In the United States, an increasing political divide and an emphasis on culture war issues have increased legislation and policy targeting transgender and non-binary students in public education systems. Transgender and non-binary identities are weaponized by conservative politicians who seek to influence policies in schools.Local, state, and federal protections are the solution to end discriminatory policies and the weaponization of transgender and non-binary identities for political gain.

The coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic continues to shape individuals’ decisions about employment and postsecondary education. The authors leverage data from a longitudinal qualitative study of educational trajectories to examine how individuals responded to the shifting landscape of work and education. In the final wave of interviews with 56 individuals who started their postsecondary education at a community college 6 years ago, the authors found that most respondents described engaging in satisficing behaviors, making trade-offs to maintain their prepandemic trajectories where possible. More than a quarter of individuals, primarily those with access to fewer resources, described trajectories fraught with insecurity; they struggled to juggle competing obligations, especially in the face of an unpredictable labor market. A small portion of participants described making optimizing decisions, which were sometimes risky, to prioritize their aspirations. These descriptive patterns may partially explain mechanisms shaping recent shifts in employment and postsecondary education, including lower labor-market engagement and declines in college enrollment.

The LGBTQ+ community is one overlooked and underresearched in education recruitment and retention, as compared with other minoritized groups. A growing teacher shortage is rooted both in recruitment and in retention and can be mitigated by examining policies that support equitable preservice programs and reduce high teacher rates of attrition. This article investigates the current teacher shortage, examines its roots in issues of retention and recruitment, and situates the role of LGBTQ+ educators. I propose that the teacher shortage could be mitigated by creating a pipeline more attuned to the needs of queer teachers and reimagining school systems to become more inclusive of the LGBTQ+ community. This article argues for increased representation and imagines a school system that actively recruits and retains LGBTQ+ people.