We investigated the extent to which practices considered developmentally appropriate and inappropriate varied by preschool program auspice (private, public school, and Head Start). Survey data from a 2010 national sample of 2,664 teachers of 4-year-olds provided teacher reports on the frequency of seven practices (e.g., offering children choices…

On August 24, 2022, President Biden announced that his administration would be cancelling $10,000 -- $20,000 of student debt for middle- and lower-income borrowers. Naturally, this announcement has unleashed a wave of follow-up questions among borrowers. This fact sheet is intended to help Californians with student loans navigate the process of…

A randomized experiment that measures the impact of a social policy in a sample of the population reveals whether the policy will work on average with universal application. An experiment that includes only the subset of the population that volunteers for the intervention generates narrower "proof-of-concept" evidence of whether the…

Recent changes to the federal student loan program will affect student loan borrowing, repayment, and debt. Payments on student loans, which were suspended during the coronavirus pandemic, restarted in October 2023. A new repayment plan introduced in August 2023 will significantly reduce interest accrual and payments for certain borrowers.…

In 2000, federally funded public adult education programs provided basic skills training and English language instruction to over 2.6 million students, or about 1.5% of the U.S. adult population. By 2021, enrollment had plummeted to under 900,000, or less than 0.4% of adults. What explains these declines? This policy brief describes the evolution…

This study examined students' encounters with and responses to poverty-based experiential learning during an undergraduate sociology class. Students' academic readings and experiencing real-life context were channeled through reflective analysis of public policy's implications. Students' writing, which had reflective and diagnostic elements, was…

The higher education access of poor, low-income, and working-class students is a powerful lever in combating poverty, promoting social mobility, and enhancing quality of life across socioeconomic strata. The college access of low-income students has been studied primarily through examinations of support infrastructures and the college-going…

This study provides the first empirical evidence on the extent of self-employment within the U.S. justice-involved population. Using linked tax return and Criminal Justice Administrative Records System data, we find that 28 percent of individuals with criminal records are self-employed. Justice-involved individuals are 22 percent more likely to…

Purpose: Ficto-feminism is offered here as a creative method for feminist historical inquiry in management and organizational studies (MOSs). Design/methodology/approach: This paper introduces a new method called ficto-feminism. Using feminist polemics as a starting point, ficto-feminism fuses aspects of collective biography with the emic…

Today, nine out of 10 Americans age 65 and older depend on Social Security benefits to lead a comfortable and secure retirement. Among all Americans over age 65, Social Security makes up more than half of their household income. This brief outlines the history of Social Security benefits in the public sector, describes the safe harbor rule and how…

Budgets are moral documents, reflecting our priorities as a nation by deciding where to allocate resources. Congress is targeting cuts and policy changes that limit access to health care, nutrition programs, and basic financial stability for millions of children, including Medicaid, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), and the…

Guaranteed Minimum Income (GMI) is currently the principal mechanism for fighting poverty and achieving social inclusion among a plethora of social policies in the European Union (EU). In GMI, education and vocational training hold a major role in fighting social exclusion and promoting social cohesion. The first part of the paper discusses the…

Several states have invested in 1915(c) Home and Community Based Service (HCBS) Medicaid policies to improve outcomes and reduce costs for children and youth with significant behavioral health needs, or Severe Emotional Disturbance (SED). However, little is known about these programs and the children they serve. Through a retrospective…

Emerging research tests the impact of United States Medicaid home and community-based (HCBS) waiver policy on outcomes for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities; however, this body of work has yet to be synthesized. We conducted a scoping review to establish what is known about the impact of Medicaid HCBS policy on the lives of…

Wages below the living wage are poverty wages for many households. For decades, teachers have been clear about the damaging impact poverty has on childhood development in particular, as well as on individuals and communities as a whole. Teachers experience first-hand the impact that poverty has on children, how it leaves children more vulnerable…