Using 1972-2000 data from the Consumer Expenditure Survey (CES), a nationally representative survey of spending conducted by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, this paper investigates changes in the income-based gap in monetary investments in children under the age of six, when most children typically have entered school in the United States. The…

Children experience the most rapid rate of development during the first three years of life. It is well understood that high-quality learning experiences that begin early in life can promote young children's development and help reduce achievement gaps. The purpose of this literature review is to review the research on supporting access to quality…

Making college education more affordable is a central goal of the Obama Administration and has been a focus of Vice-President Biden's Taskforce on the Middle Class. To that end, the Task Force asked U.S. Treasury Department to prepare this report on how to make Section 529 college savings plans a more effective and reliable tool for families to…

Focuses on ways in which parents of school-age children can offset the rising costs of college, including encouraging students to get summer and part-time jobs, putting savings toward students' education in accounts in students' names to save taxes, investigating cooperative work/education plans, and investing in mutual funds. (DB)

The filing of complicated applications for student financial aid is discussed and the complicated issues involved in improving the forms are addressed. Problems in "forms simplification" and "forms commonality" are described, and the need for a single need-analysis system is emphasized. (LBH)

This paper considers the use of parental fees and private insurance as sources of funding for early intervention services under Part H of Public Law 99-457, the 1986 amendments to the Education of the Handicapped Act. First, relevant legislative authorities are cited including the Maternal and Child Health Service Block Grant (1981) and guidelines…

A study to determine the number of dependent students making changes on parental adjusted gross income during the verification process is discussed. The study defined the number of dependent students who had a change in their Student Aid Index as a result of validation. (MLW)

Creative ideas recently emerging to help families cope with rising educational costs are reviewed, including state and federal level savings plans, alternative loan programs, guaranteed access plans, and public service proposals. (Author/MSE)

This paper analyzes the merits of proposals to encourage saving for college by permitting families to use funds accumulated in Individual Retirement Accounts (IRA's) to pay postsecondary education expenses. The paper argues that tax treatment of such expenditures might parallel that for expenditures of IRA's for retirement purposes--deferring tax…

The nature and scope of tax policies that affect higher education are sketched, concentrating on the provisions of the tax code that directly help families finance college costs. Attention is directed to: proposals to expand the range of tax benefits for higher education, the merits of existing and proposed tax schemes in times of reduced federal…

The purposes and known effects of student financial aid programs in U.S. higher education are reviewed. The rationale for the creation of federal, state, and institutional financial aid programs is considered, including state grant and scholarship programs, independent college programs, work-study programs, special purpose programs, and private…

An economic squeeze is being placed on colleges and universities through reduced federal and state aid to education. Discusses the history of financial aid, who is considered needy, whether accepting a student loan is wise, the new Direct Loan program, prepayment loans, using college debt to your advantage, and future trends in financial aid. (JBJ)

Current federal definitions and proposed alternative definitions of financially independent students, and the effect of the definitions on the numbers and attributes of independent students, are reviewed. Current federal law defines financial aid applicants as financially independent of their parents if they meet three criteria (the "tri-form"…

This literature review of factors affecting the postsecondary decision-making process, with special emphasis on parents' and students' attitudes and characteristics, focuses, in the first section, on research on these topics: (1) student and family characteristics (ability, expectations, motivation, race and sex, family background including…

A constitutional analysis is presented of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment of Senate Bill 550, the Packwood-Moynihan proposal for federal tuition tax credits for parents who pay tuition in order to send their children to a nonpublic school. The Supreme Court has developed a three-part standard under the Establishment Clause: the…