To Jack Sprega, $12 billion sounds awfully good.
Sprega, president of Bristol Community College, has spent recent years grappling with state funding cutbacks and classroom space shortages in the face of skyrocketing enrollments.
In his nine-year tenure, the number of students attending Fall River-based BCC has jumped 60 percent to 8,100. And the figures keep rising.
Attempts to keep tuition and fees low have dampened the revenue needed to develop curriculum in job-growth sectors such as health care.
“We’ve always struggled with funding,” said Sprega. “But it’s been getting more difficult.”
Now $12 billion in help is on the horizon for BCC and the nation’s 1,200 other community colleges, including the Community College of Rhode Island. That’s how much President Barack Obama wants to spend over 10 years to upgrade buildings and courses at two-year schools across the country so they can play a more prominent role in economic and work force development.
Announced on July 14, the Obama proposal – dubbed the American Graduation Initiative – aims to produce 5 million more graduates over the next 10 years.
While local educators involved with community colleges expressed delight about being the focus of the unprecedented plans, it was tempered somewhat by the uncertainty about how those dollars will reach campuses.
Steven J. Maurano, Rhode Island’s acting commissioner of higher education, said he’s heard the money will be divided into several “silos,” some of which will be awarded through competitive grants.
“We’re excited about the prospects,” Maurano said last week. “But we’re still sort of analyzing the details.”
Indeed, the American Graduation Initiative has a long way to go before it’s reality, and Congress will have its say on its final form.
Julian L. Alssid, executive director of the Workforce Strategy Center and a Barrington resident, said there’s an immense opportunity for economic development, if it’s done right.
Strategic partnerships should be formed between community colleges and appropriate businesses that have the potential to offer career-track jobs now and in the future, Alssid said.
At this point, despite the dollar value of Obama’s proposal, there are few details of how the money will be used.
The initiative calls for $2.5 billion for construction and renovation projects on community college campuses, $500 million to create new online courses and $9 billion for competitive grants for innovative and proven programs.
The White House says grants would be used to build partnerships with businesses to create “career pathways,” to expand course offerings and establish dual enrollment initiatives at high schools and universities, and to improve remedial and adult education programs.
At the very least, community college administrators are basking in the glow of a spotlight that doesn’t shine too often on this area of higher education. In announcing the $12 billion plan, even Obama said community colleges have been the “stepchild” of higher ed.
Sprega said the attention has been overdue.
“Community colleges have been long overburdened, underrecognized and underfunded,” Sprega said.
It’s a story that has played out at two-year schools across the country: Government appropriations have shrunk as the economy has stalled and states have struggled to balance budgets.
The stalled economy has also pushed larger numbers of people into the classrooms, seeking either a more affordable education or new job skills that will restart a career.
CCRI President Ray M. Di Pasquale was unavailable for comment last week, but Maurano said enrollment for the school stood at about 17,600 in the previous school year and registrations are running 10 to 11 percent ahead of the figures from the same time last year. College administrators are anticipating a rush at the end of July and in the first week of August as students prepare for the fall semester.
Over the same period, the school has left between 125 and 130 administrative jobs vacant, in areas such as enrollment services and academic advising.
With the school’s mission to provide an affordable education and its limited ability to draw out-of-state students, CCRI has been handcuffed in raising revenue through tuition and fee increases.
Maurano said the school desperately could use a sliver of the $12 billion earmarked for infrastructure improvements to update aging buildings at its main campus in Warwick and a satellite campus in Lincoln.
At BCC, which has campuses in Attleboro, Taunton and New Bedford, Massachusetts’ appropriation has remained about level at between $15 and $16 million since 2001, according to Sprega.
That has hampered the school’s ability to expand its offerings for jobs that have a promising future, such as physical therapy assistant, radiology technician or pharmacy technician.
“The demand is there in the community, but it’s very expensive, and we can’t afford to start these programs up,” Sprega said.
The timing of Obama’s proposal appears to fit with efforts in Rhode Island to make better use of CCRI as a work force development tool.
The CCRI 21st Century Workforce Commission, a 13-member panel of state lawmakers, school administrators and state agency directors, has been working since the spring to determine local labor needs and how the school can meet them.
Statistics indicate that CCRI is already a critical feeder to the state’s work force, with 80 percent of the school’s graduates employed by Rhode Island companies, according to the R.I. Economic Development Corporation.
Alssid said other community colleges should be going through the same process of developing proper focus of their offerings.
“[Obama’s initiative] is an opportunity for all community colleges in the country,” he said. “But it’s really important that it be done right for maximum impact.” •
Correction: An earlier version of this story said the Community College of Rhode Island had cut between 125 and 130 administrative jobs. Steven J. Maurano, interim commission of higher education, said the school didn’t cut those jobs, but left them vacant. The story also gave an incorrect enrollment figure for the previous school year, according to Maurano.
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