As I was growing up in a small North Carolina town, my parents often told me, “If you get an education, they can never take it away from you.” That idea shaped my path and still shapes how I think about opportunity. My parents were right: The benefits of education are permanent, and it remains one of the most reliable ways for people to gain stability, resilience and agency in a changing world.
What I also know now, after more than a decade of working in higher education, is that for education to work its full magic, academic opportunity must go hand-in-hand with financial empowerment. The education-enabled pathway to economic mobility has to be accessible, affordable and aligned with the realities of people’s lives.
Colleges and universities that want to truly make a difference in the lives of people on the margins must not only offer access to financial aid, but also a solid grounding in financial literacy, starting with guidance on how to borrow responsibly.
Read more at U.S. News.
