MEMPHIS, Tenn. -- Un centro de Memphis, operado por "Goodwill Industries", busca cubrir el vacío de recurso que hay para los adultos que buscan obener su diploma de educación media o "High School". A nivel nacional, treinta y dos millones de adultos dejaron la escuela en "High School", el nivel medio, y se estima que tres millones más la abandonan cada año.

Una vice presidenta de Goodwill, Betsy Delgado, dice que el primer Centro Excel ("Excell Center") se abrió en Indiana hace una década. En ese entonces los adultos que no tenían diploma de "High School" tenían pocas opciones aparte de obtener un "G-E-D", que se basa en un examen y no ofrece el apoyo comunitario de una escuela tradicional. Delgado siente que el impulso de que quienes terminan su nivel secudnario entren a la universidad, a menudo significa que se pase por alto a los no graduados. Dice que en varias partes del país -especialmente en áreas rurales- esta población podría ser una solución crítica para la fuerza laboral.

"Pero pienso que es porque se le da mucha importancia a la post-secundaria, creo que la gente a veces no entiende que hay jóvenes que no pueden acceder a post-secundaria porque no tienen su diploma de 'High School.'"

Delgado señala que el Cento Ecxel no cobra por asistir y ofrece el cuidado de los niños y la consejería sin costo. Tambén hay asistencia disponible para el tansporte y otros elementos esenciales.

Según datos de 2019 de Indusrias Goodwill, el 81 por cieno de los estudiantes del Centro Excel consiguieron sus dipolomas de estudios superiores y siguieron adelante para conseguir créditos de "college" o certificaciones reconocidas por la industria.

Candis Dawson-Taylor es directora escolar del "Excel Center" (Centro Excel) en Memphis. Dice que la mayoría de sus estudiantes adultos abandonaron la escuela secundaria en su juventud porque eran transitorios, se embarazaron o tenían problemas de salud mental poe traumas de su infancia que derivaron en problemas de disciplina. Añade que muchos estudiantes van a la escuela y trabajan de tiempo completo con salarios mínimos.

"Los estudiantes quieren volver y recibir su educación, no se les está forzando. Y la mayoría del tiempo algo sucedió en la vida de esa persona, que la luz le llegó y dijo 'Necesto ser mejor, necesito mejorar por mi familia, ya sea por mis hijos o por mí.'"

Delgado dice que el COVID-19 empeoró la batalla cuesta arriba que enfrentan los americanos sin un diploma de "high school", mientras las cifras de desempleo muestan que la gente con menos educación han sido los más golpeados por la pandemia. Y teme por los estudiantes que batallan para terminar "high school" enla era del coronavirus.

"Y también nos preocupa que con muchos estudiantes cursando su nivel 'senior' este año, a través de mecanismos únicos, vayamos a ver un aumento en la gente que no ha terminado este año. Y eso será algo que tendremos corregir para los años venideros."

Los Centros de Excelencia de Industrias Goodwill ("Goodwill Industries Excel Centers") he han expandido hasta 31 locaciones en cinco estados, sirviendo a más de 45 mil estudiantes.

Virginia advocates believe more can be done to make higher education accessible to incarcerated people.

Only a handful of community colleges partner with less than half of the state's correctional facilities to help people obtain associate's degrees.

In 2023, incarcerated people became eligible for federal Pell Grants, supporting tuition costs for low-income individuals.

Terri Erwin, director of the Virginia Consensus for Higher Education in Prison, an initiative of the Virginia Interfaith Center for Public Policy, said the General Assembly can help grow the programs.

"I think that the General Assembly can be kind of a third leg in the stool in supporting the collaboration as it develops between the Department of Corrections and the institutions of higher education," Erwin asserted. "What might be needed depends in part on how those relationships develop."

Higher education's shift to technology was one big challenge in maintaining this access during the pandemic. She noted Virginia did not pivot the same way, yet technology solutions in states such as Tennessee and Maine provided secure learning management and intranet access to incarcerated students. Despite the challenges, higher education in prison has grown nationwide in recent years.

Studies show some benefits of these programs are a 43% reduction in recidivism and a 13% increase in post-release employment. Erwin emphasized the programs can be transformative for people.

"It's an opportunity to reenter society with just one more similarity to folks who have been on the outside all along," Erwin pointed out. "It helps to move past some of the stigma. It gives them a hook to put their hat on as they move forward in looking for jobs and telling the story about who they are."

Formerly incarcerated people reentering society face numerous obstacles. Programs such as SNAP and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families are proven to reduce recidivism by 10% but having a criminal background disqualifies someone's eligibility for both social programs and unemployment insurance.


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A new report shows Black girls are enduring disproportionate discipline, sexual harassment and public humiliation from school-based police and security guards in Miami-Dade public schools.

The report, "Keep Her Safe: Centering Black Girls in School Safety," compiles the experiences of Black girls and young women between the ages of 14 and 24, sharing their stories through surveys and focus groups about mistreatment by school safety personnel who make them feel unsafe.

Bayliss Fiddiman, director of educational equity at the National Women's Law Center, which produced the study along with the Southern Poverty Law Center, said the girls were being treated differently for their appearance, often unaware of the lines of sexual harassment.

"The girls express school security guards making inappropriate comments about their appearance that could range from. 'Oh, she looks ghetto,' or 'she's too big to wear that outfit. I would never let my daughter wear that,'" Fiddiman explained.

The report urged the school system to use proven behavioral interventions in such cases, rather than using policing, surveillance and harsh student punishment. Miami-Dade schools has not responded to a request for comment on the study.

Fiddiman pointed out in listening sessions, the girls also did not have a clear understanding of whom to tell if they felt violated. She argued it is an opportunity for school leaders to step in and explain school safety procedures by engaging students in the conversation.

"Schools can definitely implement policies around explaining what sexual harassment is, what boundaries are, what is safe and healthy," Fiddiman recommended. "That was missing."

The report underscored incidents of security using excessive force, such as a 16-year-old Black girl being slammed to the ground, rendering her unconscious and subsequently handcuffed to prevent a fight in 2021. In 2023, a Miami-Dade security guard faced allegations of attempting to seduce three teenage girls.

The Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Act in response to the 2018 Parkland shooting aimed to bolster school safety. However, it also led to heightened law enforcement presence in schools and increased surveillance measures.


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Advocates for the rights of people with disabilities have joined the Montana Quality Education Association in a suit to stop a school voucher bill in the state.

Montana is the latest to enact a plan allowing parents to pay private school tuition with public money. Senate Bill 393 is much more narrowly focused than Educational Savings Accounts in other states. In Montana, the money is limited to reimbursing services for special-education students and those with disabilities.

Rylee Sommers-Flanagan, executive director of Helena-based Upper 7 Law which is overseeing the suit, said Montana's version of Educational Savings Accounts requires special-ed students to renounce their right to a free, quality education under the state constitution and forgo federal assistance.

"In exchange for renouncing that, they can gain access to anywhere between $5,000 and $8,000 annually," Sommers-Flanagan explained. "Which, as we all know, is not enough money to educate a child for a year under any circumstances, let alone a student who may have special needs and may have particularity expensive special needs depending on the circumstances."

School voucher measures are growing across the nation, 29 states now having some form of them. The suit to block the Montana bill was filed in state court in Helena.

In addition to the critics' standard argument which holds funding Educational Savings Accounts with state education money comes at the expense of public K-12 classrooms, Sommers-Flanagan added the accounts will not make enough money available to adequately fund special-needs students anyway.

"It's a lose-lose situation," Sommers-Flanagan contended. "It's incredibly harmful. It appears just to be a gambit to try to privatize public money and to send it to vendors and to folks who have no accountability and no responsibility to genuinely meet the needs of kids who have disabilities in Montana."

Supporters have said they can do a better job educating their own kids than the state can because they understand the students' strengths and weaknesses.