Research Roundup

In a ground-breaking report, Getting Ahead or Losing Ground: Mobility in America, the Economic Mobility Project found that widening gaps in higher education between those coming from rich and poor families as well as disparities between white and minority children, are leading to a downturn in opportunities for the poorest families. Only 11 percent of children from the poorest families have earned college degrees in recent years, trapping most of them in the lowest income brackets in adulthood.

In Debtors' Prison””Prisoners' Accumulation of Debt as a Barrier to Reentry, CLASP and Brennan Center authors outline how financial penalties and the application of unrealistic child support rules undermines post-prison rehabilitation, undercuts long-term support for the children themselves, and prevents reintegration into society.

Like too many property tax relief programs, the tax savings from the Florida "Save Our Homes" program, which may be expanded by a vote next Tuesday, have gone overwhelmingly to the richest state residents according to a new report to be published in the Journal of Real Estate Research. The result has been a tax bonanza for owners of multi-million dollar homes. Similarly, a new study by the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute argues that property tax cut proposals by Georgia political leaders would come at the expense of working families who would likely see higher sales taxes even as richer residents would see tax cuts.