Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, August 31, 1993 TAG: 9310280315
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ROBERT W. DAY
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
You are correct in observing that Virginia's infrastructure to support economic development and growth has been sorely neglected in recent years.
A case in point is Virginia's community-college system. Most states now use their community colleges as the centerpiece of education and training for business and industry, and many states provide specific incentive funding to support non-credit economic-development programming.
Having worked for community colleges in the Carolinas and Texas, I have observed several initiatives that met with a high degree of success. The commonwealth of Virginia should consider these:
Designation by the governor's office of community colleges as centers for economic development, responsible for the lion's share of non-credit business -industry training across the state.
State funding for non-credit continuing-education programs in community colleges to assist in supporting business and industry training.
Creation of small-business development centers at all community colleges, and state funding to supplement the federal Small Business Administration's funding of small-business development centers.
State incentive funding to community colleges for export-assistance training for small-and medium-sized businesses, in view of the continued growth of jobs attributed to foreign trade and exporting.
Use by the governor's office and Department of Economic Development of community colleges in "one-stop shopping" for training for prospective employers considering relocation or expansion.
Funding of community colleges (and universities) in the governor's plan for retraining military personnel who are dislocated through base realignment and closure, to prepare the personnel for careers in the private sector.
In the past several years, Virginia's community colleges have been caught in an unfortunate tuition-funding spiral that provides few incentives for economic-development programming. It seems time to reclaim our 23 community colleges for a major purpose for which they were intended, i.e., support of economic development. Investing in human resources to assist business and industry should be a top economic-development priority of both the next governor and the General Assembly, and investment funding in the community-college infrastructure should be the next logical step. Anything less would be "apple polishing," as your editorial suggests.
Robert W. Day of Lexington is division chair of the Business and Technologies Department at Dabney S. Lancaster Community College.
by CNB