America needs clear paths to learning and success after high school that make the nation stronger and meet the needs of today’s student.

No matter where you come from, what you look like, or how much money your family has, you should have what you need to learn, grow, and thrive. Read more about Lumina’s Commitment to Racial Equity.

Lumina Foundation works in partnership with education and business leaders, civil rights organizations, policymakers, and individuals who want to reimagine how and where learning occurs.

AREAS OF FOCUS

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Justice for Today's Students
Policies, practices, and beliefs—rooted in history and still affecting people today—keep many Black, Native American, and Hispanic people from the education and skills they need.
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Our commitment to racial equity
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Lumina wants to ensure quality education for all Americans.
Find out how Lumina's efforts support the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goal of Quality Education.
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The Nation’s Progress

The United States faces an urgent and growing need for talent. Many more people of all races, ethnicities, ages, and income levels will need college degrees, certificates, industry certifications, and other credentials of value to join or remain in the middle class.

Success Stories

Aggies Elevated students Bret Giebel (left) and Willy Wilson.
Focus Magazine
Utah State program links students to good jobs
Aggies Elevated is a two-year program at Utah State University that is designed to serve students with intellectual disabilities well – not merely by providing opportunities for learning, but also by helping students land competitive, “real-world” employment after they graduate. The staff-intensive Aggies Elevated program typically serves about 15 students at a time. As of…
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Daniel Castellanos shows off his signature salad outside The Pressroom restaurant in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
Focus Magazine
‘Special ed goes to college’? Not at Millersville
The goal of the Integrated Studies program at Millersville University is to fully merge its students into college life. The 25 students on the university’s southeastern Pennsylvania campus live with roommates who aren’t part of the program. No classes or social events are designed exclusively for them. They join clubs on campus, but they do…
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Focus Magazine
Western Kentucky serves students on the spectrum
Western Kentucky University’s Circle of Support surrounds high-functioning students on the autism spectrum. Within the Circle — which is a feature of the university’s Kelly Autism Program (KAP) — services are robust: everything from single-room housing to frequent attendance at required “study table” sessions. The sessions are staffed by KAP employees who tutor students on…
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Featured News
Black female voter, stock photo.
Sept. 30, 2020
Education, economic security, and the future of our democracy
By Jamie Merisotis
Not having the education required for today’s jobs poses a threat not only to our citizens but to our democracy. There is a strong correlation between levels of education and the allure of authoritarianism.
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Black female IT worker, stock photo.
Sept. 29, 2020
What the COVID-19 workplace can teach us about the work of the future
By Jamie Merisotis
The COVID-19 pandemic has been devastating to millions of workers who have been furloughed from their jobs—or even worse, are now facing permanent job loss. The effects have been worst on those with the misfortune to work in travel, hospitality and leisure, and food service, but every American worker has been affected.
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Essential worker, stock photo.
Sept. 28, 2020
Essential work is work only we can do as humans. As society shifts, more of us need to get better at it.
By Jamie Merisotis
A recent report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics has affirmed one of the already-enduring legacies of the pandemic: If you have a college degree, your work makes you safer from the risks that COVID presents.
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Female Engineer, stock photo.
Sept. 25, 2020
Employers should integrate serving others into work so people are not just collecting paychecks—they’re doing work that has meaning
By Jamie Merisotis
As some states begin sending out $300 supplemental unemployment checks to make up for the loss of extra federal benefit payments that ended in July, several—including New York and Pennsylvania—are boosting investments in new strategies for integrating work and learning.
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Delivery guy, stock photo
Sept. 24, 2020
The growing need to shift from ‘me’ to ‘we’ – and how our response to a new age of work can reinvigorate civic life
By Jamie Merisotis
Political and cultural divides are sharply defined right now, and they’re reinforced constantly—often corrosively—by our social media feeds. It’s a troubling time, one that makes many of us wonder if we’ll ever again be able to honestly use the language of America’s birth: One nation. Indivisible. E pluribus unum.
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Training stock photo
Sept. 23, 2020
Here’s what the federal government can do to prepare Americans for work alongside smart machines
By Jamie Merisotis
Our hopes that the COVID-19 pandemic would cause only a rapid “V-shaped” recession were never realistic and have now been dashed. After a brief stimulus-fueled job market recovery this summer, unemployment claims are on the rise again.
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Black soldier holding daughter, stock photo
Sept. 23, 2020
Let’s help military veterans get jobs by recognizing the value of their training in the service
By Lauren Runco
A promising initiative aims to solve a thorny problem for U.S. military service members and veterans: finding and keeping good jobs when moving to civilian life.
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Asian man at factory, stock photo.
Sept. 21, 2020
Politicizing the pursuit of education won’t preserve democracy, working-class jobs, or the dignity of work
By Jamie Merisotis
In a recent New York Times op-ed, Harvard political philosopher Michael Sandel takes issue with what he calls “meritocratic hubris’ and offers a response that would leave many Americans poorly prepared to protect democracy.
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Laid off worker, stock photo
Sept. 18, 2020
Today’s Fed report reminds us that being poor and less educated presents huge challenges for many American workers
By Jamie Merisotis
One eye-popper in today’s Federal Reserve report, which may not get a lot of attention given the cacophony of daily news, is that only 30 percent of American workers who were laid off from March to July had returned to work with the same employer.
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Doctor working with medical analysis stock photo.
Sept. 18, 2020
Here’s what it means to put racial equity first in the nation’s recovery and struggle for justice
By Danette Howard
It’s important, but not easy, to be hopeful at a time like this. We’re all reeling from the confluence of pain caused by the global health pandemic and the economic shockwaves that followed its onset. Our rational minds tell us that one day we’ll be on the other side of all of this…
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Online student engaged in online learning with writing implement in hand.
Sept. 15, 2020
A ‘closing argument’ for the national goal of 60% of adults having more than a high school diploma by 2025
By Jamie Merisotis
Since its launch 20 years ago, Lumina Foundation has focused on student access and success in the field of learning that takes place after high school. Today, that focus is more important than ever as society’s need for talent—and the drive to expand the proportion of Americans with quality education and training to meet this…
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Black man in white hard had in front of worksite with a blazing forge. Looks Photoshopped to the max.
Sept. 14, 2020
Workers Want Their Workplace to Pay for Upskilling. Their Employers Should Do It.
By Chauncy Lennon
Recent demonstrations against police brutality and headlines about racial disparities in COVID-19 deaths have not only elevated these particular issues, but also opened our nation’s eyes to the long history of systemic inequality in America. 
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Illustration of hands assembling a heart-shaped puzzle.
Sept. 8, 2020
We Need Organized Philanthropy — Not Just Charity — to Create Real Change
By Jamie Merisotis
Covid-19 has exposed the limits of markets and decentralization in responding to large-scale economic and social failure. As a nation, we’re finally beginning to realize that, for centuries, unfair policies, actions, beliefs, and assumptions have been specifically designed to disadvantage people of color.
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Chadwick Boseman with Danette and William Howard II.
Aug. 29, 2020
Howard’s Chadwick Boseman Was One of Us
By Danette Howard
I was sitting in my home office late last night, trying to fulfill a recent promise I made to myself to respond to all my emails before the end of the day, when I got the call from my friend Kobina. Like most of my close friends, I’ve known Kobina for over 25 years, since…
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Restaurant worker
Aug. 24, 2020
Overcoming COVID-19 obstacles to train restaurant apprentices
By Haley Glover
How do restaurant apprenticeship programs survive a pandemic? With help and strong partnerships.
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Brad Kelsheimer explains everything
Aug. 24, 2020
From a former higher-ed finance leader with three daughters in college: Here’s why I’m optimistic
By Brad Kelsheimer
For all who care about higher ed, it’s hard to imagine a worse set of health and economic challenges than what we face today. But there’s also room for optimism about how we might emerge with an education system that serves everyone better. Here are the three rays of hope – call them opportunities, maybe…
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Students studying in library
Aug. 13, 2020
To preserve our democratic freedoms, let’s cultivate service-minded, thoughtful citizens
By Jamie Merisotis
The work of the future will demand that people hone their human traits and capabilities to distinguish their work from that of smart machines. We’re long used to robots welding on the factory floor and ATMs dispensing cash. But with advances in automation, technology and artificial intelligence, machines will soon do most jobs and aspects…
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