On May 22, the House Committee on Education and Labor’s subcommittee on Higher Education and Workforce Investment held a hearing on the critical role community colleges and minority-serving institutions play in preparing students for success.
In his opening statement, Ranking Member Lloyd Smucker (R-PA) discussed the need to ensure that any “restructuring and innovation in our higher education system provides all students equal access to opportunities that offer pathways to success – both inside and outside of the conventional classroom.” This sentiment was generally shared and highlighted throughout the hearing by members on both sides of the aisle.
Members spoke of the need to better align our postsecondary educational programs with current and future labor market demands, and to better prepare students for success and our economy for long-term growth. Further, there was widespread recognition that not all family-sustaining careers require a four-year degree and that the country cannot continue to overlook the value of these programs; especially at a time when the U.S. economy has more jobs unfilled than people qualified to fill them.
When discussing the value of community colleges, Virginia Community College System Chancellor Glenn DuBois, who testified at the hearing, spoke extensively on the need to extend Pell to high-quality, non-credit workforce training programs. He continued, “Should Pell Grants be extended to these students, I would suggest you do so with a solid system of accountability that includes program completion data and income gains for program graduates.”
Expanding Pell to short-term job training programs and making student level data publicly available are two major priorities for ACTE during the reauthorization of the Higher Education Act. There are two legislative proposals, which ACTE has publicly endorsed, that would achieve these goals. S. 800, the College Transparency Act, would reverse the ban on a federal student-level data system, and S. 839, the JOBS Act, would expand Pell Grant eligibility to short-term job training programs.
Another topic importance to ACTE that was discussed during the hearing was the Federal Work-Study (FWS) program, in terms of aligning the job opportunities offered to students more closely to their programs of study. Other topics raised during the hearing were accessibility and affordability of receiving a postsecondary education, the Pell Grant program, mandatory funding for Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), and addressing the unique needs of students who typically enroll at these institutions.
If you wish to watch the hearing in its entirety, click here.
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