Higher ed finance, workforce development, labor markets, and econ policy. Senior Director at Jobs for the Future. Alum of Aspen, Pew, EPI, and OMB. Views mine.
Joined May 2008
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76 Photos and videos
Ethan Pollack retweeted
Excited about this conversation on outcomes-based repayment models in workforce training with @HolzerHarry @david_socolow @Rachel_Lipson @ethanpollack & @jason_tyszko discussing a new paper: socialfinance.org/insight/le…
Event at @McCourtSchool at Georgetown on April 20, with Social Finance Institute, on my paper coauthored with @david_socolow on what we have learned about financing education and training with outcome-based repayment: socialfinance.org/event/less…
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Ethan Pollack retweeted
6 Oct 2025
Through income share agreements (ISA), students pay for their education as a percentage of their post-grad income rather than a flat up-front charge or a conventional loan where they are on the hook for a fixed monthly payment regardless of what they’re earning.
I sat down with @KJMumford of @LifeAtPurdue and @ethanpollack of @jfftweets to learn more about what they’ve learned from studying Purdue’s “Back a Boiler” ISA program—and what those lessons might mean for making ISAs a bigger part of the way students pay for college.
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27 Jul 2025
Context:
➡OBBBA will blow a >10% hole in the student loan market.
➡ Students will face financing gaps: some will drop out, forgo education entirely, or rely on risky private loans w/ no low-wage protections.
➡Institutions will need to step up to address student financing gaps.
24 Jul 2025
"Roughly two-thirds (58% – 74%) of [Purdue's] Back a Boiler students have paid less in the ISA than they would have paid in a comparable Parent PLUS loan." @ethanpollack jff.org/blog/promising-new-i…
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27 Jul 2025
🚨New Research🚨
Purdue's ambitious & controversial ISA program appears to have succeeded in providing an affordable, accessible, and nondiscriminatory alternative to Parent PLUS.
Super relevant now that Parent PLUS is capped and Grad PLUS is gone!
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27 Jul 2025
It's too early to definitively say if Purdue's ISA program was a success or not -- the vast majority of contracts are still in repayment. But this research should be encouraging to any institution looking to help its students address their financing gaps.
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28 Apr 2025
The new House GOP student loan plan looks similar to the Australian model: payment % is graduated (1%-10% depending on income) and no forgiveness. Main differences:
1. No earnings threshold
2. No interest capitalization
3. Principal balances guaranteed to fall by at least $50/m
28 Apr 2025
House Republicans have proposed a new student loan repayment plan that would - for borrowers who keep up with their payments - prevent balances from rising over time.
Here's how it works:
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Ethan Pollack retweeted
15 Apr 2025
Large scale job displacements due to AI are likely to occur more slowly than a lot of people talking about AI and work might suspect.
Translators were paid more and in more demand a year after GPT-4 than they were the year it launched.
15 Apr 2025
The BLS just released new OEWS data, so we can actually update this (it's an annual survey every May -- so this is 18 months of data post-ChatGPT, instead of 6 months)
From 2023 -> 2024:
(1) Translator real wages 0.8%
(2) Translator employment/employment share slightly up ⬆️
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7 Feb 2025
Making government more efficient is tough.
@TracyPalandjian proposes a common-sense (and bipartisan!) approach: what if government programs paid for outcomes rather than inputs?
Taxpayer dollars get higher ROI, and states & private sector get freedom to innovate new approaches.
6 Feb 2025
In @TIME, @TracyPalandjian outlines principles beyond cost-cutting to achieve true #government efficiency: evaluating programs for effectiveness, funding those that work, and using financial mechanisms to maximize #taxpayer dollars.
Read the piece here: bit.ly/3CSbcuW
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20 Dec 2024
The federal workforce development system is so ignored in DC that when its reauthorization (first time in a decade!) dies, it doesn’t even get an obituary.
Items in 1st bill that didn't make it to 3rd
* Act to ensure providers rural internet weren't ripping folks off
* Anti deepfake porn bill
* $ for research on premature labor
* $ for treatment of sickle cell
* $ for breast and cervical cancer early detection
* program for down syndrome research
* Hotel Fees Transparency Act
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Ethan Pollack retweeted
21 Nov 2024
How can you get ahead without a degree? There are 73 “launchpad” jobs where workers tend to earn more over time and have more job security than the median college grad, according to great research by @TheBGInstitute nytimes.com/2024/11/21/busin…
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Ethan Pollack retweeted
11 Nov 2024
It’s hard to overstate how much people hate inflation—and the lasting scars this recent surge caused. People across the board, even Democrats, mainly blamed the government (see the figure👇). Check the summary 🧵for "Why do we dislike inflation?" here: x.com/S_Stantcheva/status/17…
1 Apr 2024
Why do we dislike inflation?
🚨New paper for @BrookingsInst revisits this long-standing question, already asked by @RobertJShiller in 1997, with current data and survey methods. Some key findings:🧵 1/10
socialeconomicslab.org/resea…
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6 Nov 2024
At @AEIeducation post-election event:
@PrestonCooper93: “Workforce development is one bipartisan area that a divided Congress might actually be able to make progress on.”
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22 Oct 2024
If med school grads are more sensitive to substitution effects rather than income/wealth effects, it’s better & cheaper to intervene on the margins.
E.g. @StanfordLaw Flywheel Program — an outcomes-based renewable fund — gets you a lot more bang for buck. reuters.com/legal/transactio…
22 Oct 2024
Turns out making med school tuition-free regardless of what/where you choose to practice isn't enough to get NYU-trained doctors to practice rural primary care. How was this even a working hypothesis?
theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv…
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Ethan Pollack retweeted
8 Oct 2024
Such a good bit of reporting from @rmc031
vox.com/politics/375488/chil…
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8 Oct 2024
For different reasons, both the GOP and Dems are increasingly disenchanted by traditional higher education. The winds are shifting toward nondegree skills-based education.
@jfftweets has a plan for that!
jff.org/idea/eliminating-dea…
cc @jffdave
8 Oct 2024
I've got a new piece in @thehill on Kamala Harris' higher ed plan.
It has no mention of double Pell, free college, or future plans to cancel student debt.
But there's lots of talk about creating more opportunities for workers without college degrees.
thehill.com/opinion/educatio…
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Ethan Pollack retweeted
29 Aug 2024
It's been another crazy week in what may be the craziest year for borrowers -- here's where things stand with student loan forgiveness under the SAVE plan, other IDR plans, PSLF, and a new plan that could arrive in just weeks. forbes.com/sites/adamminsky/…
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