Daily Lumina News 052423

Black teachers are vital assets. Yet nationally, less than 2 percent of all public school teachers are Black men. Studies also show that Black students who are exposed to a Black teacher are up to 29 percent more likely to enroll in college.
Sharif El-Mekki is committed to raising the profile of Black educators—and to building a Black teacher pipeline by getting more Black students to and through college and into the classroom as teachers through the organization he founded, the Center for Black Educator Development in Philadelphia.

Three years ago this week, the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer galvanized a national conversation about law enforcement and systemic racism. Students and others on college campuses became increasingly adamant that higher education needed to rethink its approach to policing. Many college leaders were receptive.
But even though some higher ed officials gestured toward broader plans to reform their police departments, sweeping changes haven’t occurred—and in fact, some schools may be moving in the opposite direction.

After two years of free-falling college and university enrollments, head counts seem to be settling into a slow descent, according to a new report on spring enrollment data from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center.
Still, recovery remains elusive, and demographic shifts threaten to keep it that way.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has made education a preferred battleground in the Sunshine State, carrying out “Don’t Say Gay” policies in public schools and taking over the board of New College, a small public liberal arts institution in Sarasota.
New York Times columnist Michelle Goldberg has been tracking the changes there, and says that DeSantis’s vision for New College speaks volumes about his vision for America.

After more than a three-year freeze, payments, collections, and interest are scheduled to resume on federal student loans later this year. This is the ninth time—spanning two administrations—that the government has threatened to turn payments back on.
That means borrowers, advocates, and servicers must once again get ready for a financial and operational headache.

A new report from the College Futures Foundation is calling on colleges and universities to take more responsibility for students’ mental health—not just by providing more counselors, but by improving campus culture and climate overall.
Degrees of Distress examines through a racial equity lens how higher education institutions hurt and help student mental health, with the goal of informing policy, practice, and narrative for a national movement toward students thriving in college and beyond.