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.
President Donald Trump’s funding battle with the nation’s research universities has made headlines for months. But the federal government is also looking to reshape a less-talked-about component of higher education that serves well over one million students: adult education.
Given that the federal government has stated that it wants “to address the workforce needs of American companies” and “develop alternatives to four-year college degrees,” leaders of community colleges and adult-education programs say they are confused by the Trump administration's understanding about the value of adult education.
As colleges nationwide grapple with the U.S. Supreme Court's 2023 ban on race-conscious admissions, a new report from the Institute for Higher Education Policy examines California's 27-year experience navigating similar restrictions—offering lessons for institutions seeking to expand access while maintaining diversity.
The research brief documents how California has worked to broaden college opportunity since voters approved Proposition 209 in 1996, which effectively banned affirmative action in the state's public colleges and universities.
Colleges and universities across the country are under extreme pressure, financially and politically. Their students are feeling stressed out, too. Many are juggling not just homework but also jobs and families. Artificial intelligence is changing how they study and how they are taught. Seniors fear facing an uncertain world post-graduation.
As political battles upend college campuses, dozens of students share what is on their minds as they plan for the future.
Americans are living longer than ever, yet our learning and employment systems remain rooted in a 20th-century model: learn early, work linearly, retire briefly. There’s no national roadmap for redesign, no coordinated strategy for navigating the 100-year life that many people now expect to live.
So, what if we reimagined these systems for the full arc of life? And what happens if we don’t? Holly Zanville, research professor at the George Washington University Institute of Public Policy and founder of the Learn and Work Ecosystem Library, answers those questions and more.
If you ask Jodeah Wilson how his life got off track, he’ll say it’s all about money. He needs money for November rent. He also needs money to pay back the tuition he owes for the spring semester at Sacramento State University, which would allow him to re-enroll. Until then, he’s stuck in limbo.
To state leaders and researchers, though, it’s more than just money. California has nearly 500,000 young people ages 16 to 24 who are in the same predicament, neither working nor in school. Finding them a job is part of the solution, but it goes much deeper than that. Many are struggling socially and emotionally, too, making it even harder to move forward.
A college degree remains one of the most reliable ways to increase lifetime earnings. But not all degrees are created equal, and not all students have the same opportunity to make informed decisions about what they study.
For many students, especially those who are the first in their families to attend college, choosing a major is anything but simple. The path from interest to degree to career is often unclear. And if colleges do not help students connect the dots, outcomes will continue to reflect access gaps that have little to do with talent or potential.
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