A 50 percent improvement in community college graduation rates would create $5.3 billion in taxpayer revenue as well as $30 billion more in lifetime income for the 160,000 new graduates, according to a study by Mark Schneider, a visiting scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, and Lu Michelle Yin, an economist and researcher at the American Institutes for Research.
Paul Fain
Paul Fain, senior reporter, came to Inside Higher Ed in September 2011, after a six-year stint covering leadership and finance for The Chronicle of Higher Education. Paul has also worked in higher-ed P.R., with Widmeyer Communications, but couldn't stay away from reporting. A former staff writer for C-VILLE Weekly, a newspaper in Charlottesville, Va., Paul has written for The New York Times, Washington City Paper and Mother Jones. He's won a few journalism awards, including one for beat reporting from the Education Writers Association and the Dick Schaap Excellence in Sports Journalism Award. Paul got hooked on journalism while working too many hours at The Review, the student newspaper at the University of Delaware, where he earned a degree in political science in 1996. A native of Dayton, Ohio, and a long-suffering fan of the Cincinnati Bengals, Fain plays guitar in a band with more possible names than polished songs.
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Most Recent Articles
April 2, 2012
A new faculty think tank says the completion agenda and its workforce fixation harm student access while largely ignoring government disinvestment in higher education.
March 30, 2012
Satirical fiction is targeting community colleges, which may be sign of the sector's deepening societal relevance.
March 27, 2012
The percentage of degree holders hasn't increased much during the Lumina Foundation's three-year push, but policy makers have jumped on the "completion agenda" bandwagon.
March 26, 2012
Allan Golston, president of U.S. programs at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, will be the interim successor to Hilary Pennington, the foundation's director of education, postsecondary success, and special initiatives, a Gates spokeswoman confirmed. Pennington, who steps down at the end of the month, has played a prominent role in the foundation's college completion push over the last five years.
March 22, 2012
Faculty groups at CUNY sue to fight general education requirements, saying graduation rate obsession will lead to weaker academic rigor.
March 21, 2012
Multi-state investigation of for-profits includes review of institutional loans and recruiting of veterans. But finding common targets is a problem, and investigators have yet to take on a major for-profit.
March 20, 2012
With a focus on job training and steady growth, Rasmussen College may look more like a local college than a for-profit
March 15, 2012
Colorado's attorney general on Wednesday announced a $4.5 million settlement with Westwood College Inc., over allegations that the for-profit higher education provider engaged in deceptive business practices.
March 14, 2012
With California's community colleges facing challenges that many say are insurmountable, the system begins to search for a new chancellor.
