When it opened in 1973, Doña Ana Community College in Las Cruces, New Mexico, focused on relatively short-term training. It’s since branched out to acknowledge that many careers require education beyond a certificate or associate degree, and is helping students get onto a path to a bachelor’s degree. Comments from Mónica Torres, president, Doña Ana Community College.
Enrollment at both two- and four-year colleges has taken a big hit during the pandemic, and administrators must now convince potential students it’s worth their investment to return.
Monica Torres, president of Doña Ana Community College in Las Cruces, said one renewed focus is STEM – science, technology, engineering and math – a field many Hispanic students avoid because it can require more years of study, which might be hard to make their money stretch. She said she believes community colleges can offer a solution.
“There are times when students have to get onto the computer science highway almost immediately to graduate in four years,” she said. “So, we’re seeing more community colleges working on those lower-division research experiences.”
A recent Pew Research report found that Hispanic Americans are significantly underrepresented in the ranks of scientists and those in allied professions. Hispanics make up 17% of the total workforce, but only 8% work in a STEM-related field.
Torres said about 25% of students who say they want to get into a four-year university actually do, and that needs to improve.
“How do we think unconventionally about recruiting those students? Because not all of those students are 18- or 19-year-olds,” she said. “Some of the students we’re really trying to pay attention to are those students that are 23, 24, 25 and older.”
The New Mexico State University system has increased its focus on students transitioning from its branch community colleges in Las Cruces, Grants and Alamogordo, which Torres said is increasingly important.
“There’s a lot of students who say, ‘You know what? I want to start and I want to save money, or I want to start and I want to stay closer to home, or I want to start and I want to be at a smaller campus where I’m not feeling intimate by the size.’ This is a real opportunity for them, these sorts of transfers,” she said.
Since opening in 1973, NMSU branch community colleges such as Doña Ana have developed programs to support students’ transition to the main campus for courses that include criminal justice, pre-business and elementary and secondary education.
Support for this reporting was provided by Lumina Foundation.
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Pennsylvania spends an average of almost $20,000 per student per year on education statewide, but one candidate for governor has said he thinks that’s too much.
In his bid for governor, state Sen. Doug Mastriano, R-Franklin, has said he’d like to reduce public-school funding by $10,000 per child and give the rest to families for their choice of public, private or home schooling.
That would be devastating for the 1.7 million public-school students, said Pennsylvania State Education Association President Rich Askey.
“When you reduce the funding for schools by that much,” he said, “the first thing that’s going to happen is that teachers are going to be laid off, programs are going to be lost and class sizes are going to go through the roof .”
Askey said the teachers’ union has asked Mastriano for more details about his proposal, but hasn’t yet received a response. Askey noted that the increase in education funding in the past few years has been a bipartisan effort, led by Gov. Tom Wolf after severe budget cuts in previous years.
Askey said he sees the additional funding as an acknowledgment that supporting education is one of the most important functions of state government.
“When you’re funding public schools in Pennsylvania – or in any state at all – what you’re doing is, you’re supporting the next generation,” he said, “and you’re making our state stronger in the future and moving on, so that we can have the workforce, think tanks – we can have good, strong citizens.”
This month, Wolf solidified his legacy with a historic $3.7 billion education budget, which includes a $1.8 billion budget hike for the coming school year.
Disclosure: Pennsylvania State Education Association contributes to our fund for reporting on Budget Policy & Priorities, Early Childhood Education, Education, Livable Wages/Working Families. If you would like to help support news in the public interest, click here.
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A measure to provide in-state tuition to all Arizona high school graduates regardless of immigration status will be on the ballot this November.
Known as Prop 308, it also would ensure that DACA and undocumented students are eligible for public scholarships if they have been in the state for at least two years.
Slightly more than 2,000 undocumented and DACA students graduate from the state’s high schools every year, and Jose Patiño, vice president for education and external affairs for the nonprofit group Aliento, said they often have to pay 300% more than their peers at community colleges, and 150% more at public universities.
“The majority of the students who graduate who are undocumented, DACA students, just have this barrier that they can’t overcome,” he said, “cannot pay for college because you’re not eligible for traditionally how low-income students go, through FAFSA, and you also are charged significantly more than your peers.”
He noted that some especially high-achieving students can get private scholarships, but thinks it’s critical to expand access to college for all Dreamers. Twenty-two states allow undocumented residents to qualify for in-state tuition, and Patiño said he hopes Arizona will join them soon.
In 2006, Arizona lawmakers put another measure on the ballot – Proposition 300 – barring undocumented students from accessing in-state tuition, and it passed. Prop 300 also prevented Dreamers from getting child-care assistance or accessing literacy programs and adult education classes. But Patiño said it makes no sense to stop any student from realizing their full potential through postsecondary education.
“Education has transformational experience – specifically for first-time, low-income students, first-generation students,” he said, “where you not only are benefiting yourself, but you’re changing the trajectory of your family.”
He added that giving students a fair shot regardless of immigration status helps the economy; undocumented immigrants in Arizona contribute hundreds of millions of dollars a year to federal, state and local taxes.
Support for this reporting was provided by Lumina Foundation.
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Multiple studies have confirmed students across the country experienced significant learning loss during the pandemic.
Now in Los Angeles, 108 community organizations and local agencies are sharing $7.8 million in grant money to help kids catch up. The California Community Foundation just announced the grants, as the final installment of a three-year program.
Victor Dominguez, president and CEO of the YMCA of Metropolitan Los Angeles, said the funds help support 45 summer camps across the region.
“We’ve been able to engage more than 20,000 kids and teens in safe, high-quality sports, arts, fitness, civic engagement, and STEM summer enrichment activities,” Dominguez outlined.
The rapid response grants will also help the mayor’s office, Los Angeles Unified School District and the County Office of Education forge partnerships with community-based organizations going forward. The initiative is expected to help 86,000 kids, ages 5 to 17, right away, and reach another 136,000 in after-school activities this fall with tutoring, STEM classes and mental health programs.
Valerie Cuevas, director of education for the California Community Foundation, which oversees the grants, said the goal is to help restore some of what was taken away by the pandemic.
“Our major effort was to make sure that youth maintain connection to learning, connection to school; find a way to maintain joy, connection to peers, despite the heaviness of everything that was happening around us,” Cuevas explained.
She added the summer learning initiative was made possible by huge donations from multiple charitable organizations, including $3.3 million from the Ballmer Group.
Disclosure: The California Community Foundation contributes to our fund for reporting on Education, Health Issues, Housing/Homelessness, and Immigrant Issues. If you would like to help support news in the public interest, click here.
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