Career colleges good for economy – Harris N. Miller – POLITICO.com

President Barack Obama has called for the United States to produce more college graduates than any other nation by the year 2020. you can almost hear the skeptics questioning whether our educational system can meet the challenge.

But this goal is essential for the recovery of our struggling work force and battered economy. Unemployment is hovering around 10 percent, and working Americans need new skills to succeed in new and better jobs. Our companies — and our country — are competing in an unforgiving global economy in which increasing the competence of workers and the quality of products and services can mean the difference between recovery and continuing recession.

Though the goal is achievable, we as a nation won’t be able to meet it unless we think imaginatively and act innovatively. According to one study, to graduate a higher percentage of adults with college degrees by 2025 than our economic rivals, the United States will need to graduate an additional 63 million students. under current conditions, according to experts, we will fall short by 16 million.

The nation’s institutions of higher education confront big challenges that undermine their ability to meet this goal. States are slashing funding for higher education, forcing many public colleges and universities to cut programs and staff. The endowments of private liberal-arts colleges are sinking along with the stock market, which pressures the schools to focus on recruiting students from higher-income families. Beset by the same budget cuts as four-year public institutions, community colleges are turning students away or creating multiyear waiting lists for specialized programs.

As a result, more people are looking to private-sector career colleges. Numbering almost 3,000, these colleges currently educate more than 2.75 million students — roughly 10 percent of the nation’s higher education students.

Career colleges good for economy – Harris N. Miller – POLITICO.com


Related Websites