Thursday, February 25, 2010

Rural community colleges air troubles to feds; some mount lobbying campaigns at state level

Community colleges are having trouble as state governments cut education funding, but leaders of rural community colleges say their schools are facing even more challenges. They met with Department of Education and congressional staff members as part of "Rural Community College Day," a meeting convened by the department and the Rural Community College Alliance. The meeting was the first time the department had met specifically with rural-college leaders, Libby Nelson of The Chronicle of Higher Education reports.

The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching reports rural community colleges make up 64 percent of the nation's 820 community-college districts, Libby writes, and "are often in areas in which few adults have college degrees." John White, deputy assistant secretary for rural outreach, told Lilly that Education Department officials hoped the meeting would signify the importance of rural colleges in President Obama's education plan after some of the presidents "expressed concern at the meeting that they were often left out in policy discussions related to community colleges," Lilly reports. "Our funding streams are very, very limited," Blair Montgomery, president of Pierpont Community and Technical College, in Fairmont, W.Va., said during the meeting. "We are invisible. But we get the job done." (Read more)

UPDATE, Feb. 26: Community-college systems in at least four states -- Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi and Washington -- have launched lobbying campaigns, reports Nancy Rodriguez of The Courier-Journal in Louisville. In Kentucky, "The campaign — which includes billboards and advertising — is being paid for with $1.3 million originally designated for student recruitment. With a 13 percent increase in enrollment — to 100,348 students this past fall — system officials say the money is better spent on advocating for more state recognition, and higher education funding." (Read more)

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