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.
Miriam Feldblum’s father, the only member of his family to survive the Holocaust, first came to the United States on a college scholarship, then applied for asylum to stay. Education, he told Feldblum and her siblings, saved him.
For Feldblum, who became an immigration scholar and then a college administrator, immigration and education have long been inextricably linked. It’s the driving notion behind the Presidents’ Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration, a national advocacy organization she co-founded and now leads.
For Laura Ann Castillo, juggling college with caring for her 11-year-old son, Mason, means carefully planning her class schedule around his school day. The 39-year-old student at Northwest Vista College in San Antonio attends classes Mondays and Wednesdays before taking the bus to pick up her son after school. The trip can take anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour, leaving Castillo with limited options for when she can take classes.
Priority registration has helped Castillo gain more control over that balancing act. Her experience, however, echoes a broader awareness gap among parenting students across Texas, according to new research from Trellis Strategies.
In July 2013, Detroit became the largest city in American history to file for bankruptcy, with its finances buried under $18-$20 billion in debt. Today, the story looks almost unrecognizable thanks to a growing population and billions of dollars in private investments that have reshaped the downtown's skyline in just the past few years.
But cranes and census numbers only tell part of the comeback story. Long before real estate rebounded, the region’s business leadership made a quieter, arguably riskier bet: that none of the physical rebuilding would hold unless Detroiters had the skills and credentials to fill the jobs it created. For more than a decade, the Detroit Regional Chamber has treated educational attainment not as an issue for schools and colleges to solve on their own, but as the region's core economic development strategy.
Since 2020, nearly 90 colleges have shut their doors or merged to stay afloat amid declining enrollment and financial strain. As of 2008, more than 300 liberal arts colleges have closed, making them the hardest hit. Unstable retention, increased debt, low endowment, and decreased enrollment all affect these schools' ability to remain viable.
Enrollment data show that 5.16 million students attend private institutions, of which 78.4 percent attend nonprofit schools. With the rise in closures, the educational path of students and the strength of the communities they're in decrease significantly, education advocates say.
The year 2026 is an extraordinarily difficult time for any parent with a child thinking about college and career choices. Artificial intelligence is changing the world with extraordinary speed. Recent polls show that 70 percent of Americans think AI is advancing too fast; only 17 percent of adults expect its impact to be positive over the next 20 years. As for young adults in the workforce, 50 percent think AI’s costs outweigh its benefits—and unsurprisingly, several commencement speakers trying to get the class of 2026 excited about the technology were booed.
Paul J. LeBlanc knows this reality all too well. He has spent two decades running universities and the past few years studying how AI is likely to affect them. In this perspective piece, he offers some advice for playing the odds.
Research shows that women who leave prison can find better success with college education and training and reentry services. In Indianapolis, an anonymous gift of $5 million to Marion College will support the Indiana Women's College Partnership. The program started in 2019 at the Indiana Women's Prison and allows women to study and obtain an associate degree and a bachelor's from the college while incarcerated.
Program director Justin McDevitt says the new funding will allow the program to add more support services for women leaving prison. That could include housing or employment help. The program may also be expanding to a men’s prison in Indiana.
