Undergraduate college attendance has fallen almost 10 percent since 2020, but the decline is even worse among Black students. Some of this can be contributed to the negative perception that has plagued Historically Black Colleges and Universities for half a century. 

But it's also because many high-school counselors neglect to tell students about HBCU options, experts say. New research from the United Negro College Fund aims to reshape this narrative.

Despite its crumbling walls and tiny cells, the 112-year-old Washington State Reformatory was a sought-after destination because of its well-regarded college program. It took Thomus Davis more than a decade and several transfers to get there.

Then, in the summer of 2021, it all evaporated. Plans were announced to shut down the prison. Suddenly, the college educations of Davis and almost 50 others were in peril. 

Ongoing staffing shortages in the field of early childhood education have amounted to a five-alarm fire. In surveys, news stories, anecdotes, and just about any other source of information on the sector, early care and education providers say they are in crisis.

In this interview, Zahava Berman of the Ginsburg Solomon Schechter Early Childhood Center shares her thoughts on what’s at stake if nothing changes.