Scott Jenkins
Articles by ScottScott Jenkins was Lumina’s strategy director for state policy from 2015 to 2024.
Before joining Lumina, he served as education policy director to two governors: John Engler of Michigan and Indiana’s Mitch Daniels. He also served as director of external relations for Western Governors University, and as a deputy assistant secretary in the U.S. Department of Education in the George W. Bush administration. He is a member of the Illinois State University Board of Trustees and a Pahara Fellow.
Jenkins holds a bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of Central Florida and a master’s degree in higher education from Purdue University.
More from Scott
Keep Virginia moving forward: Accelerate efforts on workforce development and equity
To those who appreciate good government and the smooth transition of power from one administration to another, the scene of Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam and Gov. -elect Glenn Youngkin together represented a moment to celebrate.
Lumina’s policy agenda centers on helping states achieve racial justice and equity
Progress is about partnerships – in racial justice and education as surely as anywhere else.
In Lumina’ case, as we embrace a national goal of ensuring that by 2025, 60 percent of working-age adults have a quality credential beyond high school, that means partnering with others and encouraging best practices across the country through our State Policy Agenda.
There’s a better way to defuse racial tension and improve legislative debates
With the brutal killing of George Floyd and last summer’s Black Lives Matter protests, more state legislatures are debating measures that intersect with how we think about race in society.
States have to step up to help colleges face the coming budget storm
American higher education is in the eye of a hurricane. When the pandemic hit last spring, campuses were buffeted by the frantic transition to remote instruction, lost revenue, and emergency spending on health and safety measures. The country made it through the tough early months with unprecedented cooperation between higher education leaders, faculty members, and students—all determined to chart a course through the storm. As limited relief arrived from the federal government, colleges and universities settled unsteadily into a new reality.
States should exert their power to grant college degrees—especially for these three student groups
To jump-start their economies in the wake of COVID-19, states will need to do more than just reopen bars and hair salons. They must help millions of people gain the skills they need to work in a dramatically changed employment market. Most of those post-pandemic jobs in the U.S. will require education and training beyond high school. But higher education, as it operates today, can’t address states’ massive economic recovery needs.
Equity Narratives: I was an ‘accidental racist’ who helped deny education to others
I am the grandson of a rural, Southern sharecropper. I am white. I am male. And I am a conservative. And, while I am not a skinhead, member of the Klan or a White Citizens Council, I may have been equally dangerous. I was an accidental racist.