Today: House GOP’s Gimmicky Visit to Local Community College Provides Interesting Optics

by Press Staff

 

Interesting optics: This morning, the House GOP leadership is going on a 15-minute tour (cue the Gilligan’s Island theme) at a local community college to sell their partisan workforce investment bill – a bill that interestingly allows community colleges to be cut out of local decision making on workforce training programs. (from their advisory: 11:15 a.m. EST – Tour; 11:30 a.m. EST - Press Conference)

This event and the GOP bill are not about jobs or making the workforce investment and training programs any more effective. Rather, this is about Leader Cantor’s rebranding strategy to ‘remake’ the Republican Party.

Here’s the real GOP record:

  • The GOP allows community colleges to be cut out of the process in local workforce investment boards that determine job training priorities. Community colleges are an important stakeholder in local communities. Why allow them to be locked out of the process?
  • The lead author of the GOP bill questions whether Congress has a role in education to begin with. She said last year “I have a philosophical belief that the federal government should basically not be involved in higher education.”
  • Community colleges themselves have raised concerns regarding the Republican bill. “We are concerned that assistance currently targeted to those with the most economic need and other unique characteristics, even with the steps taken in the legislation to address these issues, will be diminished under the structure set out.”

Democrats want to improve the nation’s workforce investment infrastructure, focusing on finding workers jobs and careers through strategic partnerships with employers from in-demand sectors employers, community colleges, labor organizations, and non-profits. Democrats make community college an important partner in this process by:

  • Allowing local areas the flexibility to offer specialized group training classes in partnership with community colleges. These classes are designed for employers who are looking to hire many workers with a particular skill.
  • Authorizing funding for President Obama’s Community College to Career Fund to expand capacity to train workers in high-growth industries, such as health care, transportation, and advanced manufacturing.
  • Supporting pathways to entrepreneurship by providing training in small business development.
  • Allowing community colleges to contract for class-size training (not just student-by-student payments).
  • Moving the workforce investment system towards a common system of recognized credentials.