Daily Lumina News 022120

Last April, Anthony White, a 29-year-old Marine Corps veteran, told a room of California state legislators how he had survived a semester as a cash-strapped student at MiraCosta College: He slept in his car.
Homelessness among American college students has become an increasingly visible problem, with those who attend community colleges hit the hardest. Many students are spending nights on friends’ couches or sleeping in cars. Advocates are pushing for solutions, including safer places to park overnight.

As North Carolina's community colleges struggle to raise enrollment, they are looking to recruit more of today's students—individuals older than 25. The push could help lift those students out of poverty and boost the state's workforce—but only if colleges get it right, advocates say.
Just getting them in the classroom isn’t enough. Fewer than a quarter of nontraditional, part-time students graduate, and many blame the structure of higher education.

Last year, Seattle made headlines for being the most highly educated big city in the United States—in large part thanks to the newcomers moving there with college degrees.
Those headlines, though, masked the trajectories of many who were born and raised in the area.
In South King County, more than 18,000 youth don’t have a diploma or a job, and that number increases by nearly 2,000 youth each year. A new report sheds light on what persuaded these individuals to leave school in the first place—and what can be done about it.

Squeezed by the demands of employers and students and the need to attract new customers, some schools such as Boise State University College of Innovation and Design and Southern New Hampshire University are starting R & D labs to come up with improvements to help people learn more effectively, match their skills with jobs, and lower their costs.