Expanding education access

June 21, 2012

The Roanoke Times editorializes, "The soaring cost of four-year colleges has many students looking for a cheaper path to a degree. And rapidly changing technology has many industries looking for a way to train workers in the high-tech skills they need. College affordability and job training comprise the dual mission of community college systems... Community colleges offer a path up into the middle class and, given the dislocations in the U.S. job market, a way to avoid falling from it into low-wage work or joblessness. Either way, public policy should promote opportunity."

Progressive Point: Working Virginians and their families are struggling. Putting our community colleges within their financial reach is essential for rebuilding our economy and strengthening everyone's fiscal future.

Continuing big corporate tax breaks is not helping our communities or small businesses. Ensuring that we have a well-educated workforce benefits our small business and communities alike. We need leaders who understand that access to college is more than just part of the American Dream--America's future depends on educating the next generation and those in our workforce with the drive to make their lives better. Virginia's workers have that drive, now our elected leaders need to make sure we have the opportunity.

Get the Facts: Via the Roanoke Times:

• In 2009, President Obama proposed a $10 billion workforce training initiative targeting community colleges, but Congress cut it to just $2 billion for a competitive grant program over four years. Additionally, state budgets are also cutting education costs--including Virginia.


• Many Virginians who work and support a family, who "go to community colleges for workforce training to change career paths or to keep abreast of skills their employers need to stay competitive in a global economy" often "earn too much to qualify for a Pell grant and can't to take enough credit hours to qualify for other help."


• Financial aid such as Perkins loans that offer lower interest rates to students require a student to take at least six credit hours to qualify, which is not possible for many people with families and have to work.


• "At Virginia Western Community College, state support has decreased between fiscal years 2008 and 2013 both in actual dollars, from $16.2 million to $11.8 million, and as a percentage of Virginia Western's operating budget. The state's general fund was picking up 59 percent in 2008; in the next fiscal year, which begins July 1, that will fall to a projected 39 percent."

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