Lawmakers can help community colleges educate the workforce of the future 

Let me be the thousandth public official — present or former — to grieve the fierce partisanship that is making it so hard for our elected officials to work together. But I see a glimmer of hope in one area that defies political affiliation and is ripe for progress: improving our nation’s community colleges. 

To do so would allow us to materially improve the lives of thousands of individuals and rapidly build the skilled and modern workforce that employers are craving in a technologically evolving world. 

I know this to be true from my service as co-chair of the jury that selected the winners of the Aspen Prize, our country’s eminent award for the top-performing community colleges. It’s not lost on me that of the two winners, one was from the ruby-red state of Texas (Amarillo Community College) and the other from the bright blue state of California (Imperial Valley College).

Community colleges are uniquely poised to help solve two major challenges our society faces in this time of rapid change and technological advancement. First, as industries change or disappear, millions of people are worrying that they and their children will not be able to find good family-sustaining jobs. Second, a huge number of employers are lamenting what they perceive to be the lack of skilled workers for critical positions. 

However, not all community colleges are performing at the level needed to make a significant difference. Here’s what governors and state legislators can do to help get them there:  

• Hold community colleges accountable for delivering economic mobility by ensuring that their programs and degrees are connected to good-paying jobs. Community colleges educate the largest number of low-income students in our country, as well as the largest number of students of color — a growing percentage of our population. Sustaining a thriving middle class depends on community colleges getting this right. And there’s nothing partisan about holding publicly funded institutions accountable for performance outcomes tied to the number of students who complete credentials and go on to well-paying jobs.   
• Elected and appointed officials can serve as bridge builders between community colleges and private-sector businesses that need skilled employees. The best community colleges partner with employers and invite them into their schools to make sure students have the up-to-date tools and knowledge needed for immediate employment post-graduation. Activating the talent in our communities is critical for a strong and vibrant economy. We need more healthcare providers, tech workers, engineers, data analytics experts, as well as talented professionals whose skills match the needs of employers in every community. We need winemakers in wine country, skilled farmers in dairy country and hospitality managers in tourist towns. Each of these traditional industries continues to adopt new technologies at a lightning-fast pace and those who work there need to have the agile skills and growth mindset needed to keep pace. 

• A critical public sector role is to foster collaboration between high schools and community colleges, enabling high school students to take community college courses for credit (often called dual enrollment). Even better — do everything in your power to make sure those courses count towards a degree. This saves students time and money on the way to completing a degree. 
• Another area where we need political leaders to encourage or even force collaboration and partnerships is between community colleges and four-year colleges and universities to improve the number of community college students who transfer and complete a bachelor’s degree without wasting time repeating coursework due to illogical institutional rules. Our nation needs more workers with bachelor’s degrees, which are connected to higher earnings over time. Transfer agreements should come with a guarantee of admission to four-year institutions for community college graduates, with all credits transferred so that students aren’t “starting over” in the third year. 
• In this age of rapid change, ask questions you may not have considered in the past: How are we going to appoint boards of trustees that demand excellence? Leaders who won’t settle for mediocrity in the form of low graduation rates or lack of workforce preparedness?  How can we invest differently in community colleges, aligning funding formulas with performance expectations?

As a former governor who worked closely with colleagues of all political stripes, I can say this with confidence: Republicans and Democrats — no matter how far right or left — all care about advancing talent and economic mobility. We care about attracting businesses to our states. We care about our constituents and their economic stability. When people work hard, they should get ahead in life — and we should not tolerate failure from the institutions charged with ensuring hard-working students have the tools and the opportunities they need to succeed. 

Republicans and Democrats can absolutely agree that public investment in education should yield a positive return on investment for all interested parties: the state as a funder, the community and employers that stand to benefit from the skills being applied, the families that should expect that tuition results in the next generation thriving and college graduates who can proudly claim that they have applied their talents and learned a skill that contributes to our collective well-being.  

Community colleges educate nearly half of our college students. Who on the left or right would argue against setting the same high expectations I demanded from each of the higher education institutions to which I sent my own daughters, and that many of us graduated from ourselves?

Jane Swift is the former governor of Massachusetts who co-led the selection process for the Aspen Prize for Community College Excellence.