Senate Democrats tout plans to help retrain Iowans for high-skill jobs

DES MOINES – Donnie Stanley, a Cedar Rapids mother of two, credited a pilot tuition assistance project at Kirkwood Community College with helping get her on the road to self-sufficiency.

Stanley, 22, said Tuesday the money she received through the Gap Assistance Program to pay for books and tuition made it possible for her to complete the certification process to become a nurse's assistant and land a job. She now has her sights set on becoming a registered nurse.

“Gap helped me get my first good job and it helped me take the first step up the ladder. It has made a big difference for my family,” Stanley told a Statehouse news conference where Senate Democrats unveiled a package of job-training and career pathway programs aimed at getting unemployed and underemployed Iowans the skill sets needed to re-enter the workforce. “I'm here today because I think the same opportunities should be available to all Iowans struggling the way that I was.”

Senate President Jack Kibbie, D-Emmetsburg, said majority Senate Democrats want to take a program that has been available at three community colleges statewide with the infusion of $5 million in state funds. They also proposed to pump $5 million into a statewide Pathways for Academic Career and Employment (PACE) program that would help community colleges partners with state agencies and local communities to help eligible low-skilled, low-income adults and dislocated workers get certified and trained for new job skills.

Kibbie said the tuition assistance program will help eliminate financial barriers preventing workers from improving their skills by addressing the existing financial gap faced by some Iowans who can't get financial aid to learn new skills needed by Iowa employers.

Steve Ovel of Kirkwood Community College said the program in place in Cedar Rapids for four years has provided aid ranging from $400 to $4,350 with the average being about $1,000. He said 372 students have been served by the program and 86 percent have been placed in jobs after completing a certification program.

“You cannot create jobs unless you create the skill sets,” said Sen. Bill Dotzler, D-Waterloo. “This will help get them over the hump.”

Kibbie said the $10 million proposed by Senate Democrats would be on top of the $20 million increase in general state aid they would like to see included in the fiscal 2012 budget. That position puts them at odds with Senate Republicans, majority House Republicans and Gov. Terry Branstad, who included flat funding for community college in the budget blueprint he unveiled last week.

Senate GOP Leader Paul McKinley of Chariton said less government impediments and barriers to business, not more government programs, is the best way to spur the economy and lower Iowa's 6.3 percent unemployment rate.

“Government is not in a position to pick winners and losers or to decide where the economy is going. It's never worked and never will work,” he said. “Employers are merely responding to the marketplace. It there's not a demand for your service or your product, you're not going to hire anybody.”