RethinkErie

Rethink Erie, the group that has researched the need for a community college for Erie County, has wisely pushed back the date for submitting an application to the Pennsylvania Department of Education.

Instead of a target date of 2010 to open the college, Rethink Erie is now aiming for 2011.

Rethink Erie's decision is in sync with a resolution approved unanimously by the board of directors for the Erie Regional Chamber and Growth Partnership. The chamber's board urged Erie County Council to "refrain from taking action on community college sponsorship" until Rethink Erie completes its draft application.

Opponents of the proposed community college might read these actions as a sign that they are winning their arguments. They are wrong. The need for Erie to establish a community college for work force training has not diminished, even though it appears that political will is seeping away as the arguments against the college grow more fierce.

Erie County's previous attempt at entering into a collaborative educational effort to train workers failed and created a big debt. But do not use the sorry fate of the Northwestern Pennsylvania Technical Institute and its successor, the Center for Advanced Manufacturing & Technology, as a sign that the community college is doomed to fail. The widespread publicity about that fiasco means that there will be diligent oversight of the community college as it proceeds from the application stage to actually enrolling students.

We also know that taxpayers are reluctant to take more hits as their own purchasing power declines in this economy. No one wants to pour dollars down the drain to enrich a few.

But those who are tearing down the concept of a community college also haven't heard the message that community leaders, including many from the business sector, have sent. Erie is falling behind. Our incomes, our property values and our educational levels lag behind Pennsylvania and the nation. Our poverty rate spikes above the rates in our state and the U.S.

Attorney Bob Dwyer sketched a scary picture on Thursday. He introduced keynote speaker Paul Grogan, Boston Foundation president, at a program called "Making Erie Great is Everyone's Business," sponsored by the law firm of Knox, McLaughlin, Gornall and Sennett to mark the firm's 50th anniversary. Dwyer said that the idea has not sunk in that our landscape could look like Michigan's, with empty factories and abandoned buildings. Erie needs to turn its economy around and to do a better job of educating young people and retraining older workers. A community college -- something taken for granted in every other region in the state -- can do that.

Taking more time to complete the application and build community consensus is smart. It gives all of us the opportunity to educate ourselves about the benefits of a concept that works everywhere else.