SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- With more than 12 million Americans unemployed, community colleges and technical schools are collaborating to help people retrain for new jobs.

About 1,100 institutions nationwide are contributing to the Opportunity America survey on workforce development. California Community College System Chancellor Eloy Ortiz Oakley said "upskilling" will be crucial to an equitable recovery from the pandemic.

"It isn't high-wage-earning, white-collar workers that have been impacted. It is blue-collar, front-line vulnerable workers at the lowest level that have been hit the hardest," Oakley said. "And these are individuals that community colleges have the greatest access to."

Ajita Menon is president of Calbright College, a state-run online community college. She said the survey results will promote best practices.

"It's a real tool for planning and innovation that we can share and understand and learn from what other institutions are doing," Menon said.

Colleges are being asked to complete the survey this month. Tamar Jacoby, president of the nonprofit Opportunity America, said she hopes the data will convince state lawmakers to allocate more for career education.

"The problem is, you have millions of Americans wanting these short, job-focused programs that the colleges are well positioned to provide, but in many states there's no way to pay," Jacoby said. "You can't use your Pell grant to pay for them. Most states do not fund them."

Salvatrice Cummo, executive director for economic and workforce development with Pasadena Community College, advises people looking for work to consider short-term community college courses that can lead directly to jobs in such hot industries as healthcare and computer science.

"Sit with the counselor and take a look at the programs that best fit your desires and interests and career path," Cummo said. "And have them share with you, what are the growth occupations?"

Cummo noted many of California's 116 community colleges now offer competency-based credentials that are designed to funnel graduates into fields that are in demand.


Support for this reporting was provided by Lumina Foundation.




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HARRISBURG, Pa. -- With nearly two weeks to go until the Commonwealth Court hears arguments about whether Pennsylvania's school funding system is unconstitutional, members of the Pennsylvania Schools Work campaign took to the state Capitol steps yesterday to highlight the issue.

The Education Law Center and the Public Interest Law Center are representing school districts, parents and educational organizations in the case, arguing the way schools are funded in Pennsylvania violates the education clause and the equal protection provision of the state constitution.

Deborah Gordon Klehr, executive director of the Education Law Center, said the demonstration was meant to show residents the Keystone State is failing to support public education.

"Eighty-six percent of Pennsylvania school districts have an adequacy gap, and what it looks like for students and the student experience is crumbling buildings or lack of technology, libraries that are shuttered, limited or no access to career-training programs," Klehr outlined.

Pennsylvania ranks 45th for the share of K-12 school funding provided by the state. The state constitution requires the Commonwealth to ensure there is a "thorough and efficient" system of education for all students.

Fifty percent of Black students and 40% of Latino students in Pennsylvania are concentrated in 20% of the districts with the lowest wealth.

Tomas Varela, director of advocacy and communications for the Urban League of Philadelphia, said it is time for the state to adequately support all students.

"When we fight for economic and social justice, we know that it starts with ensuring that our children have what they need to achieve their hopes and dreams," Varela asserted. "The fight for adequate and equitable funding requires a collective effort, a collection of urban, suburban and rural people who demand equal opportunity for all students."

The lawsuit is scheduled to be heard starting Nov. 12. The state Department of Education, state legislature leadership and Gov. Tom Wolf are among those named as defendants in the suit.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - California community colleges are joining a new national effort to help more adults of color gain credentials and degrees to close gaps in graduation rates and earnings.

Sandra Fried, vice president of the Foundation for California Community Colleges' Success Center, says taking part in the program will help the state's goal to eliminate those disparities by 2027. She points out that, like the rest of the nation, adult enrollment has dropped significantly in the pandemic, particularly for adult students of color.

"Adult students and students of color have been hit hardest by the pandemic," she said. "They have not enrolled in our programs in as high rates as they have in the past. And because they've been disproportionately impacted by the pandemic, it's really important to bring them back into our programs, and provide them the support and resources they need to be successful."

The $8 million initiative, called the REACH Collaborative, aims to provide Black, Hispanic and Native American adult students support for needs such as child care, transportation or academic counseling to help them cross the finish line.

Wayne Taliaferro, strategy officer for the Lumina Foundation, which is cosponsoring the program in California and five other states, said higher education wasn't meeting the needs of adult students of color even before the pandemic, facing barriers to secondary education that many white students don't have, such as limited financial resources.

"The REACH Collaborative aims to take an active step in shifting from this present reality at community colleges, where the bulk of adult students of color are enrolled," he said. "A lot of adults enter community colleges to gain skills for jobs at different entry points, but the onramps don't always lead to quality outcomes and better earnings - or outcomes at all."

About 40% of Black Americans, 58% of Latinos and 50% of Native Americans age 25 and older have only a high-school diploma, compared with 31% of white Americans, according to a Lumina Foundation report.

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Support for this reporting was provided by Lumina Foundation.

PIERRE, S.D. -- A new framework is moving forward for updating social-studies standards in South Dakota schools, and as the process took shape, a civil rights group warned the state is likely overstepping constitutional boundaries for earlier removal of Native American references.

The ACLU said even though South Dakota is starting from scratch, the state still is in danger of violating Equal Protection and First Amendment provisions under the U.S. Constitution.

It stems from removal of several references to Oceti Sakowin history and culture during the first attempt to update standards.

Stephanie Amiotte, legal director for the ACLU of South Dakota, said it prevents Indigenous students from feeling seen in the classroom.

"Any time a child feels welcome and feels as though they are heard and seen by being represented in the classroom, there's going to be a natural flow of receiving education," Amiotte asserted.

The removal happened after a working group developed a new curriculum and submitted it to the state. Gov. Kristi Noem paused the process amid criticism over the changes.

The ACLU called on the administration to include all removed references in any new draft, along with additional Indigenous topics.

A Noem spokesman said the group is misunderstanding the administration's approach, contending the standards in question remain in place.

Amiotte, an enrolled member of the Oglala Sioux Tribe, said while they are ultimately trying to ensure Native American students do not feel discriminated against, they also want to improve learning opportunities for everyone by fostering honest curriculum.

"We think that it's incredibly important for the well-being, not only of Native American students, to know that we are a state that includes all races," Amiotte stressed.

Meanwhile, the Board of Education Standards has adopted a new timeline. It includes opening up the application process next Monday for those who want to be part of a new working group that will help craft a plan.