Rather than return to the pre-Covid state of affairs, policy change is needed to strengthen each leg of the “three-legged stool” of community college success: students’ financial stability, learning inside the classroom, and wraparound support services on campuses, Bunker Hill Community College President Pam Eddinger told the New England Board of Higher Education’s (NEBHE) Legislative Advi...
Community colleges have traditionally responded to the financial needs of their students by removing or minimizing financial barriers to attending. Efforts to make community college tuition free fit with this philosophy. But where efforts to minimize or remove financial barriers to attending community college fall short is in empowering students to navigate the next financial crossroads they encou...
President Obama started off the year with a proposal to make a community college education as “universal” as high school by making the associate degree or first two years of a bachelor’s degree tuition-free. The details of how this would be funded are still emerging. Should the proposal successfully move through Congress, Massachusetts, for one, stands to gain much from it. Here’s why:
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In Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick’s recent 2012 State of the Commonwealth address, he reported that 240,000 people were still looking for work in Massachusetts – and there were nearly 120,000 job openings. Business leaders have told the governor that job applicants don’t have the skills required. One of the actions Patrick called for in response was for better alignment between...
In his speech before a joint session of Congress Thursday evening, President Obama put forward several proposals aimed at bolstering the economy and creating jobs. Among these proposals was $30 billion to repair and revamp school facilities, including $5 billion specifically for community college infrastructure.Education advocates in the administration and Congress have attempted to advance fundin...
In this recession, one market is thriving—community colleges. Just last week, the White House held the first-ever national summit for community colleges. President Obama proposed that by 2020, an additional 5 million adults will hold community college degrees and certificates and announced millions of dollars in privately funded grants. [Participate in our Forum on the president's goal f...
The higher education sector greatly outperformed the national economy's modest recovery during the first half of 2010, with job openings soaring by 36%, according to a new study by HigherEdJobs, a leading resource in academia-related employment.In 2008, higher education responded to the recession by relying more on part-time employees and focusing more recruitment on academic faculty instead of ad...