Lumina Foundation is working to increase the share of adults in the U.S. labor force with college degrees or other credentials of value leading to economic prosperity.
Starting July 1, federal Pell Grants will become available to students enrolled in approved short-term workforce programs—between eight and 15 weeks long. For over a decade, community college leaders, career-education advocates, and bipartisan lawmakers have pushed to expand Pell Grants to support programs that quickly equip students with in-demand skills.
Yet concerns remain, including worries over program quality and oversight. What will it take to implement the program and deliver on its promise? Watch this video to learn more about the opportunities and challenges colleges face in the coming months and what the policy shift means for students.
A bipartisan group of senators is urging the Trump administration not to gut a program that helps low-income students go to college. Currently, the U.S. Department of Education's Talent Search program helps disadvantaged students and those whose parents didn't go to college with academic, financial, and career counseling. Now, the Trump administration wants to slash that program and redirect resources elsewhere.
In this interview, Lily Altavena of Chalkbeat discusses the impact of Talent Search grants and what could happen if they go away.
For Tyler Powe, a fourth-year student at Mississippi State University, taking out student loans wasn’t for covering tuition—it was for covering everything else. Despite earning significant scholarships, Powe, a business information systems major, says he still needed to borrow to pay for basic needs, even while working part-time in his campus IT department.
Powe is one of many students who say the rising cost of living—not just tuition—is pushing them to take on debt, according to a new report from Trellis Strategies.
When California State University paid OpenAI $17 million last year to give campuses unlimited access to a high-powered educational version of ChatGPT, the goal was to help students learn to use artificial intelligence for their education and future careers.
That contract is now up for renewal—but not everyone is sold on it. Some students and faculty believe that equal access to AI is important for preparing students for the workforce. Others argue that the implementation of AI tools has been confusing and creates opportunities for cheating.
The University of North Carolina System announced last month it was exploring the feasibility of offering degree programs consisting of around 90 credit hours rather than the typical 120. The UNC System’s curiosity about quicker, more affordable degrees is in line with national trends, appearing in some form in states like Massachusetts, Oklahoma, and Indiana.
But, unlike other states, the first step in the process for the UNC System was to ask instructors and administrators for their ideas in a formal Request for Proposals process.
When Lynaea McGee left college, she didn’t leave behind her dream of being a registered nurse. At the time, she was juggling school, a full-time job, two young children, and a husband whose career required frequent travel away from home. The hiatus she began in 2004 went on for nearly two decades, but it was just that—a hiatus.
McGee is among the 8,645 college “stopouts”—those who temporarily leave college with the intention of returning—in Oklahoma who reenrolled in 2023-24. However, according to new data from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center, Oklahoma is falling short of more than 40 other states in getting more of those stopouts back on track toward graduation.
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