Goldman Gets Behind Push to Strengthen Community Colleges

Wall Street giant Goldman Sachs has donated $2.2-million to LaGuardia Community College in Queens, a rare example of support for a two-year institution from a top-tier philanthropic entity, reports The New York Times. The unrestricted gift is nearly twice the size of the endowment at the college, which has 50,000 students drawn largely from immigrant and low-income communities.

Goldman has prior ties to LaGuardia through the company’s 10,000 Small Businesses entrepreneurship program, and Lloyd C. Blankfein, the bank’s chief executive, gave the college’s 2013 commencement address. The firm is setting aside another $1 million to aid two-year institutions nationwide. Community colleges, which draw a fraction of the philanthropic support given to private universities, are “a real accelerator to the middle class, and I can’t think of anything the country needs more than that,” Mr. Blankfein said.