Daily Lumina News 072721

The COVID-19 pandemic sent young schoolchildren home to finish their education online and shuttered child-care centers. Today, many schools and centers remain short-staffed and unable to safely accommodate all the children who need early education. This shift highlights the importance of quality early education not only to children’s development but also to the workforce.
Now, more colleges—with the support of states and philanthropies—are rethinking pathways in the field.

Campus tours are back, but most of them differ from how they were before COVID-19. They are smaller, and officials believe that's making them more personalized. They frequently require preregistration and sometimes a health assessment (by those on the tour, in advance).
College leaders are navigating carefully, with a focus on thinking outside the box. They also realize that the Delta variant could, at any moment, add an entirely new dynamic to the process.

Even as the labor picture in the United States improves post-pandemic, the manufacturing sector is still struggling to find enough skilled workers to fill open jobs.
A program called GEA2DAY aims to address that challenge by preparing inner-city high school students for high-skill, high-paying factory jobs.

The fate of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program was put into question once again this month when a federal judge in Texas ruled the program unlawful. The move blocks new applicants and puts others who have been in process for months in limbo.
Colleges can and should take several steps to signal their support for unauthorized immigrant students, policy experts say. This includes reaching out to those potentially affected with resources, financial assistance, and mental help services.