🎓 Making it easier to finish college | Morning Newsletter
And laid-off federal workers to attend Trump speech.
The Morning Newsletter
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Morning, Philly.
More than 150,000 Philadelphia adults attended some college, but never earned their degree. The nonprofit College Unbound wants to make it easier for them to finish — and it’s seeing early success.
And laid-off federal workers from Pennsylvania are bracing for the “awkward” honor of attending President Donald Trump’s big speech to Congress tonight.
Here’s what to know today.
— Julie Zeglen (morningnewsletter@inquirer.com)
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Around 15% of Philadelphians age 25 and older have attended some college but have not earned a degree. Among Black adults, that share rises to 20%. For many who aimed to finish, life just got in the way, whether the barrier was family obligations or the high cost of higher education.
🎓 Enter: College Unbound. The nonprofit school gives adult learners from underserved communities affordable paths to graduation, with low tuition and strong supports baked in. Early results in the Delaware Valley are impressive, with a 95% retention rate and higher post-grad earnings.
🎓 There are 50 million people who haven’t finished college, according to Wendell Pritchett, the University of Pennsylvania law professor who chairs College Unbound’s board, and he sees it as an urgent problem to fix.
🎓 “We in higher ed should be embarrassed by that [scale] and we’re not,” Pritchett told The Inquirer. “I call it reparations — to repair a lot of the damage that higher ed has caused.”
Some Philly-area elected officials are bringing fired federal workers to D.C. to watch the president address both chambers of Congress Tuesday night.
The invitees: Among their guests are former employees of the Internal Revenue Service and the departments of education and agriculture.
Faces of the cuts: The invitations are Democrats’ latest attempt to showcase the harm the Trump administration has caused their constituents in its first six weeks, especially via workforce cuts.
A rebuttal: Republicans, meanwhile, are expected to bring constituents who have benefited from Trump’s early policy moves.
Politics reporters Julia Terruso and Fallon Roth have the story.
What you should know today
A child in Montgomery County who was too young to be vaccinated was diagnosed with measles over the weekend. Experts explain what families of young children should know about the virus, including what the measles rash looks like.
Probation check-ins have gone virtual and in-person drug tests are suspended as the Philly Sheriff’s Office grapples with a courthouse deputy shortage. The redeployment of deputies comes months after judges demanded Sheriff Rochelle Bilal address “systemic failures.”
A progressive organization’s Zoom event with a New Jersey governor candidate was abruptly canceled on Sunday after a racist and pornographic cyberattack broke loose.
Four law firms are merging their class action lawsuits against SPS Technologies over last month’s four-alarm factory fire in Montgomery County.
Three months after an arson incident, the nonprofit behind a 47-unit affordable housing complex serving veterans in Frankford is seeking donations for renovations.
The Bucks County SPCA rescued 53 cats from a self-storage unit in Fairless Hills last week.
Attorney John Morgan — or “Jawn Morgan,” per his law firm’s Philly billboard blitz — is teasing a possible Florida gubernatorial run and launch of a new political party.
All 19 public schools in Cherry Hill are getting upgrades. Check out the bond-funded projects’ progress so far.
🧠 Trivia time
Seventeen years after a Pennsylvania law forbade the activity, Jenkintown’s Buckets Tavern recently banned what? (Hint: The long-standing dive bar previously had grandfathered-in status to allow it.)
A) Underage drinking
B) Serving food
C) Pole dancing
D) Indoor smoking
Think you know? Check your answer.
What (and who) we’re...
👚 Mourning: The millennial loss of Forever 21 in the Philadelphia area.
🐂 Meeting: The surprising Pennsylvania stars of bull riding.
🍿 Watching: Anora, The Brutalist, and other Oscar winners in Philly-area theaters.
🏈 Saying goodbye to: Cornerback Darius Slay, who is being released by the Eagles.
🧩 Unscramble the anagram
Hint: South Philly Mexican BYOB and frequent best-of list maker
CLING HONE
Email us if you know the answer. We’ll select a reader at random to shout out here.
Cheers to Bryanna Bonner, who solved Monday’s anagram: Autumn Lockwood. The Eagles’ Delco-native associate performance coach is one of the women — alongside Yardley’s Ameena Soliman, the director of football operations and a pro scout — who helped the team behind the scenes in a Super Bowl-winning season.
Photo of the day
🏺 One last updated thing: Kensington-born pottery artist Roberto Lugo’s work mixes modern urban scenes with classical Greek motifs. His new exhibition, Roberto Lugo / Orange and Black, will be on view at the Princeton University Art Museum through July 6.
Enjoy your Tuesday. I’ll see you back here tomorrow morning.
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