Education

Community colleges can diversify skill sets

By |

By STEPHANIE HERNANDEZ McGAVIN
Capital News Service
LANSING — Community colleges serve as educational stepping-stones to higher learning institutions and trade schools, creating a gateway for students who want to advance their education, enter the workforce or simply enrich their skills. The trade aspect of a job training program creates an opportunity for students to efficiently become part of the workforce, said Wayne Rodgers, a welding and fabrication professor in the job training program at Grand Rapids Community College. “Everything that we do out there in a manufacturing industry doesn’t take a four-year degree — it takes a specific skill,” said Rodgers. “To have a person take the additional humanities makes them well-rounded, but it keeps them out of the workforce.”

Rodgers estimated about 10 to 15 percent of the students in the non-credit job training program continue onto credit-bearing programs so they can obtain their associate’s degree. Other than that, Rodgers said the heart of community colleges is in technical work.

Business & Economy

Community colleges push job training for new workers

By |

By YUEHAN LIU
Capital News Service
LANSING—Michigan employers can get free job training for their new workers from local community colleges. While Michigan companies are expanding and hiring more workers, many need training for skills. Where can employers find an organization to provide that training? The Michigan Community College Association says: their local community college. Michael Hansen, president of the association, said the New Jobs Training Program uses state income taxes paid by the newly hired workers to repay the community colleges for the cost of training.

Education

Less state money means colleges, students struggle

By |

By BROOKE KANSIER
Capital News Service
LANSING — State funding for higher education has seen a dramatic reduction in the past few decades — and students are feeling the budget squeeze. Despite increases in the past four years, Michigan spending on higher education is still 4 percent below 2011 when funds were slashed – and still lagging nearly 28 percent behind pre-recession funding, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a policy institute based in Washington, D.C.
That amounts to an average $1,631 less per student than in 2008. “When one looks at the long view of state investment in higher education, it marks a rather dramatic decline,” said Daniel Hurley, chief executive officer of the Presidents Council, State Universities of Michigan, which lobbies on behalf of the 15 state universities. Representative and Higher Education Appropriations Subcommittee member Jeff Irwin, D–Ann Arbor, said the lack of funding for higher education is irresponsible. “Higher education used to be a tool used by the public through state government to enhance social mobility, to give people a hand up, to give people an opportunity to develop their skills and contribute more to their community and to their family, and the state government has turned its back on that responsibility,” he said.

Government

Lawmakers propose tuition help for Michigan National Guard

By |

By DANIELLE WOODWARD
Capital News Service
LANSING — Members of the Michigan National Guard could get $4,500 in tuition assistance under a bill recently introduced by legislators. It would set up a program where members could apply for help towards a college degree or vocational training, said Rep. Bruce Rendon, R-Lake City, who sponsored the bill. It’s an attempt to raise the state from the bottom ranks of those offering assistance to veterans, Rendon said. “To qualify, one would have to have a service contract with the Michigan National Guard where they have committed to a six-year contract at some point in their career,” said Brig. Gen. Mike Stone of the Michigan National Guard.

Education

Undocumented immigrants face higher tuition at some Michigan colleges and universities

By |

By DARCIE MORAN
Capital News Service
LANSING — A college acceptance letter isn’t always all it’s cracked up to be. For many undocumented immigrants in Michigan and their children, the application process is just one hurdle on the road to a college education. “They’ve invested so much in their education but when they come to go to college, that’s when the road closes on them,” said Jose Franco, founder of One Michigan, a Detroit-based group that works for immigrant rights. Some Michigan public universities offer in-state tuition rates for undocumented students. But many four-year colleges and most community colleges don’t – even though students may have lived their entire life in the state.

Education

Michigan campuses ranked for—what else?—snow

By |

By EVAN KREAGER
Capital News Service
LANSING — Two of the 10 snowiest college campuses in the nation are right here in Michigan, according to a list published by the AccuWeather forecasting service. Michigan Technological University in Houghton at the northernmost part of the Upper Peninsula ranked first with an average of nearly 200 inches of snowfall annually. And the eighth snowiest campus is Western Michigan University, the weather service says. On average, the Kalamazoo University receives 67 inches of snow each year. Placing No.