Daily Lumina News 071922

Nicholas Figueroa has decided to “stop out”: He’s putting his education at Queens College on hold to continue working—again.
Vacancies in the job market are attracting community college students and leading them to postpone finishing their undergraduate education. Educators, meanwhile, worry that students who put school on hold—and boast about rapid raises and promotions—could languish in a downturn.

More than one year after California lawmakers set aside $115 million to expand free textbook programs across the state’s system of 116 community colleges, the money remains stalled in the state chancellor’s office.
Officials say they can’t distribute funds until they finish developing an application for the colleges to fill out. That application is expected to be available to the colleges within the next month.

In terms of class size, it’s one of the smallest colleges in the country. In terms of land mass, it’s one of the largest.
For two years, students live on a remote ranch in California, where they’re required to perform at least 20 hours of labor per week, on top of a full course load. Deep Springs College is an experiment in education, designed to forge the leaders of tomorrow.

New research shows that approximately 39 million people in the United States have some college experience but no credential. That means they likely have some of the debt that comes with attending college, but few of the benefits.
Bringing these individuals back to college after an absence requires creativity and flexible, affordable options, experts say.