This brief presents the results of a fiscal analysis of the Iowa Education Savings Account Program. The Iowa Education Savings Account Program offers eligible parents the opportunity to receive their children's per-pupil state funding directly into a parent-controlled education savings account (ESA), a fund earmarked for educational expenses. This…

A result of the last recession was the closure or merging of many higher education institutions (HEIs) throughout the New England region. In October 2019, the New England Board of Higher Education (NEBHE) in convened a group of economists and higher education leaders at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston to talk about "The Future of Higher…

Students and families all over the country are saving, working, taking out loans, and taking steps to make college affordable. Yet they still find themselves facing an unreasonably high price for college, with unexpected, and sometimes untenable, expenses, and fall short of the resources they need to successfully complete degrees. Financial…

This Data Point uses data from four administrations of the National Postsecondary Student Aid Study (NPSAS:2000, NPSAS:04, NPSAS:08, and NPSAS:12) to briefly present trends in out-of-pocket net price for college, the amount that students and their families must pay to attend college after subtracting grants, loans, work-study, and all other…

The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) produced a study reviewing the K-12 funding formulas of all 50 states. In a section of the report, NCES examined whether states had designated funding for dual enrollment programs. They found that: "Sixty-four percent of institutions with dual enrollment programs reported that parents and…

This study used an expected utility framework with a mean-lower partial moment specification for investor utility to determine the asset allocation and the allowable contribution limits for qualified state-sponsored tuition savings plans. Given the assumptions about state policymakers' perceptions of investor utility, the study determined the…

A review of the current status of state prepaid tuition plans and savings trust plans suggests that there is an accelerating trend toward participation in such programs. Also notes competition among programs and some problems (such as a negative audit in Colorado). (DB)

Duquesne University's pay-now, learn-later plan is one device that could transform college-fee payment almost as much as the GI Bill did. The further away from college age the child, the more the school earns and the deeper the discount. Some other options are discussed including installment plans and special sales on tuition. (MLW)

Discussion of prepaid college tuition plans looks at their strengths and weaknesses and provides an analysis to illustrate their use as an alternative in funding a child's future education. It is noted that, although some financial planners argue against them, they can offer significant savings by locking in tuition rates. (MSE)

Programs allowing parents to prepay tuition at selected colleges and universities are gaining popularity among institutions but are found to be potentially damaging to the institutions' finances and reputations and to relationships among institutions. (MSE)

A Missouri proposal that parents be allowed to set up special savings accounts for their children's college education that would be exempt from state income tax is described. It is compared to a plan in Michigan that allows parents to prepay tuition at colleges in the state. (MLW)

In 1979, St. John's Elementary School in Lawrence, Kansas, replaced its set tuition rate with the Educational Commitment Plan, under which parents negotiate to pay as much of their child's actual education costs as they can afford. This article describes the implementation of the plan and parents' reactions to it. (SJL)

The Department of Justice has ordered private colleges to turn over financial records for an inquiry into whether they violate federal antitrust laws in the way they set tuition and award financial aid. The practice of exchanging information about applicants so students receive comparable financial-aid is being investigated. (MLW)

This article discusses how representations of individual discipline and risk-taking in mass media inform the broader public discourses about public education and the public sector generally. Such representations and narratives about individual discipline and risk-taking often function in mass media as moral imperatives of consumer culture. Such…

The benefits, costs, and risks of prepaid tuition and state saving incentive plans to help families pay the cost of a postsecondary education are examined. After discussing why plans have been proposed, financing strategies and savings instruments currently available to families are reviewed. Three types of state plans have emerged: prepaid…