He has testified to the United States Senate and House of Representatives committees on education,[7][8] and has appeared as a commentator on CNN, C-SPAN, NPR, and other media outlets.

[14] He later became a Senior Analyst for the Indiana Senate Finance Committee, where he wrote legislation and advised the Democratic caucus on matters of fiscal policy.

[14] In 2003 Carey joined the Education Trust,[15] where he served as Director of Policy Research and created the CollegeResults.org graduation rate website.

[3] He wrote extensively on college affordability and accountability issues, and drew particularly wide attention for a Winter 2010 essay in the journal, Democracy, on the role of the American higher education lobby in elevating student costs and obstructing efforts to improve accountability and transparency.

[20] In 2012 Carey became Director of New America's Education Policy Program, which focuses its research on improving outcomes for low-income learners and expanding public access to information.