Two year colleges are solution to nation's economic woes

We recently learned that Wisconsin had the 42nd worst job creation record in the nation last year. Unemployment and underemployment remain unacceptably high.

At the same time, area employers are facing a skilled labor shortage. They simply cannot find the middle skilled workers they need to grow their businesses.

According to New York Times columnist Joe Nocera investing in two year colleges like MATC is the solution.

He writes: "Community colleges can be our salvation...and approvingly quotes Eduardo Padrón, the President of Miami Dade, the nation's largest two year college, “'Community colleges are the great American invention in terms of education. Their raison d’être has always been to help grease the wheels of social mobility...with the skills gap such a pressing problem — and a high school education so clearly inadequate for the modern economy — the task of teaching those skills is falling to community colleges. There really isn’t another institution as well positioned to play that role.'"       

Unfortunately Nocera says: "Many state governments have ravaged the budgets of their community college systems..." Wisconsin, for example, slashed technical college funding by 30% in its last biennial budget. the largest cut in the Wisconsin Technical College Systems' history.

Nocera concludes: "Given what’s at stake, it would be hard to imagine anything more shortsighted than paring back support for community colleges."

His entire column is linked here.      

Workers seek new skills at community colleges, but classes are full

The Washington Post's Peter Whoriskey reports that two-year college enrollments have surged as unemployed and underemployed people seek new skills in an effort to get back to work.

But just as workers have turned to two-year colleges, states have cut their budgets, forcing the institutions to turn away legions of students and stymieing efforts to retrain the workforce.


The entire article is linked here.

New study reports: Fastest growing jobs require an associate degree

A recently released study reports that jobs requiring associate degrees will grow at nearly twice the national average in the coming years. As result two-year colleges will play an increasingly crucial role in reviving the nation's economy.

This is just the latest in a series of reports that urge increased federal investment in two-year colleges.

In "A Matter of Degrees: Tomorrow's Fastest Growing Jobs and Why Community College Graduates Will Get Them," Jessica Milano, Paul Weinstein Jr. and Bruce Reed took a close look at the American job market, analyzing where it is expected to grow as the nation moves out of recession. Among their findings:

· Demand for Two-Year College Graduates Will Spike: Jobs for community college graduates will grow at nearly double the national average.

· Health Care and Education Top the List of Growth Industries: Nurses and teachers are among the professions that will generate more than three out of 10 new jobs over the next decade.

· IT Hot Jobs Will Offer the Highest Pay: Firms employing information technology specialists will require highly skilled workers with extensive education and training.

· Green Jobs will Triple over the Next Decade: Spurred by the economic recovery package and other efforts to promote energy innovation, this sector will be a pillar of the new Hybrid Economy.

In an effort to help the nation meet the president's goal of driving the United States, by 2020, to be the world leader in college graduates per capita, the authors propose:

· Free Community College for Students Pursuing 'Hot Jobs': The federal government should create a community college block grant that awards states money each year based on number of students that graduate with degrees that prepare them for high-growth professions.

· A National Campaign Against Dropping Out: Every year, about half a million young people drop out of college -- and at community colleges the dropout rate is even higher. There is a need for a national crusade to reduce high school and college dropouts at the same time.

· Reward and Demand College Completion -- Not Attendance: insist -- from institutions and students alike -- that in return for financial assistance, we expect graduation with a degree.

· Improve and Expand President Obama's American Opportunity Tax Credit: To make community college more affordable, make the American Opportunity Tax Credit fully refundable and more generous. In addition, challenge states to hold the line on the cost of public community colleges until the recession ends.

· Additional Flexibility for State-Financed 'Hot Job' Training: Reform the stove-piped system for funding job training programs. Congress should give the administration broad authority to give waivers to states that have formulated plans to increase the number of workers who receive training and obtain jobs.

Two year colleges will be key to revitalizing U.S. economy

Laura Fitzpatrick of Time writes:

Community colleges are deeply unsexy. This fact tends to make even the biggest advocates of these two-year schools — which educate nearly half of U.S. undergraduates — sound defensive, almost a tad whiny. "We don't have the bands. We don't have the football teams that everybody wants to boost," says Stephen Kinslow, president of Texas' Austin Community College (ACC). "Most people don't understand community colleges very well at all." And by "most people," he means the graduates of fancy four-year schools who get elected and set budget priorities.

Many politicians and their well-heeled constituents may be under the impression that a community college — as described in a promo for NBC's upcoming comedy Community — is a "loser college for remedial teens, 20-something dropouts, middle-aged divorcées and old people keeping their minds active as they circle the drain of eternity." But there's at least one Ivy Leaguer who is trying to help Americans get past the stereotypes and start thinking about community college not as a dumping ground but as one of the best tools the U.S. has to dig itself out of the current economic hole. His name: Barack Obama. (See pictures of Barack Obama's college years.)

The President hasn't forgotten about the 30 or so community colleges he visited during the 2008 campaign. These institutions are our nation's trade schools, training 59% of our new nurses as well as cranking out wind-farm technicians and video-game designers — jobs that, despite ballooning unemployment overall, abound for adequately skilled workers. Community-college graduates earn up to 30% more than high school grads, a boon that helps state and local governments reap a 16% return on every dollar they invest in community colleges...

Read the entire column.