Category: Education

I’ve kept tabs on the whole Strike Debt thing since its beginning. Those that read David Graeber and subsequently decided debt is the big thing are an interesting lot. In reality, debt is positively associated with income: the richer you are, the more debt you have. Needless to say, a focus on debt is pretty… Continue reading Strike Debt calls for increasing inequality, again

A Teach for America study came out last week. At the time, I couldn’t figure out what any of the fuss was about. There are a sizable number of these things already, and this one was basically within the range of the prior ones. So what ground has been broken? I have no idea. A… Continue reading That TFA Study

I had 2 posts over at Demos’ Policy Shop this week. Here is a rundown with links: False Concerns for the Poor. Excerpt: Finally, this concern trolling is such an empty game ultimately. The reality is that these workers are living terrible lives. Many of their kids, due to the horrors of poverty, are on… Continue reading Policy Shop Weekly Digest: Fast Food Strikes, Free Higher Education

Robin Hiltonsmith has a report at Demos called “At What Cost?” It purports to show the lifetime wealth hit a median couple graduating from public college will face due to student debt. The report has a number of defects, a few of which I detail below. 1. The debt assumption is 50 percent higher than… Continue reading Student debt and wealth and here we go again

New post at Policy Shop. Excerpt: Whatever else there is to say about student debt, it cannot be said that debt falls primarily on lower income households. You would expect, from what we know of the college wage premium, that debt would primarily fall on higher income households, and indeed that’s what you find. For… Continue reading Policy Shop: Which Economic Classes Have the Most Student Debt?