analysis from AIR’s Delta Cost Project that breaks down staffing and compensation changes ...
This brief highlights recent trends in athletic and academic spending at public Division I colleges and universities, which show that athletic departments spend far more per athlete than institutions spend to educate the average student—typically three to six times as much.
New research is again highlighting the wide variation in states’ student performance standards and overly optimistic reports of student proficiency. Alicia Garcia argues that, going forward, states must adopt evidence-based methods of standard setting that prepare students to compete in the global marketplace. ...
This third brief in a series explores high school students’ and parents’ perceptions of income share agreements (ISAs) as well as their decisions about how to pay for college.