Eye On Illinois: Community colleges play vital role in workforce pipeline

Sometimes a solution is so logical it’s amazing the problem still existed.

That’s exactly the case with Senate Bill 1832, which would pave the way for the state’s community colleges to offer bachelor’s degrees and professional teaching licenses for early childhood education.

The problem, according to sponsor Sen. Cristina Paciane-Zayas, D-Chicago, is about 2,200 vacancies in such positions statewide and only about 340 people graduating with the qualifications to take such jobs each year. Although there are about 28,000 people already working in child care who have the background to take the next educational step, there are barriers to getting the degree, such as the cost and availability of classes.

“They have very little pay, anywhere between $10 to $13 an hour, with very little benefits,” Pacione-Zayas said at a news conference promoting her legislation, per Capitol News Illinois. “So much so that 46 percent of them are eligible for public assistance.”

The bill, which will be discussed at Tuesday’s meeting of the Senate Higher Education Committee, would allow community college districts to apply to the Higher Learning Commission for the right to create programs that would churn out graduates qualified for the many open jobs. The benefits are obvious: better salaries for the workers, more access to programming for children throughout Illinois and deeper portfolios for our community colleges, which already provide so many opportunities to directly prepare people for the workforce.

Although I’m the product of a four-year liberal arts education, it’s impossible to deny the value of community colleges for a wide variety of vocational pursuits. While there are many success stories of large employers coordinating with the local school to offer training programs for specific needs, from warehousing to transportation to agriculture and beyond, it’s hard to think of a better arrangement than using public schools to create teachers to staff public education programs.

CNI also quoted April Janney, CEO and president of Illinois Action for Children, who researched data from the 23 other states offering community college bachelor programs in various fields.

“There’s no silver bullet,” Janney said at the news conference. “But the data shows that (community college bachelor’s degree) programs serve a different population… a population that would not otherwise seek out or complete a bachelor’s degree program.”

Once the General Assembly enacts SB 1832 — and it most certainly should — the next step is to upscale by identifying any other fields where there are more jobs than qualified applicants and figure out how to strengthen school-to-work pipelines using community colleges.

University educations can be wonderful, but community colleges also play a vital role in preparing students of all ages for new or better career opportunities and this proposal only strengthens their important position.

• Scott T. Holland writes about state government issues for Shaw Local News Network. Follow him on Twitter at @sth749. He can be reached at sholland@shawmedia.com.