The Biden-Harris administration appointed Jordan matsudaira, Affiliate Professor of Economics and Training at Academics Faculty, as Assistant Below Secretary for Training, answerable for larger training coverage.

This appointment is the second main authorities put up for Matsudaira. In the course of the Obama administration, he served from 2013 to 2015 as Senior Economist after which Chief Economist for the White Home Council of Financial Advisers. In these roles, he labored on labor, training and security web insurance policies and laws, together with elevating the minimal wage for federal contractors. He additionally led a multi-agency staff that developed the Faculty Scorecard, an information device that gives college-specific info on pupil achievement.

“The Academics Faculty group applauds the superb selection of the Biden-Harris administration of Dr. Matsudaira for this key place,” mentioned TC President Thomas Bailey. “Dr. Matsudaira illustrates the Order’s dedication to the general public good. As a fellow economist, I may attest that he’s effectively acquainted with the problems dealing with US faculties and universities and their college students throughout this troublesome time – particularly points associated to academic fairness and disparities. financial.

“It’s deeply shifting and provoking that members of our excellent analysis and instructing school are performing public service by serving in authorities,” mentioned Stephanie J. Rowley, Dean and Dean. “It is a fantastic day for TC, for larger training and for the nation.”

Matsudaira, who joined the TC school within the fall of 2018, is taking unpaid depart to satisfy his new duties and can proceed to be a part of the TC school.

I’m honored by this appointment and delighted that President Biden and Vice President Harris have proposed numerous actually dramatic reforms to the best way we finance faculties that might broaden entry and scale back the necessity to borrow for thousands and thousands of low-income individuals.

—Jordan Matsudaira, Affiliate Professor of Economics and Training at TC, newly appointed Assistant Below Secretary for Training

“I’m honored by this appointment and delighted that President Biden and Vice President Harris have proposed numerous actually dramatic reforms to the best way we finance faculties that might broaden entry and scale back the necessity to borrow for thousands and thousands of low-income individuals, ”Matsudaira mentioned. “I look ahead to serving to make these measures a actuality.”

At some stage, Matsudaira mentioned, the Biden-Harris administration’s strategy to training will construct on the efforts of the Obama administration.

“There will probably be an identical give attention to increasing entry, whereas strengthening high quality requirements and necessities to make sure good outcomes for college kids,” he mentioned.

However, added Matsudaira, “proper now there’s an financial disaster and a public well being disaster, which requires a response in contrast to something the Obama administration has confronted. In the course of the Nice Recession of 2008, for instance, the disaster manifested itself in a really completely different means. At the moment, larger training noticed a flood of individuals looking for to amass or improve abilities. Now we’re seeing the precise reverse, with enrollments drastically declining, particularly among the many deprived teams that we usually wrestle to serve effectively in larger training. So we have to deal with the very actual well being points and financial constraints that preserve college students from going to school, and assist deliver them again.

To that finish, Matsudaira mentioned, the present administration’s program contains: making the faculty accessible and reasonably priced; present emergency help to schools to assist them climate the pandemic and reopen safely in fall 2021; enhance the flexibility of scholars to handle the money owed they purchase, by means of enhancements in mortgage servicing, cancellation of public service loans and income-tested reimbursement; and, generally, to guard college students from the “dangerous penalties of indebtedness”.

Dr. Matsudaira exemplifies the Order’s dedication to the general public good. As a fellow economist, I may attest that he’s effectively acquainted with the problems dealing with US faculties and universities and their college students throughout this troublesome time – particularly points associated to academic fairness and disparities. financial.

—TC President Thomas Bailey

“The president proposed to double the Pell grant and cross laws to make group school attendance free,” Matsudaira mentioned. “He needs to handle the heightened concern about pupil loans, particularly in order that low-income college students are usually not unduly burdened.”

Matsudaira had a big impact on nationwide politics throughout his years away from authorities. In October, a report he’s a co-author and has made worldwide headlines. He discovered that the variety of individuals dwelling in poverty in the USA had elevated by 8 million since Might 2020 following the expiration of the $ 600 per week unemployment complement underneath the CARES Act. The report additionally discovered that the rise in month-to-month poverty charges was notably marked for blacks and Hispanics, in addition to for youngsters. [Read TC’s coverage of the October report by Matsudaira and his coauthors.]

It’s a nice day for TC, for larger training and for the nation.

—TC Provost and Dean Stephanie J. Rowley

Earlier studies didn’t present up-to-date poverty estimates as a result of the federal authorities solely releases its official statistics every year. To offer a real-time snapshot, Matsudaira and his co-authors at Columbia College Middle for Poverty and Social Coverage developed a brand new methodology for making excessive frequency estimates of the poverty charge based mostly on month-to-month household assets. In its report, the staff urged “further earnings transfers … to alleviate additional will increase in poverty” – a suggestion since adopted by Congress.

“I’m very happy that Jordan Matsudaira is assuming the put up of Assistant Below Secretary within the US Division of Training,” mentioned Thomas brock, Analysis professor and director of TC Group Faculty Analysis Middle. “Becoming a member of an already distinctive staff, Jordan brings a deep understanding of the economics of upper training and methods to get issues executed in Washington. For instance, the Faculty Scorecard he helped create in the course of the Obama administration offers info on prices and different components that college students can use to make choices about which faculties and packages are proper for them. It embodies Jordan’s dedication to creating authorities information open and accessible to all, and utilizing info to enhance individuals’s lives. “

Becoming a member of an already distinctive staff, Jordan brings a deep understanding of the economics of upper training and methods to get issues executed in Washington.

—Thomas Brock, Director of the TC Group Faculty Analysis Middle

Previous to serving within the Obama administration, Matsudaira was Assistant Professor of Public Coverage and Economics at Cornell College, Visiting Assistant Professor within the Division of Economics at Princeton College, and Robert Wooden Johnson Postdoctoral Fellow in Analysis on well being insurance policies on the College of California, Berkeley. He was additionally a non-resident Fellow on the City Institute in Washington, DC, and a Fellow on the Rockefeller Institute of Authorities in Albany.