Photo: Eric Shelton/Mississippi Today

A new program intended to graduate more nurses in Mississippi may create more student debt and do little to fix Mississippi’s mounting nursing shortage this year, financial aid experts say. It could also put the state on the hook for tracking down nurses who default on the loans they’ve borrowed.

Mississippi is lacking some 3,000 nurses, about one-fifth of the state's entire nursing workforce, according to a recent survey by the Mississippi Hospital Association.

Photo: Olivia Sun

The question of how to draw more teachers into a profession defined by high stress and low pay has become increasingly difficult for administrators like Dave Slothower to answer.

Some rural Colorado schools are now turning to paraprofessionals employed in their schools, parents who may have never finished college and are intrigued by a career in teaching, high schoolers who show early promise in one day managing a classroom, and other prospective candidates eager to teach while earning their certification.

Delgado Community College’s chancellor grew up with a single mother. She saw firsthand struggles, triumphs, disappointments, and resilience.

In this essay, Larissa Littleton-Steib shares how her college responded when the pandemic pressured students who are also single mothers.