Business leaders gathered in New York City on April 30 for the release of Boosting Postsecondary Education Performance, a new CED report focused on revitalizing the American postsecondary education system. The release event featured welcoming remarks from CED Co-Chair Roger W. Ferguson, Jr. President and CEO, TIAA-CREF and keynote remarks from Jeffrey A. Joerres, a CED Trustee and Chairman and CEO, ManpowerGroup.

Charles Kolb, President of the Committee for Economic Development, is stepping down from that post after 15 years at the helm of the business-led policy group. Mr. Kolb, a former White House advisor to President George H.W. Bush, is leaving CED to become the president of the French-American Foundation, the principal non-governmental organization linking France and the United States. Mr. Kolb will assume his new post in July of this year.

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The Chronicle of Higher Education

As educators and policy makers strive to keep the United States competitive in the global tally of adults with postsecondary degrees, the Committee for Economic Development, a think tank, is urging business leaders to join them. In a report issued today, the group calls on business leaders to become "active advocates at the state level for the broad-access institutions that are so vital to the nation's economic future." Community and technical colleges and online programs are particularly suited to fill the country's higher-education-attainment gap, says the report, which was financed in part by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

By Caralee Adams, Education Week

The headlines may be about unemployment, but many business leaders say they can't find enough qualified workers. To solve that disconnect, the Committee for Economic Development, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization of 200 business leaders and university presidents, is calling for a national campaign to get the business community involved in college reform.

By Amy Matzke-Fawcett

"Unsustainable" was the byword Wednesday as more than 250 people gathered in Roanoke to hear three politicians piped in from Washington and two think-tank types discuss the nation's debt of $15.6 trillion.

Ferrum College hosted the visit to the Hotel Roanoke & Conference Center by the National Debt Tour, a traveling symposium on the perils posed by deficit spending, entitlements and a coming demographic crisis.

CED and the Brennan Center for Justice hosted a dinner on Wednesday, April 18th with NY LEAD, a new coalition of business, academic, and philanthropic leaders supporting campaign finance reform in New York. CED and NY LEAD are advocating for the statewide adoption of public matching for low-dollar contributions. This reform mirrors CED's policy recommendations made in 1999 and recently restated in our most recent report, After Citizens United: Improving Accountability in Political Finance. Dinner speakers included Sean Eldridge, President, Hudson River Ventures; Charles Kolb, President of CED; Jane Sherburne, Senior Executive Vice President of BNY Mellon; and Michael Waldman, President of the Brennan Center for Justice.

Washington, D.C. – The Committee for Economic Development (CED), a business-led policy group, today confirmed its support for campaign finance reform legislation championed by NY LEAD, a coalition of business, academic, and philanthropic leaders advocating for new campaign finance laws for New York state.

Joe Dashiell Reporter, wdbj7.com

ROANOKE, Va.—

It's like a five-alarm fire, but you can't see the flames. That's how one expert described the growing danger of the national debt, during a conference in Roanoke Wednesday morning.

Ferrum College sponsored the visit of the National Debt Tour to the Hotel Roanoke. The event included comments from Republican and Democratic lawmakers, and urgent warnings from budget experts.

On April 11, CED in partnership with CEAL (Business Council of Latin America), a non-profit network of business leaders from Latin America, hosted a day-long early childhood education conference for an intimate discussion about early childhood education advocacy.

By Damian Paletta, Wall Street Journal

WASHINGTON—The federal budget deficit appears to be narrowing slowly but steadily, as corporate and individual income taxes rise thanks to the rebounding economy.

The Treasury Department reported Wednesday that it collected $171 billion in taxes and other revenue last month, the highest March tally since 2008, when Bear Stearns was acquired at a government-run fire sale by J.P. Morgan Chase & Co.