Marcella Bombardieri is a senior fellow at American Progress. Her background is in education journalism and investigative reporting. She was most recently the education editor at Politico. During her long career at The Boston Globe, she spent five years covering higher education and five years as an investigative reporter on the Spotlight team, where she worked on projects ranging from health care finance to corruption in state government. For a series on judges’ leniency toward drunk drivers, she shared a George Polk Award for legal reporting. Bombardieri also covered the 2008 presidential campaign, was a metro reporter, and did reporting stints in Iraq and Afghanistan. She is a Boston native and a graduate of Brown University.
Community colleges have a big local impact — they deserve local funding
Author Marcella Bombardieri explains how community colleges—which largely serve low- and middle-income students—have been weakened by years of underfunding and argues that they need local funding.
Among Forests and Bayous, a Fledgling College and Fragile Dreams
The story of central Louisiana’s new community college holds lessons on improving opportunity in rural America—lessons that should help guide leaders responding to the economic toll of the coronavirus pandemic.
The best route for moving up is in danger of being blocked
Through the lens of a community college student in rural Louisiana, Marcella Bombardieri describes why Congress must invest sufficiently in public colleges amid the coronavirus pandemic.
‘If You Had a Need, You Got Help’: A Community College President’s Approach Towards Coronavirus
Author Marcella Bombardieri interviews Russell Lowery-Hart, the president of a community college in Amarillo, Texas, about what challenges students in poverty are facing during the coronavirus pandemic and how colleges are trying to help.
An Investment for Generations: A Q&A on Advancing Equity in Higher Education Amid the Coronavirus Pandemic
Student affairs leaders at California State University, Dominguez Hills, highlight challenges that students and colleges are facing during the coronavirus pandemic—and explain how policymakers can help them persevere.
Congress Needs To Ensure Educational Equity in the Wake of the Coronavirus Pandemic
The federal government must take action in order to address the immediate-, medium-, and long-term fallout from the coronavirus crisis on pre-K, K-12 and higher education.
Massachusetts excels at higher education — for the white and well-off
Although Massachusetts is the most educated state in the country, author Marcella Bombardieri explains why the state's higher education system works primarily for white, well-off students while leaving Black, Latino, and low-income undergraduates behind.
