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.
Generative AI technology is rapidly changing the labor market, with more employers posting job listings that include AI skills for positions even outside of the technology sector, such as in health care, hospitality, and media.
To keep up, students are increasingly looking for ways to boost their AI skills and make themselves more marketable at a time when there’s growing fear that AI will replace humans in the workforce. Meanwhile, colleges are adding AI to their course catalogs, and individual professors are altering lessons to include AI skill building.
Juan Hernandez received his prison sentence when he was just a teenager. At age 32, he finally completed his high school education. The nearly two decades in between tell a story of bureaucratic barriers, arbitrary rules, and one man’s refusal to give up earning his education.
But what makes Hernandez’s story unique is the paper trail he kept throughout his fight—the letters he wrote to prison officials asking for access to education and the responses he received. The documents offer a rare window into the often-opaque process of prison education waitlists that keep thousands of incarcerated people from accessing education inside.
Nationally, 80 percent of community college students want to earn a bachelor’s degree, but only 15 percent go on to complete one, according to the Community College Research Center at Columbia University. That disconnect has higher education leaders in Pennsylvania seeking more transfer-friendly practices across institutions.
As part of the work to create a transfer-receptive culture, some colleges are implementing special housing options for transfer students, aligning curriculum with community college programs, providing scholarships, creating targeted advising opportunities, collecting student feedback, and gathering data on outcomes.
To the enormous disappointment of community college leaders, the Maine Legislature’s budget-writing committee voted last week in favor of ending the state’s free college program.
Since the program began, Maine’s community college enrollment has surged—enrollment of all degree-seeking students in the system jumped from 11,308 in 2022 to 14,278 in 2024. A total of 17,826 students have participated in the effort since it started, according to data from the Maine Community College System. Many hoped, and expected, the program would continue.
A 19-year-old nursing student at the University of Utah with no criminal record, Caroline Dias Goncalves was stopped by a deputy from the Mesa County Sheriff’s Office on June 5 and released with a warning after driving too close to a semitruck. Minutes later she was pulled over, arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, and taken to an immigration detention center.
Goncalves’ situation has shed light on the vulnerability of undocumented students brought to the United States as children, particularly as they pursue higher education.
When President Obama introduced the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program in 2012, it became a lifeline for countless young people like Gloria Rinconi. DACA didn’t just provide Rinconi with legal status; it also gave her hope and the tools to start building a future.
This Sunday marks the 13th anniversary of DACA. Rinconi describes the moment as both deeply personal and profoundly bittersweet. On one hand, it’s a reminder of the immense value of allowing people to work legally, access education, and live without the fear of deportation. Yet, it also underscores the persistent uncertainty DACA recipients face, living their lives in two-year increments, waiting for a permanent solution that remains elusive.
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