Daily Lumina News 042222

Millions of unemployed Americans qualify for federal benefits as dislocated workers, but only a small fraction of them participate in free education and training that could get them back on their feet. In Missouri, it’s about 4 percent.
Dissatisfied with that figure, state leaders are trying something new: Instead of waiting for unemployed residents to come to them, they’re recruiting.

As Americans expect more from higher education than ever before, and as states rely on public colleges to meet their education, workforce, economic, and even civic goals, the job of a public-college system leader has grown in importance and stress.
“It is a moment of immense opportunity,” says Nancy L. Zimpher, chancellor emeritus of the State University of New York system, “in spite of the divisive madness that slows us down.”

For their long hours spent in a difficult, always-on environment, child-care providers like Katherine Lantigua often make poverty-level wages. They also are disproportionately likely to lack benefits and to need public assistance.
Care work like Lantigua’s is often called “the work that makes other work possible,” a truth made especially clear during the pandemic when many day-care centers and schools closed and millions of parents were left struggling to watch their kids while still doing their jobs.

New research shows that colleges and universities have hired significantly more Black and Latino presidents and chancellors in the year and a half after the murder of George Floyd.
Two higher ed scholars discuss the data—and what it will take to give the trend lasting significance.