Photo: Rebecca Slezak

Colorado’s talent pipeline needs an overhaul. That's the conclusion of a report from Colorado Succeeds, an advocacy group made up of education and business groups.

According to the report, college students need more ways to finish classes quickly and learn skills that employers are seeking—and businesses need to do a better job of talking to students about career paths and partnering with colleges so that education leads to better-paying jobs.

Higher ed has been paying more attention to the idea of digital equity since the pandemic-era remote learning underscored students’ uneven access to computers and the internet. 

Now, researchers and nonprofit and government leaders are calling on colleges to think bigger, beyond their own students, to consider how they can lend their expertise and resources to make a difference off campus, too.

The Biden administration has won praise for its application for student loan forgiveness. The form for up to $20,000 of debt relief is fast and simple, and almost 26 million people have already applied.

But the rollout has almost entirely excluded one of the groups of people most in need of debt forgiveness—the incarcerated.