Obama to Propose $12 Billion in New Community College Spending

UNITED STATED. President Barack Obama will propose $12 billion in new federal spending for community colleges that the administration says will help prepare U.S. workers for 21st- century jobs.

Obama will announce his plan in a speech today at a community college in Michigan. His initiative is intended to stimulate renovations at schools, expand curricula and increase by five million the number community-college graduates in the country by 2020.

James Kvaal, an Obama economic policy adviser, said the announcement highlights the president’s “view of the centrality of community colleges in providing higher education.”

A White House report released yesterday said the U.S. education and job-training system has “important limitations” that must be addressed if workers are to take advantage of new job opportunities in industries such as medicine or those tied to the environment and alternative energy.

The report, from the Council of Economic Advisors, said health-care jobs may grow by as much as 45 percent by 2016, and that investments in renewable energy will boost the growth of employment in environmental-related jobs by 50 percent or more.

“It’s time to reform our community colleges so that they provide Americans of all ages a chance to learn the skills and knowledge necessary to compete for the jobs of the future,â€

Business Partnerships

Today, Obama will announce a new federal grant program for community colleges that will spend $9 billion over the next decade to help schools form partnerships with businesses and train students for job opportunities.

“It will let colleges try some new things,” Kvaal said during a conference call yesterday with reporters.

The grants also will help community colleges coordinate their programs with high schools and four-year universities and encourage the almost 50 percent of students who fail to graduate from community colleges to complete their degrees.

“We have not done enough to get students through” the schools, Under Secretary of Education Martha Kander said on the call. “Completing college has got to be an essential part of increasing our economic and social prosperity.”

Obama is proposing $2.5 billion to help finance bonds or school fundraising campaigns to pay for up to $10 billion in renovations and new construction at community colleges.

The remaining $500 million announced today will be used to develop online curriculum programs.

All the spending is subject to approval by Congress.

Obama will make today’s announcement at Macomb Community College in Warren, Michigan. The suburban Detroit school has about 59,000 students.

Michigan, with its heavy dependence on the ailing U.S. auto industry, has been especially hard hit by the recession. Its unemployment rate of 14.1 percent is the highest of any state.

The U.S. unemployment rate reached 9.5 percent last month, the highest since 1983, and Obama has said it’s likely to exceed 10 percent before the end of the year.