RethinkErie

I love Erie.

As a child growing up in rural Pennsylvania, I saw Erie as a place full of excitement and opportunity. I'm happy to say that after living and working here for nearly 20 years, I still feel that way.

About two and a half years ago, I was fortunate to land a job with the Erie Regional Chamber and Growth Partnership where I work with business and community leaders every day who are committed to making this region an even better place to live, work and do business. One of the more visible projects we have been involved with recently is Rethink Erie, the local community college planning initiative.

Rethink Erie spent nearly six months gathering input from 2,300 people to pinpoint our region's specific work force, economic and educational challenges and evaluate the viability of a potential community college. We learned that even though we have tremendous educational resources in the area, we still have significant needs that are not being addressed, and that this will continue to hurt us unless we aggressively do something about it.

We also learned that our needs are ones that are traditionally met by community colleges -- institutions that offer flexible, affordable and accessible education and occupational training to satisfy a community's unique needs. With that understanding, we made the decision to develop a community college application for local and state consideration.

There are roughly 50 people working together to envision a community college that would be valuable to our citizens and best meet our needs. They are addressing all the decision points required by the state and hammering out details related to facilities, programming, staffing, student projections, finances and governance. There is a tremendous amount of time and effort involved, and much work remains. Because the draft plan is not finished or ready for public consumption, it would be premature for Rethink Erie to publish details. Once the plan is complete, however, Rethink Erie will release it to the community.

Having said that, based on what I have learned from being on the "inside," I think it is important to point out a few things:

-The community college plan is required by the state to establish a community college; if a plan is submitted to and approved by the state, it will be up to the community college's board of directors to further refine and implement the plan.

-In any community college application, the state requires a 10-year capital plan. The cost projections recently reported were a first-draft based on a variety of assumptions and worst-case scenarios for the local share. These are not final numbers; additional work remains.

-When considering the investment associated with the project, it's also important to consider the return on that investment. Community colleges are significant economic drivers; they help individuals develop skills leading to higher incomes, they help existing businesses become stronger and they help attract new businesses to the area. And nationally, the return on investment is proven: for every dollar invested in a community college, three dollars are returned to the community.

-At a recent public hearing convened by Erie County Council, 41 people spoke out on the community college issue. Of those, 31 were supporters, including businesses such as GE Transportation, Scott Enterprises, Baldwin Brothers, Inc., JH Bennett Moving and Storage, other professionals, and residents ranging in age with a wide variety of personal stories.

-There is no deadline to submit the plan to local or state officials. We have to take our time to do this right, and then provide the community with full application details so we can make an informed decision about how to move forward.
Rethink Erie looks forward to sharing its work with the community. Stay tuned.

MARY BULA is vice president of the Growth Partnership Division for the Erie Regional Chamber and Growth Partnership. For more information, visit www.rethinkerie.com.