 Dear reader,
For two types of struggling higher-education institutions, President-elect Joe Biden’s historic inauguration tomorrow will bring something to celebrate. HBCUs will feel a sense of pride when Howard University graduate Kamala Harris becomes vice president, while struggling community colleges hope for a boost with a new first lady (and community college professor) entering the White House. “In times like these, HBCUs are uniquely equipped to train new leaders for a nation grappling with a pandemic of racism,” Dillard University President Walter Kimbrough writes.
The coronavirus pandemic, meanwhile, has created steep enrollment drops for colleges and universities. But while enrollment in higher education overall fell 2.5 percent in the fall, the decline among men was more than seven times as steep as the decline among women, prompting fears that we are losing a generation of men. At the same time, young student borrowers are struggling to cover the interest on their student loans. And there are new worries that the littlest learners, particularly Black children and those from low-income families, are spending too much time in front of screens. These are among some of the stories we bring you this week at The Hechinger Report — please send us your reactions and ideas.
Liz Willen, Editor
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