Daily Lumina News 061323

A growing share of high school students say they feel unprepared for college, academically and emotionally, and are choosing not to enroll right away.
The findings come from a new report by EAB, which surveys more than 20,000 high school students each year on their college-going plans. This year's results show a significant shift, suggesting that the long-term effects of the pandemic are stunting college enrollment.

The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program has helped undocumented young people build careers and families in the United States. But as DACA enters its 11th anniversary, the policy is under immediate threat in the courts.
Over the past 11 years, Reyna Montoya, part of the initial group of DACA recipients, has graduated college and now supports her community as a teacher. Montoya shares how DACA has created opportunities for her—and explains why Congress can and must do more.

As a sophomore at Bowdoin College in Maine, Solomon Aborbie had only a faint understanding of what he wanted to do with his life—or even what his options were. His mother and father, immigrants from Ghana, had worked in grocery stores and factories, so those were the jobs he knew the most about.
The turning point for Aborbie came during Bowdoin’s Sophomore Bootcamp, a mandatory job-training program that gives students skills, career options, and peace of mind.

Hope is hard to come by in prison. But last week, 49 incarcerated individuals in Wisconsin’s correctional institutions found a reason to believe brighter days are ahead. The students represent the latest group to earn certificates or associate degrees through Second Chance programs at several area colleges.
Advocates hope that success will continue to grow in the months and years ahead, not only in Wisconsin but across the country, when more than 700,000 incarcerated people become eligible for Pell Grants for the first time in nearly 30 years.

Last year, California created a $500 million program called Golden State Pathways to help prepare students for careers. With the state facing a $31.5 billion budget deficit, lawmakers want to claw back $400 million of the effort.
Esther Soliman doesn’t want that to happen. In her 44 years as an educator, Soliman is convinced that the Golden State Pathways program is the solution to getting students excited about learning.

Several lawmakers are urging the Biden administration to prepare an alternative plan to cancel student debt, as the U.S. Supreme Court could soon strike down the White House’s program for forgiving the debts of tens of millions of American borrowers.
Borrowers who hope to see their debts canceled are also eager for the White House to look for a backup plan.