National Center for Education Statistics

Beyond degrees: Empowering Illinoisans through career-first education

By Josh Bandoch, Lauren Zuar
06/03/2025
Published June 3, 2025 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The best path to empowerment and success, especially for poor people, is work. Work allows us to prosper while providing dignity, upward mobility, the means to support ourselves and create value for others. It’s how we become thriving members of our community. Central to this process is our education...

Illinois’ low social mobility: causes and cures

01/28/2025
Published Jan. 28, 2025 Illinois Policy Institute Center for Poverty Solutions, in partnership with the Archbridge Institute By Joshua Bandoch, Ph.D., head of policy, Illinois Policy Institute and Justin Callais, Ph.D., chief economist, Archbridge Institute EXECUTIVE SUMMARY A low-income person’s ability to move up in society is worse in Illinois than in any other Midwestern...

Illinois shorts higher ed by nearly $530M compared to 15 years ago

By Patrick Andriesen
02/01/2024
Illinois’ institutions of higher education will get nearly $530 million less from lawmakers to run this year than they did in fiscal year 2009, adjusted for inflation. Coupled with rapidly rising pensions, students and their families can expect ever-higher tuition costs.