Daily Lumina News 082522

After months of speculation, President Joe Biden will officially forgive up to $20,000 of federal student loan debt for Pell Grant recipients and up to $10,000 for other borrowers making under $125,000 a year. The announcement is expected to impact more than 90 percent of the 43 million federal student loan borrowers.
Biden also extended the federal student loan payment pause through the end of 2022. In this interview, Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona answers questions about the Biden administration's plan.

President Biden's student loan forgiveness announcement, while welcome, barely scratches the surface of what’s needed to address higher education affordability and access.
The country needs more college-educated adults to prepare for the future. To help the nation get there, colleges must offer affordable pathways that deliver tangible benefits for individuals and society. Without dramatic action, new student debt will start to accrue immediately.

Like other community colleges nationwide, Dallas College has faced a tough struggle to keep students engaged and learning during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Where Dallas College stands out is what it has chosen to do in response. It is implementing two key strategies: free structured pathways for high schoolers to earn a credential and a comprehensive support network for food, housing, mental health, and other basic needs.

It’s difficult to focus on college when you are working 30 hours a week and worried about where your next meal will come from or how you’ll afford to get to class. Darleny Suriel know this reality all too well.
In this opinion piece, Suriel argues that doubling the Pell Grant can go a long way in helping first-generation learners and students from low-income families fulfill their college dreams.

More than 80 million Americans have a criminal record. That's a quarter of the entire U.S. population. For many of these individuals, finding meaningful employment is a long and difficult process.
The Second Chance Business Coalition aims to change that trajectory, expanding economic and life opportunities for those who have paid their debt to society.

Other than the minimum-wage jobs she’d held since age 15, Yasmine Nelson, now 19, grappled with uncertainty about what might come next as graduation at the Peace and Education Coalition Alternative High School graduation loomed.
A school counselor then pitched a surprising option: an operating engineer apprenticeship. It’s the kind of career training opportunity that few alternative high school students like Nelson—former dropouts or students whose studies were derailed by poverty, homelessness, or pregnancy—have access to.