President Obama unveiled July 14 his $12 billion plan to increase the number of college graduates through a multi-faceted investment focused on the improvement and expansion of community colleges.
To a crowd at Macomb Community College in Warren, Michigan Obama outlined his American Graduation Initiative, calling it “the most significant down payment” his administration has made thus far toward his goal of graduating 5 million more community college students with degrees or certifications by 2020. The program is a key component of Obama’s multi-faceted strategy to rebuild the nation’s economy.
Obama announced his proposal just a day after the Council of Economic Advisors released a report describing an expected shift toward jobs that require workers with greater analytical and interactive skills, underscoring the need for some type of postsecondary education to remain competitive.
The American Graduation Initiative includes $2.5 billion for construction and renovation at the nation’s community colleges, $500 million to develop new online courses and $9 billion for “challenge grants” aimed at spurring innovation at the colleges. The programs will be paid by “ending the wasteful subsidies we currently provide to banks and private lenders for student loans, which will save tens of billions of dollars over the next 10 years.”
Obama’s plan aims to build on the strengths of community colleges through programs that:
•Create a Community College Challenge Fund: Competitive grants to enable community colleges and states to innovate and expand proven reforms. Community colleges would be encouraged to collaborate with businesses; offer dual enrollment courses in high schools and universities; and improve remedial and adult education programs.
•Fund Innovative Strategies to Promote College Completion: The College Access and Completion Fund would finance the innovation, evaluation, and expansion of efforts to increase college graduation rates and close achievement gaps, including those at community colleges.
•Modernize Community College Facilities: Invest $2.5 billion to catalyze $10 billion in community college facility investments that will expand the colleges’ ability to meet employer and student needs.
•Create a New Online Skills Laboratory: The Departments of Defense, Education, and Labor would be charged to make online courses available through one or more community colleges and the Defense Department’s distributed learning network, explore ways to award academic credit based upon achievement rather than class hours, and rigorously evaluate the results.

Tags: community colleges, Public Policy

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