Glen Oaks Community College in Centreville, Mich., contributed $86.7 million in added income to the south central Michigan economy in FY 2009, according to new EMSI impact study. GOCC released details of the study, which highlighted the higher earnings for students and increased output of businesses as a result of the college.
Glen Oaks students enjoy [...]

Nimble. Responsive to the training needs of the workforce. Economic drivers for their regions. All these have been used to describe the strengths of community colleges. But let’s throw out another description:
“Potential saviors of the economy.”
That comes from University Business, which has a lengthy look at community colleges in its latest edition. The article hits [...]

The following article is from North Central State College President Donald L. Plotts. Data for the piece were compiled by Tom Prendergast, NCSC’s director of institutional research and grants. The article follows this EMSI data spotlight on earnings by education levels.

It’s no secret that education correlates to income levels, but the statistics are so stark [...]

A familiar story is unfolding in nearly every state. Most legislatures are currently in session, and lawmakers are agonizing over cuts to state education budgets.
By now politicians are well versed in anecdotal evidence on the importance of investing in education — from early development classes through college. But what about definitive numbers on the return [...]

We’ve got a couple education stories of note to pass along to start the week:

Insider Higher Ed notes the dramatic shift in state support for public higher education for 2009-10. Including stimulus dollars, state institutions saw a decrease in funding of 1.1% from the prior year. That comes after state support rose 24% from 2005-08. [...]

Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon recently announced a $12 million initiative to train his state’s residents for high-tech jobs. The initiative will award grants to community colleges to expand or start new tech programs, reports Community College Times.
Occupations targeted by the initiative include veterinary and pharmacy technicians, nursing aides, and skills craftsmen. As the article outlines, [...]

Results of an EMSI socioeconomic impact study show Pennsylvania Highlands Community College is a major economic driver in its region, contributing $49.7 million in FY2008-09 in added income and helping associate degree-earning students make $414,000 more over their working lifetime than someone with a high school diploma.
PHCC’s impacts were highlighted in a recent article in [...]

More and more, college students are focused on finding a spot in the workplace over “developing a meaningful philosophy of life.” That comes from a recent New York Times article, which probes into the choices that colleges are making on cutting and adding new programs to reflect demand and students’ desires amid a tight labor [...]

The Center for American Progress recently released two reports, “Strong Students, Strong Workers” and “Re-Imagining Community Colleges in the 21st Century,” which explore some of the problems facing community colleges—everything from funding issues to substandard graduation rates (especially among low-income people)—and lay out a series of recommended legislative and system-wide reforms.
CAP is closely tied to [...]

Sinclair Community College serves the Dayton, Ohio, metropolitan area — home to the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. That proximity has led Sinclair to start the Defense Acquisition Academy, which trains unemployed or displaced workers in “contracting and acquisition logistics” at no cost.
The DAA is the subject of a recent article in the Dayton Daily News. [...]