This study examines patterns of state financing in public community colleges. The focus of the study is to not only show the disparities that exist across the 50 states in terms of fiscal capacity to provide funding for community colleges, but also in the effort that is exerted to fund community colleges. The study combines the Bureau of Economic…

The national commitment to increasing postsecondary educational attainment, combined with growing economic anxiety, has made community colleges the focus of many federal and state policy initiatives. There is good reason for this: by virtue of their nature and reach, community colleges--public institutions of higher education that predominantly…

This First Look publication provides price estimates for attending postsecondary education institutions using data from the 2011-12 National Postsecondary Student Aid Study (NPSAS:12), the most comprehensive, nationally representative survey of student financing of postsecondary education in the United States. The survey includes about 95,000…

The "Great Recession" of 2008-2010 has brought a truly unprecedented level of financial chaos to U.S. higher education, exposing chronic fault lines in the system of financing that threaten national capacity to meet the future need for college graduates. This article examines the nature of the higher education "cost disease,"…

This study presents the experiences of success of 11 women who have completed an associate degree while parenting children. Women parenting children are a population at especially high risk of non-completion. In much of the research, however, women parenting children are only mentioned peripherally as a subpopulation of nontraditional students;…

One of the major developments in financing undergraduate education in the United States in the past 20 years has been the introduction of broad-based merit-aid programs by state governments. The typical program waives tuition and fees at public colleges and universities for state residents who have attained a respectable grade-point average…

Today's community colleges are experiencing tremendous growth at a time when higher education is experiencing little success in the fierce battle for public funding. Administrators believe that providing housing on college campuses increases enrollment and improves access, but they are having difficulty meeting students' demands for both quantity…