MINNEAPOLIS -- Black women carry more student loan debt than any other group, and a national petition has been launched to cancel $50,000 in student debt for every borrower.

Supporters said it would help build a better future for Black women. More than 28,000 people already have signed the petition, asking the Biden administration to cancel out the debt, which advocates say will help close the racial wealth gap by at least 20%.

Shakya Cherry-Donaldson, executive director of the nonprofit 1000 Women Strong, said there is not enough focus on solutions to liberate Black women from the ever-growing burden of debt.

"We know that a Black woman who graduates with a bachelor's degree is paid the same as a white man who has a high school diploma; a Black woman with a master's degree is paid the same as a white man with a bachelor's degree," Cherry-Donaldson observed. "We cannot catch up, even with the education and the experience on our side."

U.S. Department of Education data show significant race-based differences in the amount of debt that students of color assume and can readily pay.

The goals of the campaign and petition are to empower Black women and close the gap on current trends. Minnesota is among the states with the worst racial gaps in areas such as wealth and educational attainment.

Studies show African American families are more likely to borrow than white, Latino or Asian families, and Black women often are the primary breadwinners.

Cherry-Donaldson explained they are looking for opportunities to build wealth.

"For our current families, but also to invest in things such as property, real estate, starting our own businesses, that all require capital or some type of loan process," Cherry-Donaldson outlined. "We are completely shut out because we are holding the burden of student debt."

She added the group hopes to find an ally in Kamala Harris, given her background as the first female, first Black and first Asian American vice president.

AUSTIN, Texas - A new national survey of community and technical colleges highlights the importance of job-focused education and training.

It finds 35% of students at these schools are taking non-credit courses that lead to industry certifications and credentials. That's a change from students who used to stick with academic courses designed to transfer to a four year school.

Tamar Jacoby - president of Opportunity America, the group that did the survey - said community and technical colleges offer students, whether they're 18 or 48, an affordable pathway to a career.

"Community college students can be job-focused or not job focused,' said Jacoby. "They can be learning welding or nursing or they can be learning liberal arts and sociology."

Texas' Commissioner of Higher Education Harrison Keller says many students enrolled in non-credit programs later pursue four year degrees, but on average, only 20% of community colleges allow students to leverage non-credit learning for college credit.

According to the survey, of the nation's 10.5 million community college students, about three quarters are older than 25.

Last week, the Austin Community College District announced a new partnership with Toyota Motor North America, called "Technician Training and Education Network," to begin next fall. It's designed to provide a pipeline to careers with Toyota and Lexus.

Chauncy Lennon, vice president for learning and work at Lumina Foundation, said the next challenge is getting more American businesses to cross-promote innovation.

"Get industries to come together and better identify their shared skill needs," said Lennon. "And then, signal those over to the community-college system."

A survey question about partnerships between community colleges and local employers found that only about 36% of employer partners offer workplace-based learning opportunities.

Support for this reporting was provided by Lumina Foundation.

PORTLAND, Ore. - A growing slice of the workforce is Hispanic, but a disproportionate number of Hispanic households don't have regular access to the internet. It could be cutting many off from the digital economy. An initiative is aiming to tackle this issue.

In Oregon, the Hispanic population grew 30% between the 2010 and 2020 census, comprising 14% of the state's population.

Diana Caba, assistant vice president for policy and community engagement with the Hispanic Federation, said one way to ensure people in these communities have the skills they need for the economy is to meet them where they are.

"Recognizing that new technologies are dramatically changing the workforce requirements of our economy." said Caba, "For Latino nonprofits that are engaged in workforce training to best serve the needs of the people they train the idea is to adapt a curriculum and develop capacity to prepare students and workers for the digital economy."

The Latino Digital Accelerator Initiative currently operates in ten states, including Washington and California, but not yet in Oregon. However, the need is great across the nation: as many as one-third of Latino families don't have regular access to the internet.

Caba said the Latino Digital Accelerator Initiative started just before the COVID-19 pandemic, which presented a new challenge.

"With the onset of the pandemic," said Caba, "that really led everyone from a panic to pivot moment of how do we administer these types of programs for the community knowing that that's exactly what this initiative is there to address - the lack of digital skills that are found in the Latino community."

Caba said the future belongs to those who are connected. She said that applies not just to people looking to connect to education resources like universities, but also for people who may be on less traditional paths like technical colleges and apprenticeships.

"To be able to still access quality training that will lead to quality employment," said Caba, "that really at the end of the day is what this initiative boils down to."

Support for this reporting was provided by Lumina Foundation.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - State Rep. Randy Fine, R-Palm Bay, is lashing out against the idea of Critical Race Theory, filing a bill to ban its use in all government institutions, including universities.

Critical Race Theory is described as an upper-level academic framework that examines whether and how systems and policies perpetuate racism. The topic has become a lightning rod for conservatives across the country, who claim it's being taught in grade schools.

Fine, who is white, has said the topic is inherently racist. However, state Rep. Geraldine Thompson, D-Orlando, who is Black, said that in grade school, she was taught European history.

"Not any focus at all on the free labor that our people gave that made the American economy a superpower that it became," she said. "And is it racist, then, that I only got European history? I think so."

Gov. Ron DeSantis already had issued a ban on discussing Critical Race Theory in public schools in June, in the racial unrest following the killing of George Floyd. Thompson said she believes African American history - which is separate from Critical Race Theory - should be taught because it's part of American history.

Thompson has filed bills advocating teaching African American history in schools. She noted that since 1994, Florida law has required African American history be taught in all 67 counties. However, she said, research by the Florida Department of Education's African American History Task Force has shown the law is being ignored.

"They have found that only 11 of the 67 counties are actually providing acceptable instruction in African American history," she said.

Thompson said what she considers "acceptable" is instruction beyond Black History Month. Fine's bill includes a 10-point list of what it calls "divisive concepts" to be banned. They include topics around sexism and "race or sex scapegoating." The proposal also bans teaching that one race or sex is inherently superior to another, that the United States is fundamentally racist or sexist, or that individuals are inherently racist, sexist or oppressive based on their own race or gender.