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September 09, 2011 2:54 PM
Obama Jobs Plan Includes Cash for Community Colleges
While economists and pundits debate the relative merits of the proposals contained in Obama’s recent jobs speech, it’s worth noting that there’s some significant money for America’s community colleges in his American Jobs Act proposal.
According to an article by Jennifer Gonzalez in the Chronicle of Higher Education:
The proposal calls for $5-billion to bolster the infrastructure at community colleges, including tribal colleges. Many community colleges were built during the rapid expansion of the nation’s higher-education system in the 1960s and 1970s, and some campuses are in… need of renovation and upgrades to make use of new technologies and to become more energy-efficient.
[American Association of Community Colleges Director of Government Relations Jim] Hermes said he saw additional opportunity for the two-year-college sector to get involved with other programs outlined by the president that were aimed at adult students, including the creation of a panel to maximize career readiness of service members and a new “Pathways Back to Work Fund” that would provide hundreds of thousands of low-income youth and adults with opportunities to work and to achieve needed training in growth industries.
Community colleges are, well, somewhat optimistic about the president’s proposal. The last time Obama seriously addressed community colleges he planned to give them $12 billon under the American Graduation Initiative; they ended up getting $ 2 billon.
Well, that was better than nothing.
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Regnad Kcin on September 09, 2011 11:51 PM:
I taught ESL at a CC for nine years. Constantly I was promised a full time position that never materialized. I got an MA, and wrote my thesis on CC curriculum development. I served on the hiring committee for my own boss, and saw campus directors come and go. All I ever heard were excuses.
Tired of being completely uninsured, eventually I left the country. I've been away for over five years. I teach full time at a prestigious university, have (state supplied) health insurance, and make enough money to have a family and a bit of savings.
I miss America, but it seems like to achieve the "American Dream", at least for educators, you have to leave America. Sad.
Kenneth D. Franks on September 10, 2011 7:22 AM:
Community colleges or Jr. colleges offering two year associate degrees or college credit classes that transfer to universities serve an important service to areas that are not close to a four year college. They should be supported and are worth our support.