News & Updates

Mid-Week Reads: China and Student Loan Debt

by | Jun 1, 2016 | Other

Every week, North Star will take some time out of our schedules to bring you our favorite reads from the past week.

Jeff Van Wychen

China’s Twilight Years

China’s economy–which until recently appeared to be an unstoppable juggernaut–will be hampered in future decades by an aging population which will cause China’s workforce to shrink. While the United States has its own demographic issues to deal with, it will avoid the severity of the problem faced by China and other rapidly aging nations, thanks largely to immigration.

Stephanie Fenner

Student Loan Debt Vexing for Many Grads, But There Are Options

There are options for students who have trouble repaying their loans, but a new article from MPR notes that a new study found 94% of student loan borrowers don’t know the terms of their repayment plans. That could also mean they don’t know their options. This article profiles Minnesotans struggling to repay their student loans.

Failure is Not an Option

Despite Minnesota having $12.5 billion in one time money and a structural general fund surplus of $6 billion, there is no surplus in transportation funding. This report details decades of declining revenue from dedicated funding sources of transportation...

Underfunded Minnesota: Collective Investment for a Brighter Future

The current budget surplus represents an important opportunity to improve the quality and affordability of life for Minnesotans. For decades, wages have largely stagnated, while workers and families have incurred steeply rising costs for major expenses like childcare,...

Losing Ground: State Disinvestment in Students

Our first report, “Losing Ground”, has a simple but stark finding: over the last twenty years, per pupil state aid received by Minnesota school districts declined by 20 percent, after adjusting for inflation. As state aid has fallen off, school districts have asked...

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