Rethinking the structure and funding for career and technical education would not only open doors for more young people, but it would also help address the growing challenge the state faces in meeting the high demand for skilled workers.
Lane Glenn
Posted inOpinion
Freedom of speech must remain sacred
WHEN I WAS a teenage aspiring journalist in Oklahoma, working as a layout artist for minimum wage in the smoky, ink-fumed newsroom of the Midwest City Sun, I used the […]
Posted inOpinion
A nation of immigrants imperiled
In both of his terms in office, Donald Trump has taken aim at each of the principal ways that people from other countries can become naturalized United States citizens.
Posted inOpinion
Trump cuts would devastate community colleges, undermining lower-income students striving to better their lives
If enacted, the budget moves would wreak havoc on campuses everywhere, but especially at the nation’s 1,100 community colleges, including 15 here in Massachusetts, which enroll a third of America’s undergraduates, including the poorest, most underserved and vulnerable students in all of higher education.
Posted inOpinion
It’s time to turn the page on DEI
This crisis for colleges and universities did not begin with Trump, and we should not let his odious behavior and speech get in the way of thoughtful debate and reassessment of DEI policies.
Posted inOpinion
As minority enrollment slips at most colleges, Mass. offers way forward
And, at a time when the state faces real challenges to retain its talented workforce, the roughly 19,000 who graduate from UMass every year are overwhelmingly more likely to stay in Massachusetts than the graduates of private schools and contribute to our workforce.
Posted inOpinion
What higher ed leaders could learn from Project 2025
If we’re honest with ourselves, even those who find most of the ideas advanced in Project 2025 repugnant should agree that there are also ideas in the report worth paying attention to.
Posted inOpinion
Community colleges are not Harvard — and that’s a good thing
Even traditional liberals are beginning to wonder whether progressive ideology, or “wokeness,” on college campuses has gone too far, and become its own form of discrimination and free speech suppression.
Posted inOpinion
No Degree? No Problem
In a state where around 75 percent of jobs that pay family-sustaining wages require a bachelor’s degree, more than two-thirds of Black and Hispanic residents won’t even be considered.
Posted inOpinion
Mass. should add another high school graduation requirement
Make completion of the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) a requirement for high school graduation in the Commonwealth.
Posted inOpinion
Affirmative action is dead; long live affirmative action
“The big, well-funded, elite research institution is a particularly American phenomenon and represents one of the country’s greatest contributions to the world of knowledge. But…I wonder if America’s success at […]
Posted inEducation
Undocumented students are the key to our future
FOR A STATE that that relies as much on immigration as Massachusetts does, we are falling farther behind the rest of the country when it comes to economically competitive policies […]
Posted inOpinion
Gun violence keeps creeping closer and closer
ON MONDAY evening, February 13, 43-year-old Anthony Dwayne McRae shot and killed three students and critically injured five others in Berkey Hall and the Student Union on the campus of […]
Posted inOpinion
A college president’s assessment of DACA
TEN YEARS AGO, on June 15, 2012, Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano, directed by President Barack Obama, issued a memorandum to US customs, border, and immigration agencies: “Exercising Prosecutorial […]
Posted inEconomy, Education, Opinion
5 ways to avoid a skilled workforce crisis
IF YOU THINK it is hard to find workers for jobs today, just wait: It’s about to get a whole lot worse. That’s the biggest takeaway from a research brief […]
Posted inOpinion
Forgiving student loans is not the best policy
ANY DAY NOW, President Biden is expected to make an announcement that his administration will be cancelling up to $10,000 in college student loan debt for each borrower. A lot […]
Posted inOpinion
Uvalde comes nearly a decade after Newtown
NEARLY A DECADE AGO, on December 19, 2012, I shared this message with my college and our community about the worst school mass shooting in American history: It’s been a […]
Posted inOpinion
How Harvard could become a higher ed hero
IT MAY NOT always take money to make money, but it sure helps. Last year, according to the recently released 2021 NACUBO-TIAA Study of Endowments, Harvard University’s famed endowment grew […]
Posted inOpinion
College, sheriff team up to reduce recidivism
THE UNITED STATES puts more of our citizens in jail than any other country on the planet. While we have only 5 percent of the world’s total population, we have […]
Posted inOpinion
Lawrence no longer a ‘city of the damned’
TEN YEARS AGO, the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston released “Lessons from Resurgent Cities,” in which they set out to discover the “secret sauce” that enabled some mid-sized industrial cities […]
Posted inOpinion
Police, protesters finding common ground
THE MURDER of George Floyd was reprehensible and senselessly tragic. It was also, as an open letter from the US Major Cities Chiefs Association, signed by dozens of police chiefs […]
Posted inOpinion
How are community college students different?
An open letter to the president of the United States, members of Congress, the US Secretary of Education, all 50 state governors, state legislators, state education secretaries, and commissioners. THANK […]
Posted inOpinion
It’s time to invest in student success
ALL ACROSS AMERICA, according to the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center, just over half of the students who begin a college degree end up graduating. Not surprisingly, a higher percentage of students graduate […]
Posted inOpinion
Public higher ed isn’t really that public any more
THE BOSTON FOUNDATION and the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation recently released a new report, Grade Incomplete: Implementation of the Community College Funding Formula in Massachusetts. The report examines the “performance-based funding” formula […]