When President Barack Obama unveiled a $12 billion plan to help community colleges prepare millions of people for a new generation of jobs earlier this week, it recognized the growing role of community colleges across the nation, state and local officials said.

Obama announced the initiative on Tuesday in a state reeling from the loss of auto jobs. Michigan’s unemployment rate is 14.1 percent, the nation’s worst.

“The hard truth is that some of the jobs that have been lost in the auto industry and elsewhere won’t be coming back,” Obama told a crowd at Macomb Community College in Warren, Mich. “They are the casualties of a changing economy.”

To that end, he proposed an “American Graduation Initiative” to bolster the two-year community college field that serves millions of students as a launching point for careers or a step toward expanded higher education. The idea is to train people for jobs, such as those expected in the clean energy industry, when the economy turns around and begins to create jobs again instead of shedding them.

Under the plan, competitive grants would be offered to schools to try new programs or expand training and counseling.

High dropout rates would be addressed by designing programs to track students and help them earn an associate’s degree or finish their education at a four-year institution. Money would also be spent to renovate and rebuild facilities, and online courses would be developed to help colleges offer more classes.

The White House says the cost would be $12 billion over 10 years; Obama says it would be paid for by ending wasteful subsidies to banks and private lenders of student loans.

“Time and again, when we have placed our bet for the future on education, we have prospered as a result,” Obama said.

Louisiana Delta Community College Chancellor Luke Robins said Obama’s announcement was a realization of the importance of community colleges.

“It’s a very positive response and it will be interesting to see how the Congress moves forward with it,” Robins said.

“I don’t see it as a long-term fix for declining state funding for higher ed. What it gives the LCTCS (Louisiana Community and Technical College System) is some seed money to start programs aimed at improving graduation and retention rates. We’re a developing system, and those kinds of programs take some money to get off the ground.”

LCTCS President Joe May is also pleased with Obama’s proposal.

“President Obama’s announcement really speaks to an understanding of the critical role of community and technical colleges in providing solutions toward developing a competitive workforce for our country and specifically the State of Louisiana,” May said.

“This tremendous investment in the areas of facilities, online courses, and program development and expansion can greatly assist our colleges in facilitating economic recovery for our state and increasing the skills level attainment of our local citizenry. Therefore, this announcement couldn’t be more timely as we continue to focus on transforming Louisiana’s work force and developing the high demand, industry-sensitive training needed for jobs of the 21st century.”

Republican Sen. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, a former education secretary, said Obama’s plan is a “typical proposal” that sounds better than it is. “When our biggest problem as a country is too much debt, he’s taking the entitlement spending he claims to be saving from the student loan program and adding it to the debt,” Alexander said.

Source