Category: Education

The New York Times had a long Sunday piece on the rising rich-poor gap in higher education. The separate infographic lays out the basic story well: all classes are attending and graduating college at higher rates, but the rich are leaping far ahead. The latest data show that only 29 percent of poor kids enroll… Continue reading The rich-poor education gap in the NY Times

My last post was pretty long, and I hate long posts as much as the next person. So I decided to make a shorter version. The basic summary is this: before we ever get to the question of cost, there are at least two filters that push poor kids out of college (or out of… Continue reading What keeps poor kids out of college: short version

Among other things, many of those concerned about student debt and the rising cost of college argue that those things account for why poor kids do not go to college. College is too expensive, and so poor kids cannot afford to go. As I have stated before, my view is that the lesser qualifications of… Continue reading What keeps poor kids out of college?

I am a fan of the idea that college should be free at the point of delivery, and financed through a universal income-based repayment (IBR) scheme. This would work basically by levying an extra income tax on those who hold college degrees, and using the revenue from that tax to publicly fund colleges. I think… Continue reading Back of the envelope math on universal income-based repayment

In my post yesterday, I detailed the actual cost of attending college broken down by students’ household income. You see, colleges do not charge all students the same rate. They charge rich students more and poor students less. The difference is considerable too. For both private and public schools, poor students pay just 55-57 percent… Continue reading Free college would be a huge score for the rich