Education secretary promotes community colleges

ANKENY - U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan called for billions of additional dollars for community colleges during a town-hall meeting Thursday at the Des Moines Area Community College campus in suburban Ankeny.

It was the last stop on a two-day tour of Wisconsin and Iowa for Duncan, who used the Ankeny stop to announce proposed changes to a federal Career and Technical Education program.

“We don't have a jobs crisis, we have a skills crisis,” Duncan said. “We have 2 million open jobs right now that employers can't fill. The mismatch between the skills that employees have and what employers are looking for, that's the gap.”

To help bridge the gap, Duncan said the Obama administration has proposed doubling the amount of federal dollars put into the Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Act program to $2 billion. Perkins Act dollars help pay for CTE programs in community colleges.

He said future recipients of Perkins Act dollars would be required to create public-private partnerships, with the private entity providing up to 25 percent of the cost of the program in either dollars or in-kind contributions. Duncan also sees the states taking a greater role in figuring out who gets Perkins Act funds and encourages within-state competition for the dollars that are spent.

“Our goal is quality,” Duncan said. “The money would go out by formula to states, but the goal is not just to have a CTE program, it's to have effective CTE programs.”

He cited AccuMold of Ankeny as one such program. The company makes specialized molds for products that are 0.5 cubic inches or less in size. It has partnered with DMACC to help train high school and college students in a tool-and-die program and an automation program.

Duncan added that the Obama administration is proposing an additional $8 billion in spending overall on community colleges. He said the money is there to help make sure that “every American have access to at least one year of postsecondary education.”

Duncan also took questions from the crowd of roughly 150.

Steven Brockshus, a freshman at Iowa State University, told Duncan that the focus on the colleges leaves out help for students, like some of his friends, who wanted to go to work after high school.

Duncan responded that the goal is not to force people into college or a certain line of work, but to make sure they have options upon graduation.

Lindsay Calvert, an ISU junior and president of the Iowa Future Farmers of America, asked Duncan to keep in mind rural school districts that might not have access to community colleges. He responded that states would be encouraged to take access into consideration as they opt to fund CTE programs.

“I wish his answer was a little more in-depth, but I understand that he didn't have the time to go into it,” Calvert said after the meeting broke up.

Still, a total of $9 billion in new spending may be a hard pill for Congress to swallow during an election year.

“I keep saying we have to educate our way to a better economy. We have to continue to invest, so we're going to continue to keep pushing,” Duncan said. “Take all the politics and ideology out of it, we have to continue to invest. India, China and Singapore, they're not backing down.”