Far from providing relief for working families, recent proposals to eliminate school property taxes in Pennsylvania would increase taxes on the middle class while sabotaging the chance to adequately fund Pennsylvania schools for middle- and low-income families. This report provides the first estimates of the impact of property tax elimination…

"Budget of the United States Government, Fiscal Year 2018" contains the Budget Message of the President, information on the President's priorities, and summary tables. President Trump's 2018 Budget's defining ambition is to unleash the dreams of the American people. This requires laying a new foundation for American Greatness. Through…

The pace of income growth since the 1970s has been slower for Pennsylvanians than in the 30 years following 1945. In addition to being slower, income growth since the 1970s has also been lopsided, with a small fraction of the highest-income households capturing most income growth in Pennsylvania. This report examines the extent to which these…

Background: For a majority of the world's children, despite substantial increases in primary school enrollment, academic learning is neither occurring at expected rates nor supplying the basic foundational skills necessary to succeed in the 21st century. The significant lag in academic achievement tells us that simply making formal education…

There are 29 million "middle jobs" in the United States that pay $35,000 or more on average and don't require a Bachelor's degree. There are five Career and Technical Education (CTE) pathways that educate and train Americans for these jobs: employer-based training, industry-based certifications, apprenticeships, postsecondary certificates, and…

"Budget of the United States Government, Fiscal Year 2017" contains the Budget Message of the President, information on the President's priorities, and summary tables. President Obama's 2017 Budget makes critical investments while adhering to the bipartisan budget agreement he signed into the previous fall, and it lifts sequestration in…

This report presents data on job opportunities and skill requirements through 2018 arranged by the 16 career and technical education (CTE) career clusters in the Carl D. Perkins Act of 2006 (Perkins IV). These skill requirements reflect the length and extent of education and training required for the job. The authors detail changes in education…

The Texas Education Agency's (TEA's) 2017 Annual Report is intended to shine light on the agency's commitment to ensuring that every one of the more than five million public school students in Texas is prepared for success in college, a career or the military. In Texas public schools: (1) Graduation rates are at an all-time high and put Texas in…

This report examines Ohio's changing economy and whether Ohio is well positioned to meet the shifting skill demand. After examining job losses and job growth projections by sector and education attainment, findings revealed that Ohio has a projected education attainment gap for workers with some post-secondary education but less than a college…

"Budget of the United States Government, Fiscal Year 2014" contains the Budget Message of the President, information on the President's priorities, budget overviews organized by agency, and summary tables. President Obama believes the country must invest in the true engine of America's economic growth--a rising and thriving middle class.…

"Budget of the United States Government, Fiscal Year 2016" contains the Budget Message of the President, information on the President's priorities, and summary tables. The ideas offered by President Obama in this 2016 Budget are designed to bring middle-class economics into the 21st Century. They are intended to help working families…

Americans are struggling through the greatest economic downturn since the Great Depression. In recent years, a significant body of research and analysis has documented the breakdown of the middle class and the impact of the current financial crisis on family income, housing, and jobs. But few reports have examined these impacts through the lens of…

As with the collapse of the subprime lending industry, the showdown between for-profit colleges and the government shows how the aspirations of the underserved, when combined with lax regulation, make the rich, richer and the poor, poorer. For-profit colleges provide high-cost degree programs that have little chance of leading to high-paying…

For recent high school graduates, life is tough. In the past year, one in four young high school graduates was unemployed and over half were underemployed. In the past decade, recent high school graduates' wages have fallen by 12 percent to just $19,400 annually in 2011, below the poverty threshold for a family of four. The downward plight of high…

The evidence advanced in this report demonstrates that using tax credits to fund scholarships for students is both well-established and sound practice. Three existing credits allow taxpayer funds to flow to faith-based organizations, and one of those, the Qualified Endowment Credit, rewards contributions to more than a thousand charitable…