The Workforce Pell program, launching on July 1, faces a serious implementation problem. The accountability infrastructure it needs to distinguish between programs that open doors and programs that merely collect tuition doesn’t yet exist at…
Sen. Chair John Boozman (R-Arkansas), chair of the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee, this week released a proposal to reauthorize the Farm Bill, which governs the Department of Agriculture (USDA) programs. While the most…
Over the last couple of months, I’ve sat with presidents and system leaders from Alabama, Virginia, Illinois, California, Texas, New York, Wisconsin, Michigan and Massachusetts, just to name a few — and I’m watching something…
Something impressive is happening at California’s community colleges. In fall 2024, 58% of students taking a transfer-level math course for the first time completed that class on their first attempt — a 7 percentage-point gain in just…
Workforce Pell goes live July 1. What matters most for community colleges is which occupations got a green light in their home state. Pennsylvania approved 19 eligible occupations for the new grant, and North Carolina…
For decades, the federal government has helped millions of Americans climb the opportunity ladder by financing their postsecondary education and training. But it’s paid too little attention to whether the credentials actually moved them up…
I grew up not knowing what Juneteenth was. That’s not something I say with shame. It’s something I say with honesty. It wasn’t until I became president and CEO of Phi Theta Kappa and moved…
Employers continue to be concerned that recent college graduates are unprepared for today’s workplace. A recent survey conducted by Lumina Foundation and Gallup found that a little more than half of employers say American colleges…
On July 1, 2026, one of the most consequential workforce development policies in decades will take effect. On this day, after years of bipartisan advocacy, the Workforce Pell Grant program will officially go live. As…
Community colleges have earned their current moment in the sun. While private four-year institutions are seeing enrollment decline and public universities have grown modestly, community colleges have surged. They’ve added 173,000 undergraduate students last fall,…