Obama plans $12B boost to community colleges

[BlueJessamine]

Source: USA Today

President Obama is expected to announce a $12 billion proposal today that will put the nation's community colleges front and center in his economic recovery plan.

Among his goals: to modernize community college facilities, to increase the quality of online courses and to ensure that more students complete their programs.

Obama, who in February urged every American to obtain at least one year of training past high school, is scheduled to speak this afternoon at Macomb Community College in Warren, Mich., which has been hit hard by the collapse of the automobile industry.

In Sunday's Washington Post, he offered a brief overview of his plan, which he said aims to "ultimately meet the goal of graduating 5 million more Americans from community colleges by 2020." About 6 million students are enrolled in community college associate-degree programs today. That doesn't count students enrolled in certificate programs.





Read more: http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2009-07-14-community-colleges-obama_N.htm

[stray cat]

1. 12 billion - wow!

[madrchsod]

2. my cc is losing state funding for many programs.

the admissions are at the highest since it was founded in 1965. the funding has`t increased in over 15 years.

[jody]

3. Funding needs restrictions on what degrees are supported. We don't need to waste students' time on

programs that will not lead to jobs in that degree's field.

[maseman]

5. I remember I had to take two semsters of "Phys Ed"

while attending college. I was 20 years old deciding which "gym class" to take. I ended up taking bowling and square dancing. The classes cost me roughly $4100. The height of bullshit.

[Occulus]

14. I fulfilled that requirement with marching band

Hell of a lot more fun (and more work!) than Phys Ed, and quite a bit cheaper, too. Plus, we got to do halftime at a Lions game every year.

"So this one time, at band camp..."

We in the drumline always got roaring drunk on the final day, then went to "rehearse". Hilarity ensued...

[customerserviceguy]

6. Absolutely

It's time to stop piddling away taxpayer money on junk 'educations' that really don't prepare anybody for anything more than jerking lattes at Starbucks.

[Iowa]

16. Yep...

There are far too many junk degrees. And not only that, every community college offers many of the same degrees without any effort to analyze job-market realities. I mean, how many thousands of computer techs can Iowa absorb every year?

Furthermore, throwing money at the "job training" industry is a failed model designed to make it appear that politicians are doing something. What's needed are job opportunities - not job training. If the jobs are there the training will work itself out.

[jody]

17. Agree "job opportunities". The mega-corporation of the late 20th century has failed and the future

may lie with small, super-efficient businesses with minimum overhead that contribute little to Cost (price), Schedule (delivery date), and Performance (quality of a product or service) that are the dominant factors that interest a consumer.

[sythe200]

4. Less money should be spent on colleges and more money spent on productive manufacturing sector jobs.

[customerserviceguy]

7. And $12 billion is what fraction of what was spent

to bail out GM and Chrysler? Seems like you've already gotten your wish.

One of the really smart things that the government did after WWII was to send returning soldiers to school, that way they would gradually hit the job market, instead of all at once. Most of them pursued courses of study that adequately prepared them for careers in the booming postwar economy.

If we can follow that example here, then it will benefit us.

[Occulus]

15. Except for one major problem.

We don't have a booming ANYTHING economy right now. We'll be graduating kids with a load of debt into fields that lack jobs if we don't start a parallel program to rebuild our manufacturing base.

[customerserviceguy]

18. I do think there is a parellel program

Certainly not every unemployed person is being sent to school. And I have personal knowledge about what you're talking about, I lost my job in September, 2001, in the post-9/11 recession, and the state of WA paid for me to get a useless associate's degree in network administration.

But it showed that an old dog could learn new tricks, and that helped me get jobs outside my main field in the years to follow.

[OhioChick]

19. Bingo! n/t

[happygoluckytoyou]

8. WOW.... a president who believes in funding ed-u-ma-cation!!! what next??? science???

[madmom]

9. Wonder if this will apply to tech schools? My daughter is attending a tech college and lost

state funding (the state stop all college grants) wonder if this will help her?:shrug:

[JonLP24]

10. Obama Plans New Funds for Colleges

Source: NY Times

WASHINGTON — President Obama plans to head to hard-hit Michigan on Tuesday afternoon to announce a $12 billion infusion for the nation’s community college system, part of his efforts to ease the considerable pain of the still-sagging economy.

In a conference call with reporters Monday, education officials said $2.5 billion of the new funds would go toward new community college facilities, with the rest going to an assortment of grants designed to boost graduation rates and encourage the teaching of skills that will better prepare students for jobs in a changing economy that is increasingly demanding a more highly educated workforce.

Mr. Obama will make his announcement in Warren, Michigan, a hub of the auto industry that has been hit hard by the economic slow down and the administration-sponsored overhauls of General Motors and Chryslers, which have brought heavy layoffs from plant and dealership closings.

Ongoing job losses across the nation have exceeded the Obama administration’s earlier projections, adding urgency to the president’s efforts to show that his far-reaching economic recovery programs — which Republicans have portrayed as intrusive and obscenely expensive — are working.



Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/15/us/politics/15obama.html?hp

[alcibiades_mystery]

11. That doesn't sound like it will pay my mortgage THIS month

That shit is due on the 28th. Some people can't wait!!! Come on, Obama!

:sarcasm:

[fascisthunter]

12. kids especially in my familily's income could use this break

It's scarey to think that one day if the right wing succeeds to think of how many people will be uneducated if they privatize all education and get rid of funding for community colleges.

[Coventina]

13. Hooray! Finally! Change I can believe in!!

(actually, this isn't the first thing he's done that I was happy about, but there's been a dry spell lately)