THE MIDDLE CLASS UNDER ATTACK HOW TO SAVE IT

At the Keystone Research Center, we have been chronicling for years the forces that are putting a tighter and tighter squeeze on middle-class Pennsylvanians.

Last week, we released a new report in partnership with the national policy center Demos that takes the temperature of the state’s middle class in the wake of the Great Recession. I’m sorry to say, once again, the patient is not well.

The state’s annual unemployment rate is the highest it has been in nearly three decades and the cost of going to college is on the rise.

According to the report, times are particularly tough for Pennsylvania’s young people, with state budget cuts to 18% of public university funding and a 7.5% tuition hike in Pennsylvania’s State System of Higher Education. Pennsylvania’s young people already bear the seventh highest rate of student debt in the nation — at approximately $28,000 on average.

At the Keystone Research Center, we have been chronicling for years the forces that are putting a tighter and tighter squeeze on middle-class Pennsylvanians.

Last week, we released a new report in partnership with the national policy center Demos that takes the temperature of the state’s middle class in the wake of the Great Recession. I’m sorry to say, once again, the patient is not well.

The state’s annual unemployment rate is the highest it has been in nearly three decades and the cost of going to college is on the rise.

According to the report, times are particularly tough for Pennsylvania’s young people, with state budget cuts to 18% of public university funding and a 7.5% tuition hike in Pennsylvania’s State System of Higher Education. Pennsylvania’s young people already bear the seventh highest rate of student debt in the nation — at approximately $28,000 on average.