blog post College Costs Could Rise for Some Students By Jacob Jackson Jan 20, 2017 Middle- and upper-class students will likely pay more for their college degrees under proposals being considered by the legislature, UC, and CSU.
blog post The News on Student Debt Is Not All Bad By Hans Johnson Jan 12, 2017 There are some encouraging and newly emerging trends in student debt, especially in California.
blog post CSU and UC Are a Better Value Than Universities Nationwide By Jacob Jackson Nov 23, 2016 The federal government’s yearly scorecard shows that California’s public universities offer students good economic returns for a reasonable price.
blog post Free University Tuition: How Many California Students Would Benefit? By Jacob Jackson Sep 1, 2016 Hillary Clinton has proposed free university tuition for students whose families earn less than $85,000. How many California students might benefit from such a plan?
blog post Does Free Community College Grow Enrollment? By Kevin Cook Jun 2, 2016 Initial results from a Tennessee program suggest that free community college may shift enrollment, rather than increasing it.
blog post How the New FAFSA Can Help Californians By Jacob Jackson Oct 22, 2015 The revamped Free Application for Federal Financial Student Aid (FAFSA) can benefit Californians in multiple ways.
Report Will California Run Out of College Graduates? By Hans Johnson, Sarah Bohn, Marisol Cuellar Mejia Oct 12, 2015 California’s higher education system is a critical driver of the state’s economic progress. As the state’s economy continues to change, will its workforce be ready for the jobs of tomorrow? This report updates and extends projections of California’s workforce skills through 2030, focusing on the supply and demand for workers with a bachelor’s degree. We find that the state will fall about 1.1 million college graduates short of economic demand if current trends persist—a problem we call the workforce skills gap. Even the arrival of highly educated workers from elsewhere is unlikely to be large enough to fill this gap. Today’s college graduates have better economic outcomes than those who do not hold a bachelor’s degree. Over time, college graduates have seen lower rates of unemployment and higher wages than other workers—even through the Great Recession—suggesting that college degrees have become increasingly valuable in California’s labor market. The future workforce skills gap looms large. But California and its higher education institutions can take several practical steps to close it. The core of a new plan for higher education should include increasing access to the state’s four-year institutions, improving college completion rates, expanding transfer pathways from community colleges, and being smart about aid programs.
blog post Testimony: Improving the Cal Grant Program By Hans Johnson, Kevin Cook Apr 22, 2015 Rapidly increasing costs to students, low completion rates, and lack of access to four-year colleges are key challenges facing the state and the Cal Grant program.
blog post Testimony: Low-Income Students and Financial Aid By Kevin Cook Mar 20, 2015 As the legislature considers a number of bills aimed at increasing access and affordability of public higher education, the state assembly’s subcommittee on education finance invited PPIC to testify this week.
