Voices of high achievers on student success
If you want to know how students feel about what they need to be successful, just ask them. Last month, Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society (PTK) invited 100 of the nation’s top community college students…
Commentary
Q&A: Advising ED’s secretary
California’s 116 community colleges serve more than 1.8 million students, which is about one-quarter of all community college students across the country. So it wasn’t a surprise when the U.S. Education Department (ED) asked Eloy…
Washington Watch: Courts delay federal vaccine requirements
Several recent court decisions have delayed implementation of the Biden administration’s policies to require Covid-19 vaccinations in defined circumstances. Some of these proposed federal policies may yet significantly affect community college campuses, but for now…
Lessons from the pandemic: The tech divide is real
As the pandemic spread across America in March 2020, community colleges and universities made a rapid and dramatic shift from the traditional to the virtual classroom. Already overworked distance learning programs now had the task…
Washington Watch: Pell’s public popularity
Amid an ongoing campaign to double the maximum Pell Grant, recent public opinion survey results show extremely strong support for the program. These results square with the programs’ longstanding bipartisan support in both the legislative…
Removing a financial burden
Paying for college is one of the most significant hurdles students today face, and the past year and a half presented more challenge and change than ever before. When the Covid-19 pandemic reached our communities,…
Washington Watch: House passes BBB; Eyes on Senate
After weeks of negotiation among Democrats, House on Friday passed the Build Back Better (BBB) Act (H.R. 5376) by the narrowest of margins, 220-213. The BBB is fiscal year 2022 budget “reconciliation” legislation, which means…
The national standard for a free college tuition scholarship
Delaware led the nation in 2005 when it became the first state in the country to offer two years of free college tuition to recent high school graduates. The Student Excellence Equals Degree (SEED) scholarship…
Have we found the gateway to transform community colleges?
Community colleges are certainly “having a moment.” Congress, states and private philanthropy have invested billions of dollars during the Covid-19 pandemic (including $10 billion just in the American Rescue Plan earlier this year). They see community colleges…
Washington Watch: Ban on Pell Grant eligibility for inmates lifted: What’s next?
The ban on Pell Grant eligibility for state and federal prisoners went into effect in 1994 as part of sweeping crime control legislation. It took 26 years to remove the ban. It was among the…