|
The State of Opportunity
The Bell Policy Center believes Colorado should be a state of opportunity — a place where all people can build better lives for themselves and their families.
Opportunity motivates effort. It unleashes the talents of individuals, feeds a dynamic economy, and stimulates creativity and invention.
Turning this vision into reality is the mission of the Bell Policy Center.
|
New Report: The Truth About Payday Loans
A new report from the Bell and the Center for Policy Entrepeneurship that uses data from the Colorado Attorney General's office to show that payday loans trap hard working Coloradans in a long-term cycle of debt.
With an average APR of over 350%, state data shows that these loans are harmful products that do not help people, but rather ensnare them in a cycle of debt.
Track the payday lending reform bill, HB-1310, with the Bell
A must read!
Looking Forward
Colorado's fiscal prospects after Ref C
“We want this report to serve as a resource to Coloradans as they discuss where to go from here. It compiles a reliable set of projections about future fiscal conditions and provides the context in which future decisions need to be made.” — Wade Buchanan, president, The Bell Policy Center
Looking Forward is written by a team of eight analysts from the Bell Policy Center, Colorado Children’s Campaign and Colorado Fiscal Policy Institute. They focused on the six-year study period of FY 2007-08 through FY 2012-13 — the last three years of the Referendum C time-out and the first three years of the new Ref C revenue cap.Looking Forward projects revenues and expenditures for the five largest state agencies, assuming a continuation of 2007 levels of service. It analyzes the effects of TABOR, the Arveschoug-Bird 6 percent spending formula and the varying forces that drive spending, agency by agency. It also looks at the future needs of the state’s capital budgets, including transportation and capital construction.
“The bottom line is that 2007 is probably as good as it’s going to get for state services. Services aren’t back to the levels they were at before the recession, and yet the challenge now is to prevent falling behind again.” — Wade Buchanan, The Bell Policy Center
“What we need now is a serious, informed, statewide discussion about the kind of state we want our children to grow up in. If we aspire to higher goals for our schools, colleges and universities, health care, transportation systems and more, then we need to start a conversation in Colorado about how we get there.” — Megan Ferland, president, Colorado Children’s Campaign.
Under TABOR, decisions affecting state revenues in Colorado are made by the state’s 2.5 million registered voters rather than the 100 state legislators.
“We can’t just take this information up to the Capitol and think we’ve done our job. This is something we need to take to Coloradans throughout the state. This is a conversation we all need to participate in.” — Maureen Farrell, executive director, Colorado Fiscal Policy Institute.
Visit the Looking Forward homepage
Link to Health Blog • Read the press release
|
The Health Blog is tracking the work of the Colorado Blue Ribbon Commission on Health Care Reform and provides a public forum to debate aspects of health care reform.
Come join the blog and help contribute to the open discussion about meaningful health care policy in Colorado.
|
|
|
Highlights and News
------------------------------------
Legislative Status Report
The legislative session is now CLOSED!
See which bills passed out of both houses
and those that did not.
------------------------------------
May 15, 2008
New report finds unionization increases economic opportunity for low and middle-income workers
The Center for Economic and Policy research in Washington, D.C. released a new report today that shows unionization raises wages for the average worker.
“Unions help low-income families achieve self-sufficiency, and they help middle-income families hold on to the American Dream. They have proven to be a major gateway to opportunity for thousands of Colorado families,” said the Bell's president Wade Buchanan.
Read the Bell's press release
.......
May 14, 2008
States Continue to Leave Adult Learners Behind; New Emphasis Needed
A new report from the Council for Adult & Experiential Learning compares how states perform on educating adults, and shows that significant numbers of adult learners have been left behind. In 35 states, including Colorado, more than 60 percent of the adult population has not completed an associate degree or higher. This lack of postsecondary credentials often translates into lower workforce participation and decreased earning power when compared with adults who have obtained college certificates and degrees. The report, Adult Learning in Focus: National and State-by-State Data, recommends a new emphasis on learners aged 25 or older to improve enrollment and graduation rates. It also finds that barriers to postsecondary education, such as difficulty obtaining financial aid, remain high for adults and must be addressed. These messages are fully consistent with the Bell Policy Center’s continuing research and advocacy on behalf of adult education and family literacy in Colorado.
Read the full report here
.......
May 8, 2008
Three Key Lessons for State Financial Aid Policies
A new working paper from the National Center for Postsecondary Research highlights three key lessons that states can learn from studies of the impact of financial aid on students’ college-going decisions. These lessons reinforce the Bell Policy Center’s message and continuing work on making college more accessible and affordable for all Coloradans. The lessons are:
1. When designing an aid program, information and simplicity are important. Research strongly suggests that the visibility and design of aid programs matter a great deal. Aid programs are most successful when they are well publicized and easy to understand and apply for.
2. All aid is not equal. Grants have been shown to be effective in influencing student decisions if designed properly, but support for this type of aid has not kept pace with inflation or rising tuition costs.
3. Need-based aid is more effective in increasing access for low-income students than other forms of aid. Research suggests that loans and tax credits are less effective than need-based grants in increasing enrollments, especially for low-income students.
The report, What Is Known About the Impact of Financial Aid? Implications for Policy
.......
April 29, 2008
Bell President Wade Buchanan testifies in support of House bill 1014 in front of the House State, Veterans, and Military Affairs committee today
Read the testimony to learn why the Bell supports HB1014 and how it would help strengthen Colorado's fiscal situation.
.......
Archive of Highlights
2008 • 2007
|
