Research

The recent debate and negotiations this week in Congress over student loans has me fuming.  The primary question is whether or not to increase interest rates on subsidized Stafford loans, loans that go to students from families that earn less than $70,000 a year.  Regardless of whether they agree to raise or maintain interest rates […]

The Pew Center on the States recently published an interactive graphic on job gains and losses among the states.  Using Bureau of Labor Statistics data, they examine annual percent changes (April to April) in the number of employed persons in each state between 2007 and 2012. This interactive graphic is conceptually very similar to the […]

Earlier today our office released my latest Stat Chat publication, Virginia’s Health Rankings.  The publication presents data from the America’s Health Rankings and County Health Rankings & Roadmaps projects.  These data sources include annually updated health rankings of the 50 states and of all counties in the U.S, as produced by the United Health Foundation, […]

Quinnipiac University released it’s latest poll of Virginia’s registered voters with President Obama holding a 47 to 42 percent lead over Republican challenger Mitt Romney in a match-up.  Obama has maintained a consistent lead over Romney in all Quinnipiac polls since the beginning of the year, but there is one question that I am looking at […]

Although the recession is officially over, recent jobs reports, stock market volatility, and other news indicate continued struggles and heightened insecurity for nearly all demographic groups: U.S. teens face their highest jobless rates in decades and nearly half of high school graduates who were unable to attend college are seeking full-time employment. While job prospects […]

For 2012 election-related commentary, please see these recent posts : Forget Ohio, it’s all about Virginia…and demographics Virginia Votes 2012 Virginia Votes 2012:  Turnout across localities Lower turnout in 2012 makes the case for political realignment in 2008 After posting Climbing Mount NoVa in 2012 a few weeks ago, I had people ask to expand my scope […]

The last great recession began in December 2007 and officially ended in June 2009. But it doesn’t feel like it’s over. Even though productivity and in many cases corporate profits have rebounded, unemployment and underemployment remain high. We have seen this pattern after each recession since the 1990s and it has been dubbed “jobless recovery.”There […]

I don’t like filling out surveys as much as the next guy.  But I wouldn’t think the world would come to an end if I was told I had to do so.Yet, some of rhetoric coming from Right-wing blogs and the Republican Party would have us believe that the U.S. Census Bureau and the American Community Survey (ACS) are the […]

For 2012 election-related commentary, please see these recent posts : Forget Ohio, it’s all about Virginia…and demographics Virginia Votes 2012 Virginia Votes 2012:  Turnout across localities Lower turnout in 2012 makes the case for political realignment in 2008 As part of my larger work on the 2012 election in Virginia (which I plan to release […]

Last week, May 17 to be exact, marked the anniversary of the Brown v. Board of Education decision, the 1954 Supreme Court case that declared racially segregated schools “inherently unequal.” Reading an op-ed this weekend that relayed some of the benefits of racially integrated schools piqued my curiosity about the status of school segregation in […]