Searching for the Silver Buckshot: 30 years of Economic Development Policy

Written by Laurie Lachance, President of the Maine Development Foundation<

Economic development is, by its very nature, a long term endeavor which requires a system and structure that will ensure that we stay the course. While it is human nature to search for THE answer to our economic challenges, we must transform our thinking away from the search for the silver bullet and instead seek the silver buckshot – that myriad of smaller yet meaningful policies and programs that, when taken together, transform Maine and lift us to that next plateau.


View As PDF

Measures of Growth In Focus 2006: Performance Measures and Benchmarks

Performance Measures and Benchmarks to Achieve a Vibrant and Sustainable Economy for Maine

The state must encourage its citizens to develop their knowledge and creativity in order to add greater value to what they produce. By making this effort, Maine can attract jobs to replace those lost in its traditional manufacturing sector that, as a result of global economic forces, continues to decline.


View As PDF

Charting Maine's Future: An Action Plan for Promoting Sustainable Prosperity and Quality Places

Report by Brookings Institution and GrowSmart Maine
A major new study says Maine is poised for an era of dynamic growth-if we can pull ourselves together, make smart investments and stick with them over time.



View As PDF

Should Education be Publicly Provided?

Written by Phillip Trostel, Margaret Chase Smith Center for Public Policy

This report suggests that public provision of education appears to provide incentives for human capital accumulation which are more efficient than any other feasible policy.


View Web Page

Higher and Higher Education: Trends in Access, Affordability, and Debt

Written by Demos

In today's knowledge-based economy, a college degree is a necessary qualification for entry to the middle class. Over the last 30 years, as real wages for workers with only a high school diploma have fallen, the life outcomes for those with college degrees have diverged from those with only high school degrees. In 1977, for example, there was
only a 6 percentage-point difference in home ownership rates between those with college educations and those without. Today, there is a 20 percentage-point difference.


View As PDF

Mortgaging Our Future

A report of the Congressional Advisory Committee on Student Financial Assistance

America's global competitiveness depends on the ability of our high school graduates to earn at least a bachelor's degree. As in recent decades, financial barriers are a major factor in preventing large numbers of college-qualified students from earning a bachelor's degree, particularly those from low- and moderate-income families. These bachelor's degree losses are an unmistakable signal that our nation has yet to make the full investment in student aid necessary to secure our economic future—a dire warning that we are requiring millions of students to mortgage their fu¬ture and ours as well.



View As PDF

Borrowers Who Drop Out

Written By Lawrence Gladieux and Laura Perna for the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education

This report examines the experiences of students who borrow to finance their education, but are unable to complete their postsecondary programs. Many of those who drop out – particularly lower-income students and first-generation college-goers – discover a year or two into college just how much they will face in student debt were they to stick it out and graduate. These students likely did not have role models for successful degree attainment and, therefore, are easily discouraged from finishing their degrees. As a result, they find themselves in the worst of all worlds – accumulated student debt with no degree to show for it.


View As PDF

U.S. P.I.RG. ( Project on Higher Education )

This report looks at the issue of unmanageable debt as it pertains to college graduates entering two critical public service careers: teaching and social work. Given increasing dependence on student loans, borrowers graduating from four-year schools and working in these two public service careers often carry more debt than they can manage. The prospect of burdensome debt likely deters skilled and dedicated college graduates from entering and staying in important careers educating our nation's children and helping the country's most vulnerable populations.


View As PDF

A Generation Falls Behind Parents' Standard of Living

Kansas City Star Young

Adults today are feeling the deep impact of a shift from an industrial to a technology- and service-based economy, said Tamara Draut, director of the Economic Opportunity Program at Demos, a New York-based consumer think tank. They face higher costs in starting and sustaining families, building careers, finding affordable health coverage and growing assets, said Draut, author of Strapped: Why America's 20- and 30-Somethings Can't Get Ahead.


View As PDF

Debt Education: Bad for the Young, Bad for America

Writen by Jeffrey J. Williams

Federal student loans are a relatively new invention. The Guaranteed Student Loan (GSL) program only began in 1965, a branch of Lyndon B. Johnson's Great Society programs intended to provide supplemental aid to students who otherwise could not attend college or would have to work excessively while in school. In its first dozen years, the amounts borrowed were relatively small, in large part because a college education was comparatively inexpensive, especially at public universities.



View Web Page

America's Indentured Graduates

Written by the Christian Science Monitor

In today's information-based world, it's a must for young people to get a college education. However, graduates are now saddled with twice as much debt as a decade go, twice as many students have to borrow money, and three out of four students with $20,000 or more in debt are already working. This generation is trying its damnedest, but the cards are just stacked against them.


View Web Page