Why are two colleges—the University of Northwestern, in St. Paul, and Crown College, in St. Bonifacius—suing their state over a change to its dual-enrollment program? The fight mostly boils down to this: whether high-school students have the right to take college courses, supported by state funds, at the campus of their choice—regardless of their faith.

The bigger picture, experts say, involves recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions and a series of similar standoffs nationwide over the rights of religious institutions.

As part of New York Gov. Kathy Hochul's plan to eliminate barriers to higher education, 125,000 graduating high school seniors will soon receive automatic acceptance letters from the State University of New York. 

Nationwide, college enrollment has noticeably lagged since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, when a significant number of students decided against a four-year degree in favor of joining the workforce or completing a certificate program without the hefty price tag or zoom screen. But a downturn in enrollment was in the works long before 2020.

Sara Martinez is one of the estimated millions of child-care providers known as family, friend, and neighbor (FFN) caregivers, which represents the most common type of non-parental child care in the United States. 

While FFNs are the largest group of caregivers in the country, it is a job that many in the field refer to as “invisible” in the already historically overlooked child-care workforce.