College as an Investment: Costs, Payoffs, and Financing

A college education is an important factor in determining future earnings, but the climbing costs of higher education in America have made paying for college more challenging in recent decades. Rising student debt was already a concern prior to Covid-19, but the widespread economic hardship brought on by the pandemic, highlighted existing inequities in higher education accessibility and financing. As the cost of college has steadily increased over the past 30 years, so has the need for student loans and other forms of financial aid. 

Join us for the Economic Mobility Project’s next virtual event, College as an Investment: Costs, Payoffs, and Financing, on Tuesday, July 11, 2023, from 11:00 am to 12:30 pm CT (12:00 pm to 1:30 pm ET), when we will share new research and explore policies and challenges impacting higher education accessibility and student loan financing for millions of American households.

Featured speakers

The event will feature opening remarks from Chicago Fed President Austan Goolsbee, presentations by the Chicago Fed’s Lisa Barrow, senior economist and economic advisor, and Gene Amromin, vice president and director of financial research. The presentations will be followed by a roundtable discussion with Makola Abdullah, president of Virginia State University; Jason Delisle, nonresident senior fellow in the Center on Education Data and Policy at the Urban Institute; and Lesley J. Turner, associate professor of public policy at the University of Chicago, Harris School of Public Policy. The discussion will be moderated by Stacey Vanek Smith, cohost of NPR’s The Indicator from Planet Money.

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