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Boosting community colleges

Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., and Sen. Mike Enzi, R-Wyo., are proposing legislation that ties in with efforts in Helena and elsewhere to improve two-year colleges’ ability to boost workplace-specific training and bolster the economy.

By The Helena IR

http://helenair.com/articles/2004/09/15/opinions_top/a04091504_01.txt

The bill would establish grant programs that community and technical colleges, businesses and local workforce agencies can use to fill local job-skills needs. It also would provide grants to make training more accessible for small-business owners.

In addition, the measure would make more loans available to first- and second-year college students, and would provide more resources for older, non-traditional students to enter college at any time of their lives.

It is clear that two-year institutions of higher learning prepare students for some of the most-needed jobs in a community – jobs that often pay better than those many four-year college graduates are able to get. More resources can only improve that picture.

Baucus and Enzi are touting their "Higher Education Affordability, Access and Opportunity Act of 2004" as a way to keep good-paying jobs from moving offshore, which probably is a bit of a stretch. While it is true that additional training is necessary to keep America’s workforce competitive, most jobs leaving the United States go not because of a shortage of skilled workers, but because equally skilled workers in India and elsewhere are willing to work for a lot less money. Overseas job flight has more to do with the corporate bottom line than with job training.

The senators say their proposal also would help students transfer credits between institutions, in part by prohibiting schools from denying transfers "based solely on the accreditation of the institution from which the student transfers." There’s a place where the devil has to be in the details.

But overall, the proposed legislation is welcome. Two-year graduate programs may not rise very high on the academic totem pole, but by matching skilled workers with the kinds of jobs the business community needs to fill, these programs hold the key to much of this national economic future.

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