Amarillo College and its programs for addressing poverty among its 10,000+ students are the feature of a national publication's recent article.
The Atlantic on Wednesday published, "Colleges are no match for American poverty," a piece on steps Amarillo College and its leadership – including President Russell Lowery-Hart, fellow administrators and faculty – are taking to mitigate the effects of poverty for students.
At AC, those steps include an emergency expense fund, legal aid clinic, social workers and subsidized daycare. As the piece points out, AC's systemic approach to poverty is unique in American higher education and fills in tremendous gaps for struggling students.
While these programs and the eventual goal of an associate's degree have made community colleges "one of America's largest and most important anti-poverty programs," debate continues about to what depths American community colleges should go in alleviating something as individually complicated as a student's poverty status.
Click here to read the article.
Mike Smith is a digital content producer for Panhandle PBS. Contact him at mike.smith@actx.edu, on Twitter at @newsmithm and on Facebook.
Learn Here is sponsored by Education Credit Union.
