An important new report from Dēmos contains a wealth of data about what they call “The Great Cost Shift:” – the disinvestment in public higher education and the shift in costs to students and their families.
The report begins by saying “This pattern of state disinvestment and increasing costs threatens not just the future well-being of individual students, but also our nation’s longstanding commitment to equal access to higher education regardless of one’s socioeconomic background, as increasing costs are pricing low-income students out of an education.”
It ends by saying “Disinvesting in public higher education is a strategy that may realize immediate savings yet impose long-term costs in the forms of decreased social mobility, a diminished middle class, and a decline in long-term economic prosperity.” In between are graphs, charts, and text explaining what has happened, why it has happened, and what the impact is. Since it includes state-specific data, it is particularly useful for advocates for public higher education.