Since the pandemic gained steam back in March, the drumbeat of stories about higher education’s impending demise has been nonstop. It’s true that some schools will be losers in the battle for students and resources. But don’t be surprised if overall enrollment, one of the sector’s most watched vital signs, doesn’t take a surprising turn this fall.
The Works Progress Administration (WPA), a federal agency created in 1935 to address the nation’s then-worst economic catastrophe, is getting a fresh look as we think about how to help millions of Americans left jobless in the pandemic. There’s a good reason for why. During its eight-year tenure, the WPA put more than eight million Americans to work on more than a million projects of public interest. These federal workers built roads and dams and electrified rural communities long-denied that necessity of modern life. Others were put to work creating public spaces, public art, and swelling the ranks of crucial service-sector jobs.
At a time when every bit helps, Lumina and other foundations are reaching out to local groups hit by the one-two punch of a public health crisis and economic implosion.
Indiana’s civic health is suffering. The state ranked 41st in voting in the 2016 presidential election and was 37th in voter registration during the 2018 midterm elections, with just 65.3 percent of Hoosiers signed up to cast their votes.
A global health crisis hurts even those who don’t fall ill, especially people with no formal education beyond high school who are caught in the economic riptide of soaring unemployment.
Lumina Foundation’s A Stronger Nation measures industry certifications for the first time, shows disparities in attainment persist among people 25 to 64 who are Black, Hispanic, and Native American
Lumina Foundation doesn’t usually find itself standing with the country’s major consumer brands. They have their mission, and we have ours. But a critical moment in the life of the nation has changed that.
NEW ORLEANS — A group of 19 students gathered on Zoom one Wednesday afternoon in late March, eager to discuss the use of the n-word: Who could say it, who couldn’t? Were there some instances where it was OK, and others when it wasn’t? Does it matter if it ended in an -a or a hard -er?