Education

In 2017, the government financed roughly $100 billion in student loans and provided about $30 billion in grants and $30 billion in tax preferences. This report examines the impact of such aid and a number of approaches to changing it.

In 2016, students pursuing higher education received about $91 billion in financial support from federal spending programs and tax expenditures. This report examines the distribution of that assistance among households, by income group.

This blog post explains how CBO analyzes the economic effects of federal subsidies for education and job training. It provides information on the basis for CBO’s estimates and the research that informs them.

In 2012, the federal government spent $531 billion on investment—for physical capital; research and development; and education and training—which represented 15 percent of federal spending and 3 percent of GDP.

In the 2011–2012 academic year, 9.4 million students received $34 billion in Pell grants. How would tightening eligibility or changing grant amounts affect the program’s costs or the number of recipients?

The interest rate for subsidized student loans is currently scheduled to double from 3.4 percent to 6.8 percent on July 1, 2013. What would be the budgetary impact of changing interest rates for student loans?

In 2011, the federal government provided $607 billion in grants to state and local governments, accounting for 17 percent of federal outlays and a quarter of spending by states and localities. Nearly half of that amount was for Medicaid.

During the past 40 years, federal spending for major means-tested programs and tax credits for low-income households more than tripled as a share of gross domestic product. In 2012, such spending totaled $588 billion.