President Obama Releases Detailed FY2010 Budget Request

Today, President Barack Obama formally released his FY2010 budget request. The budget request provides the full listing of program appropriations and other Administration-directed funding. The Administration’s budget totals $3.4 trillion with $46.7 billion in discretionary funding for the Department of Education (does not include the Pell Grant program).

In the President’ budget request, the Pell Grant maximum would be increased to $5,550. The budget request outlines the path to reclassify the Pell Grant program as a mandatory program, with increases based upon Consumer Price Index plus one percent. The budget states that $4 billion each year would be saved by the consolidation of the Federal Family Education Loan program. Additionally, the request contains a $500 million ($2.5 billion over five years) program to improve college success and completion. This program would also be funded on the mandatory side.

Here are some funding levels for key community college programs (compared to FY2009):

· Pell Grant maximum: $5,550 ($200 increase)
· Career and Technical Education State Grants: $1.16 billion (level funding)
· Tech Prep: $102.9 million (level funding)
· Strengthening Institutions, Title III-A: $84 million ($4 million increase)
· GEAR-Up: $313.2 million (level funding)

At the Department of Labor, Secretary Hilda Solis announced the creation of the Career Pathways Innovation Fund, which will continue the support for community colleges provided by Community-Based Job Training Grants (CBJTG), but will focus on career-pathway programs at community colleges. These programs help individuals of varying skill levels enter and pursue rewarding careers in high-demand and emerging industries. Funded at $135 million, career-pathway programs are clear sequences of coursework and credentials that may lead to better jobs in particular fields, such as health care, law enforcement, or clean energy.

Grants will be awarded to community colleges and consortia of community colleges that develop or expand career-pathway programs in partnership with education and training providers, employers, and the workforce investment system. In addition to the provision of training services, a portion of funds may be used for program operations and capacity-building activities, such as curriculum development, hiring faculty, and purchasing equipment.

The Department of Education funding levels are detailed at: http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/budget/fy2010/assets/edu.pdf

The Department of Labor funding levels can be found at:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/budget/fy2010/assets/lab.pdf Read more!

Brookings Issues Federal Proposal to 'Transform' Community Colleges

Today, The Brookings Institution issued a federal proposal called “Transforming America’s Community Colleges: A Federal Policy Proposal to Expand Opportunity and Promote Economic Prosperity.” The proposal calls for the federal government to invest in community colleges and equip them for the 21st century. Brookings calls the plan a “long-overdue investment” that “should establish national goals and a related performance measurement system; provide resources to drive college performance toward those goals; stimulate greater innovation in community college policies and practices to enhance the quality of subbaccalaureate education; and support data systems to track student and institutional progress and performance.”

Joining in a chorus of others who have recently voiced their support for the value of community colleges, Brookings states that “the United States created an advantage over other countries by helping our citizens attain formal education, generating an able workforce and technological advancement,” in reference to the community college system. The Institution goes on to state:

Yet U.S. higher educational attainment, long considered a ladder to economic and social success, has stalled, and now reinforces inequalities between rich and poor America. Community colleges represent an affordable, accessible route for a wide income spectrum of students to access well-paying, high-demand jobs, as well as further education. But low degree completion rates at these institutions raise serious challenges for public policy efforts to achieve robust, broad-based economic growth.

Between 2000-2001 and 2005-2006 total enrollment in community colleges grew by 2.3 million students, more than in any other higher educational sector. The current economic downturn is spurring further increases. Yet community colleges receive less than one-third the level of direct federal government support as do public four-year colleges. This matters as economic research indicates that a relative decline in post-secondary funding diminishes degree completion. While all public colleges and universities rely on non-tuition revenue, community colleges depend disproportionately upon state and local governments, currently under severe budget pressure. Only the federal government has the capacity to raise expectations for community college performance and support the necessary investments to achieve those goals at a scale commensurate with the growing demands facing over 1,000 community colleges nationwide.

Brookings proposes “a new federal approach”:

The new administration and Congress should transform our community colleges into engines of opportunity and prosperity by targeting new investments to those colleges that succeed in helping their students succeed. To that end, the federal government should:

• Establish national postsecondary goals and create a performance measurement system to support the effective use of federal resources
• Double its current level of support in order to account for more than 10 percent of community colleges’ budgets, ultimately awarding threequarters of these funds based on colleges’ performance in meeting key goals around student credit, credential, and degree completion
• Stimulate instructional innovations and practices to increase the quality of community college education, by devoting half of the administration’s proposed $2.5 billion state-federal partnership fund to improve and evaluate practices enhancing sub-baccalaureate education
• Support the improvement of student data systems necessary to measure and
  track college student outcomes, guide funding, improve accountability, and promote continuous improvement in educational quality

For more information, read the policy brief or the full report from the Brookings Institution.

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Op-Ed: Reauthorize the Workforce Investment Act, by Rep. Mike Castle (R-Del)

Reauthorize the Workforce Investment Act

by Rep. Mike Castle (R-Del)

Americans are currently facing serious economic challenges. In just one year, the number of unemployed workers across the nation has increased by about 5.3 million, leaving high school and college graduates to face the toughest job market in decades. While unemployment rates continue to rise, the recession has provided several industries with real opportunities for growth.

To obtain the skills needed for these expanding fields, recent graduates and un- and underemployed workers are turning to the classroom. Changes in consumer demand, technology and many other factors have contributed to the continually changing employment structure in the U.S. economy. The sectors projected to be the fastest-growing over the next several decades are education and health services. Employment of teachers is expected to grow by 12 percent between 2006 and 2016, creating about 479,000 additional positions in the education field.

Healthcare and social assistance — including public and private hospitals, nursing and residential care facilities and individual and family services — is expected to grow by 25.4 percent, which would add approximately 4 million new jobs. These are bright spots in the economy that we can cultivate.

Now more than ever, job-training programs must be utilized to provide workers with the skills and training they will need during these challenging economic times. As many industries continue to shift and grow, we can encourage community and business leaders to include job training and postsecondary education programs as a bridge for job-seekers.

In Congress, I am hopeful that we will advance employment opportunities by revising and reauthorizing the Workforce Investment Act. WIA currently works to give job-seekers access to job training services, counseling, and labor market information to help them get back on their feet. Although the legislation has been successful, more work is needed to strengthen and improve America’s job-training system to encourage states, communities and educational institutions to give workers the training they need to find good jobs.

Additionally, we must promote the community colleges and other educational institutions that have seen increased numbers of student applications and enrollment since the downturn in the economy. They are so often the key to bridging the employment gap.

In these trying times, many students have made more practical decisions to go to a local or community college instead of moving farther away for college. In fact, community college enrollment last year rose about 10 percent from the previous school year. As a co-chairman of the Congressional Community College Caucus, I have seen their potential for working with local government and industry leaders to grow a regional economy through education and practical job-training curricula.

As we consider higher education and job training, I hope we on the House Education and Labor Committee’s Subcommittee on Higher Education, Lifelong Learning and Competitiveness continue to examine what is driving college costs and expand access for students, regardless of their income. With the enactment of the Higher Education Opportunity Act, Congress took many steps toward making college more accessible and affordable through federal grants and access to student loans. We can’t turn away from asking why costs are rising at such rates and whether it is justified to increase at a faster pace than annual family household income.

As the economy continues to change, job-training programs and educational opportunities must also transform to ensure that Americans have the tools they need to be adequately trained to face the job market.

Rep. Mike Castle is the ranking member of the House Early Childhood, Elementary and Secondary Education subcommittee.

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New Innovations and Best Practices under the Workforce Investment Act

Today, the House Subcommittee on Higher Education, Lifelong Learning, and Competitiveness held a hearing to examine best practices for improving adult education and family literacy. This is the fourth hearing the committee is holding as it works toward reauthorizing the Workforce Investment Act, which provides job training, education programs, vocational rehabilitation and other services to Americans.

Click here for an archived webcast.

Witnesses included:

• David Beré » President and Chief Strategy Officer, Dollar General Corporation, Goodlettsville, TN
• Kathy Cooper » Policy Associate, Office of Adult Basic Education, Washington State Board for Community and Technical Colleges, Olympia, WA
• Martin Finsterbusch » Executive Director, VALUE, Inc. (Voice of Adult Learners United to Educate), Media, PA
• Donna Kinerney, Ph.D. » Instructional Dean, Adult ESOL & Literacy Programs, Montgomery College, Wheaton, MD
• Roberta Lanterman » Program Director, Long Beach Family Literacy, Long Beach, CA
• Stephen Reder, Ph.D. » University Professor and Chair, Department of Applied Linguistics, Portland State University, Portland, OR
• Gretchen Wilson » Grammy winning recording artist and GED graduate Nashville, TN

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House Passes H.Res. 338, National Community College Month

Today, the House of Representatives passed H. Res. 338, which supports the goals and ideals of National Community College Month.

The resolution was sponsored by the four co-chairs of the House Community College Caucus, Reps. Michael Castle (R-DE), Tom Latham (R-IA), Brad Miller (D-NC), and David Wu (D-OR). The resolution was sponsored by a total of 44 members of the U.S. House of Representatives.

The resolution received 424 yea votes and zero nays, with 9 members not voting. Read more!

Biden, Brown to Give Community College Commencement Addresses

Dr. Jill Biden, an English professor at Northern Virginia Community College and wife of Vice President Joe Biden, will serve as commencement speaker at Kingsborough Community College this year, announced the White House on May 1.

Kingsborough Community College of the City University of New York is Brooklyn’s only community college and serves approximately 30,000 students per year.

Biden will address graduates, family members, and faculty at Kingsborough on Friday June 12, 2009.

Biden, an educator of 28 years, has taught English in community colleges for the past 15 years.

Association of Community College Trustees President and CEO J. Noah Brown will be the commencement speaker at Atlantic Cape Community College in New Jersey on Thursday, May 21, 2009. Atlantic Cape Community College was New Jersey's second community college and serves 6,500 students in three locations.

Brown is a nationally recognized authority on community college governance, a contributor to national publications, and a speaker on a broad range of topics to large audiences. His experience spans more than 25 years in the nation’s capital working in the nonprofit sector. Read more!

Education Secretary Arne Duncan Calls Community Colleges "Critical"

Speaking to the Chronicle of Higher Education, Education Secretary Arne Duncan spoke extensively about the important role of community colleges in meeting the Obama Administration's goals to make the United States a top producer of highly educated students.

“Lots of people just assume we already have the highest percent” of college graduates in the world, Duncan said. “I think the public doesn’t understand the extent to which other countries have passed us by.”

He says that “Community colleges have been an undervalued resource."

“We’ve made a major play in that area…there’s a chance to have many more people graduate.”

The Chronicle article goes on to say that:

The secretary said he chose a community-college chancellor—Martha J. Kanter, of the Foothill-De Anza Community College District—as his under secretary “to send a signal of how critical community colleges are.”

“I didn’t do that by accident,” he said. “That was strategic.”

Describing meeting with community-college presidents in Iowa and Florida who have adapted their course offerings to meet employers’ changing needs, Mr. Duncan said community colleges needed to remain “on the cutting edge” of work-force trends. A college in Iowa, he said, has started to help build parts for windmills, and an institution in Miami has created programs to train people for jobs in the fashion industry there.

“Community colleges have to be nimble,” he said.

Duncan also discussed the importance of college completion, keeping tuition rates as low as possible, and enforcing accountability measures. Read the full article.

Duncan was a featured keynote speaker at the 2009 Community College National Legislative Summit in February.

ACCT, in collaboration with AACC, is spearheading the development of appropriate accountability measures for community colleges, taking into account variable roles that community colleges serve, which is not always the completion of a two-year degree for all students. ACCT will provide further information as it becomes available.

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