By: Michele Streeter, Associate Director of Policy & Advocacy, TICAS If you have federal student loans, you may be overwhelmed and confused by the barrage of announcements and information coming your way. Will your loans be cancelled? Will the repayment pause be extended beyond August 31? What about expanded benefits…

By: Manon Steel, Program Associate, TICAS Eli Atkinson, a recent high school graduate from Ann Arbor, planned to go to college until COVID struck. A swimmer and swim instructor who valued the social skills he was able to develop through in-person learning, Eli spent his senior year in isolation. A…

By: Manon Steel, Program Associate, TICAS The COVID-19 pandemic has been hard on Michigan’s colleges and college students. Between the fall 2019 and fall 2020, undergraduate enrollment declined nearly nine percent. This hit was not shared evenly among institutions with enrollment at public two-years falling by over 20 percent. …

By: Jessica Thompson Colleges and universities are some of America’s most important institutions for equalizing opportunity and promoting upward mobility. However, public colleges, which enroll more than three-quarters of undergraduate students, including 81 percent of BIPOC students, suffer from a long-term decline in state funding. Over time, this has made…

President Biden’s FY22 federal budget request includes $62 billion over ten years in new College Completion Grants aimed at increasing completion rates nationwide among students of color, first-generation and low-income students. This proposal expands upon the Biden Administration’s earlier-released American Families Plan, which described a major new investment in “evidence-based…

By: Angela Perry There is a lot to celebrate about the 2021–22 California state budget agreement, from historic investments in college affordability to expansions in low-income Californians’ health care access and more resources to tackle homelessness. …

By: Nancy Wong Analysis of data from our January 2021 survey of California college students shows that, as a result of the pandemic’s impact on students’ budgets, the majority of students (59%) now expect to receive their degree later than planned.[i] …

By: Ana Fung Data from our January 2021 survey of California college students show that the pandemic upended a majority of students’ budgets. The financial disruptions have made it more difficult for already financially vulnerable students to cover basic needs like food and housing and disrupted academic plans for over…

By: Oliver Schak A college degree or credential is a crucial stepping-stone for upward economic mobility, and American colleges and universities play an essential role in building a more prosperous, equitable country. Yet far too many colleges, that have low graduation rates or that offer degrees with little value, routinely…