Lumina Foundation is committed to increasing the proportion of Americans with high-quality degrees, certificates and other credentials to 60 percent by 2025.
Across the country, colleges and universities offer scores of programs designed to help students from underrepresented groups succeed in STEM education and prepare for tech careers.
Far less common are independent nonprofits that focus on students who don’t have the resources to go to college, don’t want to go to college, or don’t believe they can succeed in a demanding STEM program. These nonprofits offer short-term training programs, for free, and help with job placement.
Four months ago, a commission of Illinois higher education officials and bipartisan lawmakers unveiled their proposal for an ambitious new funding model that prioritizes adequate and equitable allocations for the state’s colleges and universities.
However, despite predictions that it could take years to advance, the state’s majority Democrats have formalized the proposal and introduced a bill in preparation for next year’s legislative session.
The U.S. Department of Education will begin emailing millions of student loan borrowers to let them opt out of President Joe Biden’s new policy to reduce or eliminate their balances, advancing an alternative plan to the program struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court last year.
Biden’s debt relief policies are sure to take center stage as the election nears, despite the president’s departure from the campaign. Vice President Kamala Harris, the likely Democratic nominee, has heralded the administration’s efforts to clear the ledgers for millions of borrowers and says she will continue the policies if elected.
The catastrophic rollout of the revamped Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA, has been beset by numerous delays, errors, and glitches that have hindered students and colleges ever since the form became available late last December.
Now, a new snag will further hamper the most vulnerable students, many of whom remain stuck in FAFSA limbo, still waiting for financial aid offers on the cusp of the fall semester.
At the outset of 2021, the future looked bright for 2U. As colleges scrambled to continue educating students in the aftermath of the pandemic, the online program manager was able to capitalize on a sudden shift to virtual learning the world over.
Ultimately, however, the tide changed for 2U, and it filed for bankruptcy last week. Keeping its relationships on solid footing and paying its university clients and other business partners will now be critical to the company’s success during the Chapter 11 process and beyond.
After nearly three decades, incarcerated people in the United States are once eligible to receive Pell Grants to pay for their college education in prison. More than 750,000 incarcerated individuals are estimated to be eligible today.
Yet, the promise of the Pell Grant restoration is, so far, a slow-moving reality, even though there has historically been significant interest among incarcerated people. Only 140 people incarcerated in Pennsylvania state prisons participated in a Pell-funded program last year. These facilities house approximately 40,000 individuals.
