Investigative Economics
Investigative Economics
Episode 19: The Academic Cash Pile
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Episode 19: The Academic Cash Pile

The Federal Student Loan Portfolio is Hemorrhaging Capital

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May 7, 2024
The Federal Student Loan Portfolio is Hemorrhaging Capital

As part of the legislation related to the Affordable Care Act of 2010, the Federal government took over providing the vast majority of student loans. Previously, the federal government helped underwrite low interest loans from private banks and other lenders. Now, the government lends directly to students through the Federal Direct Loan Program.

State Disinvestment in Higher Education Is a Myth

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April 29, 2024
State Disinvestment in Higher Education Is a Myth

According to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), college tuition has increased four times the rate of inflation for the consumer price index since 1978. Prices have doubled since 2004. The cause of college tuition’s hefty price hikes is regularly ascribed to the states—the largest funders of the state university system—who lowered their subs…

Foreign Contributions to Universities Dominated by a Few Countries

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October 22, 2021
Foreign Contributions to Universities Dominated by a Few Countries

Total foreign contributions—as donations or general payments—to American universities in 2019 almost topped $4 billion. That may only be a sliver of the over $149 billion provided by the federal government in 2018, but it's already double what it was five years earlier.

Faculty Spending the Larger Source of Growing Costs at Yale

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May 21, 2023
Faculty Spending the Larger Source of Growing Costs at Yale

A common explanation for the growing cost of college is the growth in administrators. More high-paid, non-faculty staff are being employed, driving up the cost of college on average, which has more than doubled over the last 20 years, outpacing inflation.

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