This joint Dear Colleague Letter (DCL) written by Swati Adarkar, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Policy and Early Learning, U.S. Department of Education (ED) and Katie Hamm, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Early Childhood Development, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) highlights various sources of funding streams to support high…

We examine changes in public funding and student access, and the role resource capacity plays in access to higher education by students in two public universities in Africa namely the University of the Western Cape, South Africa, and the University of Ghana, Ghana. The public funding of higher education and student access in South Africa and Ghana…

Arts education--including dance, media arts, music, theatre, and visual arts--is key to equitable access to a well-rounded education and central to the shared commitment to ensure that every student receives high-quality instruction that prepares them to be active, engaged, and lifelong learners. This letter describes expanding access to the arts…

This Critical Discourse Analysis looks at the perspectives and experiences of academic advisors regarding incarceration to determine how discourses might impact college access for this emerging student population. Key implications of this work demonstrate that (a) academic advisors are not aware of how to best support students with incarceration…

The provision of support to subsidise childcare has been a salient policy topic in recent years. In 2023, the Conservative Government announced an expansion of support for workers, offering 15 free hours a week for two-year-olds. From September 2024, this expands to babies from nine months old, rising to 30 free hours of support from September…

Education is a fundamental right, yet access to tertiary education remains a challenge for marginalized communities worldwide. To address this, the Philippine government launched the Expanded Students' Grant-in-Aid Program for Poverty Alleviation (ESGP-PA) in 2013, offering free college education to impoverished but academically inclined students.…

With tuition increasing at a faster rate than inflation, many college students depend on grants to access education. The largest of these, the federally funded Pell Grant, subsidizes over 30 billion a year worth of tuition for eligible students (Cardona, 2023) yet no longer meets its goal of covering 75% percent of tuition costs. While the…

Defining quality in early learning and child care (ELCC) settings is complex. With an increased emphasis on universal ELCC systems to support greater access for families, research is needed to provide clarity on the concepts that contribute to high-quality programs. In this scoping review, 41 literature sources met our criteria (of a possible…

Financial barriers to education such as the payment of school fees have long been identified as a key driver of the perennially high out-of-school rates in developing countries. Accordingly, Ghana implemented the education capitation grant (CG) policy in 2005 as part of efforts to universalise access to primary education. At its core, the policy…

The price of higher education continues to increase, and millions of Americans struggle with student loan debt. At the same time, a college degree is for so many a path to career success and financial security, and our region's employers depend on a talented pipeline of highly skilled workers to continue to grow and thrive. Pell Grants were…

In 2006, the federal government effectively uncapped student borrowing for graduate programs with the introduction of the Graduate PLUS loan program. Access to additional federal loans increased graduate students' borrowing and shifted the composition of their loans from private to federal debt. However, the increase in borrowing limits did not…

This paper examines the effects of Pell Grant eligibility on student outcomes. Using a regression discontinuity (RD) design and a partial identification approach, the study provides bounds on the treatment effects that account for selection bias arising from the loss of grant eligibility. While initial eligibility is determined by financial need…

The pandemic brought the rural broadband gap into stark relief, as schools shuttered and many families lacked the internet access and devices necessary to connect their students to high-quality online learning. State boards of education can help solve the rural broadband connectivity challenge and expand learning opportunities. To do so, they…

Post-secondary education (PSE) and research play a critical role in advancing the economic, social, cultural, and political development of Canada. The federal government supports public PSE in Canada through myriad mechanisms such as tax measures, grants and loans to students, research funding, and the Canada Social Transfer (CST). This report was…

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) administers several veterans' educational assistance programs for servicemembers and veterans and their family members. The GI Bills are the most well-known and popular veterans' educational assistance programs. The VA estimated that it provided $10.2 billion in benefits to over 800,000 participants in…