The three remaining New England states are up there too: Connecticut (40.5 years); Rhode Island (39.8 years) and Massachusetts (39.3 years).

Nationally, the median age was 37.4 years.

More ...]]> The oldest U.S. states in median age are: Maine (43.5 years), Vermont (42.3 years) and New Hampshire (42 years), according to newly updated data from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The three remaining New England states are up there too: Connecticut (40.5 years); Rhode Island (39.8 years) and Massachusetts (39.3 years).

Nationally, the median age was 37.4 years.

More than 43 million Americans are age 65 and over—up more than 7% since 2010, compared with total population growth under 2%.

Moreover, more white people died in the U.S. last year than were born. That, on top of last year's revelation that minorities now account for the majority of babies born in the U.S., shows the nation will increasingly depend upon its young, largely minority population, to power the economy and the well-being of its aging white population, Brookings Institution demographer William Frey told The Washington Post.

Today’s global economy requires a highly skilled labor force that is prepared to compete on the world stage. Studies from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the U.S. Census Bureau, the Brookings Institution and the Conference Board have all identified building ...]]> While other states are experiencing difficult budget decisions, only New Hampshire has completely de-funded student aid

Today’s global economy requires a highly skilled labor force that is prepared to compete on the world stage. Studies from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the U.S. Census Bureau, the Brookings Institution and the Conference Board have all identified building and maintaining a highly skilled workforce as a national and local imperative. If we are truly concerned about our economic future, then ensuring access to higher education opportunities for all our citizens should be the No. 1 priority for state policymakers.

With the demographic changes rapidly taking place in New Hampshire, the future of our state’s economy is integrally tied to the future education of our residents. New Hampshire has long enjoyed the benefits of a highly educated populace, ranking third highest in residents holding associate degrees and ninth in those holding bachelor's degrees. However, when you look a little deeper, you quickly discover that the Granite State ranks near the bottom (46^th) in native population holding bachelor’s degrees. This indicates that many of our high school graduates who leave the state for postsecondary education never return. Additionally, the Carsey Institute at the University of New Hampshire reports we are at a 50-year low in the in-migration of residents to our state. If this trend continues. New Hampshire may well lose its economic edge.

Postsecondary education can produce millions in lifetime earnings

In 2011, the U.S. Census Bureau produced an analysis of estimated earnings over the course of an individual’s working life. The analysis revealed two important factors across all demographic categories: “higher earnings are both the result of higher likelihoods of full-time employment and the higher levels of education required for that employment.” This study demonstrates “a clear and well-defined relationship between education and earnings and that this relationship perseveres, even after considering a collection of other personal and geographic characteristics.”

New Hampshire state data bear this out. According to an outlook report prepared by the New Hampshire Center for Public Policy Studies for the New England Economic Partnership, “persons with lower levels of educational attainment claim a larger share of the unemployed (relative to their representative size in the overall population). [Conversely] … the higher the level of education attainment, the lower the unemployment rate for that group.”

Thus, it’s no wonder New Hampshire’s unemployment rates are lower than the national average, with so many of our residents holding postsecondary degrees.

New Hampshire will face skills gap

According to studies by the widely respected Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce, 64% of jobs in New Hampshire will require some postsecondary education by 2018. Numerically, these 486,000 jobs will span management and professional, education, STEM and healthcare fields. The key question is will we have the educated residents to fill these positions?

I regularly hear from business leaders already concerned about the skills gap of the current workforce. In an August 2012 article from the Laconia Daily Sun, Gary Groleau, corporate manager of labor relations and corporate development at New Hampshire Ball Bearing Inc., was quoted concerning the lack of capacity to train people for new work. "Without the infrastructure to educate and train people for these jobs," Groleau said, "the competitive advantage of the region and its manufacturers erodes very quickly. And this problem is not going to solve itself."

Another concern is both our rapidly aging population and the declining enrollment numbers in our state’s K-12 schools. In 2025 it is projected that New Hampshire will have a skills gap of 50,841 degrees. To bridge the current and looming workforce gap, New Hampshire must work to achieve higher levels of resident degree completion.

Direct student financial aid matters

General fund support for higher education is a wise and necessary investment. State support toward higher education is critical to our state’s economic and cultural future. Unfortunately, many New Hampshire students are being disadvantaged by the unprecedented lack of direct state financial support for their education. The situation for students will likely worsen, as federal Pell Grant funding for FY2014 will face a $5.7 billion shortfall. Low student aid leads directly to high debt, with New Hampshire students now ranking first in the nation for student loan debt at over $32,000 on average.

Most experts agree that need-based grant aid is most effective in ensuring that students can access higher education. Given the importance of higher education to our economic security, it is useful to explore how New Hampshire’s support of students in their postsecondary education compares with other New England states.

In 2011, the Legislature eliminated all student aid from the New Hampshire state budget. While other states are experiencing difficult budget decisions, no other state has completely de-funded student aid.

I believe it imperative that New Hampshire restore General Fund grant aid to the state budget for our neediest students.

A Brookings Institution study, “Beyond Need and Merit: Strengthening State Grant Programs,” reminded legislators that state grant programs are one of the core policy levers available that have a demonstrated ability to “affect students” access to and success in college. These programs should be designed to use taxpayer dollars as effectively as possible to increase the educational opportunities and attainment level of state residents.

It’s time for New Hampshire to get back into the financial aid business. I urge business leaders and all citizens to encourage policymakers to re-dedicate state resources to higher education scholarships.

Lou D'Allesandro is a New Hampshire state senator and former chair of NEBHE.

Clarification: An earlier version of this piece contained a table that inappropriately juxtaposed data from state agencies and the National Association on State Student Grant & Aid Programs.

On the very day that a Republican filibuster halted a Democrat-backed student loan bill that would have extended the 3.4% interest rates on subsidized Stafford loans, a key administration official went to Boston to pitch the president's goals on higher ed funding and a national think tank delivered ...]]> It was quite a week for student financial aid news.

On the very day that a Republican filibuster halted a Democrat-backed student loan bill that would have extended the 3.4% interest rates on subsidized Stafford loans, a key administration official went to Boston to pitch the president's goals on higher ed funding and a national think tank delivered recommendations on refocusing aid.

On the interest rate front, unless Congress can agree on a way to fund the interest-rate freeze, interest rates will double to 6.8% beginning July 1 for all new loans. Senate Democrats have proposed paying for the extension by ending a tax benefit for S corporations. The House had already passed a Republican-backed extension last month, which the Obama administration vows to veto because it would finance the interest-rate freeze by defunding parts of the health care affordability law.

• Also early in the week, U.S. Department of Education Under Secretary Martha Kanter spoke at Northeastern University and met with a small group of higher education leaders, including Massachusetts Secretary of Education Paul Reville and NEBHE's President and CEO Michael Thomas. Kanter shared briefly some of the department's goals for increasing college affordability including:
  - Making the American Opportunity Tax Credit permanent
  - Doubling the number of Federal Work Study opportunities for students
  - Revisiting the distribution formula for Perkins Loans, Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grants (SEOG) and Work Study to reward campuses that offer lower net tuition prices and/or restrain tuition growth; enroll and graduate relatively higher numbers of Pell-eligible students; and prepares graduates to obtain employment and repay student loans through education and training programs.

• The Brookings Institution, meanwhile, hosted Making College Affordable: Strengthening State Grant Aid in conjunction with the release of "Beyond Need and Merit: Strengthening State Grant Programs," a report from the Brookings State Grant Aid Study Group. Recommendations included:
  - Focus resources on students whose chances of enrolling and succeeding in college will be most improved by the receipt of state support.
  - Consolidate and simplify programs in order to make them easily understood by prospective college students and their families.
  - Design programs so that they not only help students gain access to college but also encourage success after students arrive.

• The New England states vary in the average state grant aid per student and the percent of grant aid based on need (as opposed to merit). State data collected in the Brookings report indicate that while the New England states provided less grant aid to students than the national average in 2009-10, the six states granted a higher than average proportion of state grant aid to students based on need:

For nearly 20 years, the print editions of The New England Journal of Higher Education (and its predecessor Connection) published a quarterly collection of facts and figures called "Data Connection."

It was a sort of ripoff of the underrated Harper's Index. The key was to cleverly juxtapose pieces of interesting data, with no expressed overarching context. ...]]>

For nearly 20 years, the print editions of The New England Journal of Higher Education (and its predecessor Connection) published a quarterly collection of facts and figures called "Data Connection."

It was a sort of ripoff of the underrated Harper's Index. The key was to cleverly juxtapose pieces of interesting data, with no expressed overarching context. The glue, in our case, was that the items focused on the range of issues that have made up NEBHE's bailiwick, namely higher education, economic development, demography and quality of life—New Englandness if you will.

The web has added freedom to our ability to publish information more frequently and with more detail. But the clipped and connected nature of Data Connection still warrants a place, so here goes ...

Number of registered users for U.S. Army’s recruiting game, America’s Army: 9,700,000 Frontline

Number of people in the real U.S. military, all branches, including reserves: 2,300,000 Wikipedia

Percentage of students whose score on the ASVAB: the Armed Forces Qualification Test between 2004 and 2009 made them ineligible to enlist in the Army: 23% Shut out of the Military, The Education Trust

Number of Peace Corps volunteers in Greater Boston: 212 Peace Corps

Rank of Greater Boston among metropolitan areas with the highest number of Peace Corps volunteers: 5 Peace Corps

Number of attorneys in the 200-member Massachusetts Legislature: 52 Boston Bar Association

Number before the 2010 election: 65 Boston Bar Association

Number of people below poverty rate who lived in New England suburbs in 2008: 675,000 The Brookings Institution

Number who lived in New England's big cities: 330,000 The Brookings Institution

Percentage-point increase in probability of admission among applicants with a family connection or "legacy" at 30 highly selective colleges: 23 Harvard Graduate School of Education

Increase in probability if the connection was a parent: 45 Harvard Graduate School of Education