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Obama Plans Community-College Initiative
Obama Plans Community-College Initiative
By Robert Tomsho
President Barack Obama plans to announce a community-college initiative designed to boost graduation rates, improve facilities and develop new technology. The effort will involve $12 billion in spending spread over the next 10 years.
Mr. Obama has called education key to the nation working its way out of the recession and competing more effectively internationally. Saying he wants to bolster high-school and college-graduation rates for all Americans, he has used the availability of additional federal funds to try to persuade budget-strapped states, public schools and colleges to undertake new initiatives.
The president is scheduled to unveil the community college program during a speech in Warren, Mich., Tuesday.
Administration officials said they plan to fund it with savings that result from proposed changes in the federal student loan program. The Obama administration has proposed eliminating private lenders from the program and making the federal government the sole lender. The Congressional Budget Office has estimated such a change would save $87 billion over the next decade although it still faces opposition from private lenders in Congress.
Of the nation's 18.7 million graduate and undergraduate students about 6.7 million, or 36%, attend two-year schools. With an average age of 29, they tend to be older than students at four-year schools and work longer hours at jobs outside the classroom. Many need remedial classes; less than a third earn their associates degrees in three years or less.
In a conference call Monday, Martha Kanter, undersecretary of education, said the nation's two-year colleges and their students have experienced "significant economic hardship" during the current recession. "And we're very concerned about providing access and opportunity during this terrible fiscal climate," she added.
Of the funding, $9 billion will be used to award grants through an "access and completion" fund designed to spur community colleges and states to launch programs designed to raise graduation rates and produce graduates who are ready for the workplace or a four-year school. Administration officials say such measures could include forming partnerships with major employers or bolstering counseling and remediation programs.
Another $2.5 billion will help pay for renovations to community colleges. Administration officials said many are outdated, short on class space and ill-equipped to handle modern technology. The funds are to be used as seed money to help raise private funding or to pay the interest on bonds and loans.
About $500 million will be used to develop online curriculum for community college students.
Robert Shireman, deputy under secretary of education, said the initiative is designed to produce an additional five million community college graduates by 2020. There are currently about six million, he said.
Write to Robert Tomsho at rob.tomsho@wsj.com
View the article: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124753606193236373.html#printMode