EditorialKathia Ramirez, 24, works several part-time jobs while she prepares to enroll in college and saves $200 to $300 a month. (Anjali Pinto/The New York Times)
EditorialAzaria Terrell, who balked at being forced to enroll in her high school’s JROTC, but ended up embracing the program, in her dorm at Eastern Michigan University in Ypsilanti, Mich., Oct. 12, 2022. (Emily Elconin/The New York Times)
EditorialTina Quintanilla-Taylor shows the online portal for her daughter Mehle’s virtual classes at their home in Uvalde, Texas, on Aug. 19, 2022. (Callaghan O'Hare/The New York Times)
EditorialGine Ramirez, 36, with her daughter Bonnylin Sapp, 6, who was attending classes in a virtual school, at their home in Philadelphia on July 28, 2021. The pandemic set off a kindergarten exodus, with more than one million children failing to enroll in local schools. (Hannah Yoon/The New York Times)
EditorialBill Barber, a recent graduate of American Diesel Training, looks under the hood of a semi-truck in Columbus, Ohio on March 12, 2021. (Brian Kaiser/The New York Times)
EditorialTanya McDowell, before her arraignment for allegedly stealing thousands of dollars in educational services by using a false address to enroll her son in a particular public school, outside the courthouse in Norwalk, Conn., April 27, 2011. (Douglas Healey/The New York Times)
EditorialBrian Kwarteng, senior class president at Union High School, whose track and field team expected to ascend to the top spot in the national rankings, in Union N.J., May 24, 2020. (Monique Jaques/The New York Times)