President Obama unveils 'America's College Promise' college proposal

Obama in Knoxville today

Unless you've been under a rock, you should know by now President Barack Obama is in town to announce his new education plan that's based at least in part on the Tennessee Promise.

The White House earlier today issued a release about the proposal. Here ya go:

Nearly a century ago, a movement that made high school widely available helped lead to rapid growth in the education and skills training of Americans, driving decades of economic growth and prosperity.

America thrived in the 20th century in large part because we had the most educated workforce in the world. But other nations have matched or exceeded the secret to our success. Today, more than ever, Americans need more knowledge and skills to meet the demands of a growing global economy without having to take on decades of debt before they even embark on their career.

Today the President is unveiling the America’s College Promise proposal to make two years of community college free for responsible students, letting students earn the first half of a bachelor’s degree and earn skills needed in the workforce at no cost.

This proposal will require everyone to do their part: community colleges must strengthen their programs and increase the number of students who graduate, states must invest more in higher education and training, and students must take responsibility for their education, earn good grades, and stay on track to graduate.

The program would be undertaken in partnership with states and is inspired by new programs in Tennessee and Chicago. If all states participate, an estimated 9 million students could benefit. A full-time community college student could save an average of $3,800 in tuition per year.

In addition, today the President will propose a new American Technical Training Fund to expand innovative, high-quality technical training programs similar to Tennessee Tech Centers that meet employer needs and help prepare more Americans for better paying jobs.

These proposals build on a number of historic investments the President has made in college affordability and quality since taking office, including a $1,000 increase in the maximum Pell Grant award to help working and middle class families, the creation of the $2,500 American Opportunity Tax Credit, reforming student loans to eliminate subsidies to banks to invest in making college more affordable and keeping student debt manageable, and making available over $2 billion in grants to connect community colleges with employers to develop programs that are designed to get hard-working students good jobs.

Make Two Years of College as Free and Universal as High School

By 2020, an estimated 35 percent of job openings will require at least a bachelor’s degree and 30 percent will require some college or an associate’s degree. Forty percent of college students are enrolled at one of America’s more than 1,100 community colleges, which offer students affordable tuition, open admission policies, and convenient locations.

They are particularly important for students who are older, working, need remedial classes, or can only take classes part-time. For many students, they offer academic programs and an affordable route to a four-year college degree.

They are also uniquely positioned to partner with employers to create tailored training programs to meet economic needs within their communities such as nursing, health information technology, and advanced manufacturing.


The America’s College Promise proposal would create a new partnership with states to help them waive tuition in high-quality programs for responsible students, while promoting key reforms to help more students complete at least two years of college.

Restructuring the community college experience, coupled with free tuition, can lead to gains in student enrollment, persistence, and completion transfer, and employment. Specifically, here is what the initiative will mean:

• Enhancing Student Responsibility and Cutting the Cost of College for All Americans: Students who attend at least half-time, maintain a 2.5 GPA while in college, and make steady progress toward completing their program will have their tuition eliminated. These students will be able to earn half of the academic credit they need for a four-year degree or earn a certificate or two-year degree to prepare them for a good job.
• Building High-Quality Community Colleges: Community colleges will be expected to offer programs that either (1) are academic programs that fully transfer to local public four-year colleges and universities, giving students a chance to earn half of the credit they need for a four-year degree, or (2) are occupational training programs with high graduation rates and that lead to degrees and certificates that are in demand among employers. Other types of programs will not be eligible for free tuition. Colleges must also adopt promising and evidence-based institutional reforms to improve student outcomes, such as the effective Accelerated Study in Associate Programs (ASAP) programs at the City University of New York which waive tuition, help students pay for books and transit costs, and provide academic advising and supportive scheduling programs to better meet the needs of participating students, resulting in greater gains in college persistence and degree completion. 
•  Ensuring Shared Responsibility with States: Federal funding will cover three-quarters of the average cost of community college. States that choose to participate will be expected to contribute the remaining funds necessary to eliminate community college tuition for eligible students. States that already invest more and charge students less can make smaller contributions, though all participating states will be required to put up some matching funds. States must also commit to continue existing investments in higher education; coordinate high schools, community colleges, and four-year institutions to reduce the need for remediation and repeated courses; and allocate a significant portion of funding based on performance, not enrollment alone. States will have flexibility to use some resources to expand quality community college offerings, improve affordability at four-year public universities, and improve college readiness, through outreach and early intervention.

Expanding Technical Training for Middle Class Jobs

Additionally, in order to spread the availability of high-quality and innovative programs like those in Tennessee and Texas, which achieve better than average completion and employment outcomes, the President is also proposing the American Technical Training Fund.

This fund will award programs that have strong employer partnerships and include work-based learning opportunities, provide accelerated training, and are scheduled to accommodate part-time work. Programs could be created within current community colleges or other training institutions. The focus of the discretionary budget proposal would be to help high-potential, low-wage workers gain the skills to work into growing fields with significant numbers of middle-class jobs that local employers are trying to fill such as energy, IT, and advanced manufacturing.

This program will fund the start-up of 100 centers and scale those efforts in succeeding years. Smaller grants would help to bring together partners and start a pilot program. Larger grants would be used for expanding programs based on evidence of effectiveness, which could include past performance on graduation rates, job placement rates and placement wages. Building on the President’s community college initiative, known as the Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training Grants and for which 2014 was the final year of funding, these funds will help community colleges become more job-driven.

Building on State and Local Programs

In the past year, Tennessee and the City of Chicago initiated free community college programs. In the first year of the Tennessee program, 57,000 students representing almost 90 percent of the state’s high school graduating class applied for the program.

The scholarship is coupled with college counseling, mentorship, and community service that early evidence suggests supports greater enrollment, persistence and college completion. This is coupled with efforts to spur innovation and improvement by funding colleges using performance outcomes based on student success and an innovative approach to career and technical education through the Tennessee Colleges of Applied Technology. These Tennessee Tech Centers have a graduation rate of 80 percent and a job placement rate of 85 percent.

Charter review committee picks, thoughts

OK, so the Knox County Charter Review Committee, which will look into possibly amending the county’s governing documents, met for the first time tonight. I’ll have a story about it in tomorrow’s paper.

Here’s some quick thoughts.

As you may (or may not or don’t care to) know, the committee is comprised of nine commissioners (only Chairman Mike Hammond and Jeff Ownby aren’t on it), and nine of their appointees and nine picks from county Mayor Tim “Sasquatch” Burchett.

Soooo, the members had to select a chairman tonight. They chose former commissioner, former Trustee’s Office worker and current Property Assessor’s Office worker Craig Leuthold.

Here’s what happened:

Commissioner Amy Broyles nominated fellow Commissioner Sam KmcKenzie. Commissioner, Colonel, Doctor Richard Briggs – who actually appointed Leuthold to the committee – nominated Arghhh Larry Smith. Commissioner Mike Brown nominated Leuthold.

In the first round of voting, Sam and RRRRRRR Larry each nabbed six votes and Craig got nine. In the do-over, Sam got five, R. Larry got one and Craig got 15.

There were some top county leaders who were secretly hoping Sam would get the nod.

Just saying.

The committee ended up picking Ann Acuff as vice chair. Acuff recently retired from the county after serving mucho decades as the county’s deputy financial minister(ess).

Sam was selected as the committee’s secretary. Whatever that is.

Couple of other things. Commissioners initially thought they would have to sign off on any recommendations that the committee made. In other words, to get it to the ballot where the people get to make a decision, the commission would have to approve that.

Nope.

Apparently, the charter – that document that could get amended – says it goes to the election commission. So, that eliminates a layer of BS.

You know, provided it doesn’t get too political on that committee.

And it will. I feel sorry for some of the newcomers. They have no clue. Heh.

Now, in the meantime, a few folks have commented on the so-called oddity of some of the mayor’s picks. You see, a few of the people he selected don’t always see eye-to-eye with him. Don’t kid yourself. He’s got the support he needs.

Retirement plan audits to cost $42K

Sat in the pension board meeting Monday for more than two hours. Exciting stuff, I'll tell ya. No, really. Good stuff. Heh.

Anyhoo, I've got a notebook full of information, most of it will never see print because we don't have the space, so I'll start dumping some of it here on the ole blog.

The County Commission recently (it might have been Monday when I was sleeping) signed a four-year contract with Pugh and Company, which will serve as its external auditor. The Knoxville-based company also will work with the pension board.

Some officials, particularly Knox County Senior Director of Finance John “Mad Dog” Troyer, have been itching to get someone to audit the county's six retirement programs.

Now, don't go and get too excited. For someone who operates with the glass half full, even I seriously doubt they're going to find anything. (Other than investment returns kind of suck. But that's true pretty much everywhere.)

In fact, Troyer called it a “straight forward vanilla” audit. (Although he might have said a “Donila” audit.)

The IRS looked over some of the plans (if not all of them) not to long ago and didn't find anything. (As I recall there were some payroll issues or something to do with the county not putting in interest or whatnot, but the plans were pretty much clean.)

The pension board will pick up the tab – about $42,000 for the first year's audit. Executive Director Kim Bennett said the scratch will come from a pot of coins set aside to purchase new software.(She hinted pretty hard Monday to the board that if she uses this money for the audit, she'd still need the software in 2013. In other words, fellas, don't be surprised if I put some extra coinage in there 18 months from now!)

ON A SIDE NOTE: Ann Acuff, who is pretty much second-in-command of the county's finance office is (or has) retired. I met her a few times and she has always been very pleasant and very helpful. Her effective retirement date is Dec. 1. She's leaving after more than 46 years.

That's pretty cool. So congrats goes out to her.