Action Center
Issues in Education:
Higher Education
Creating a 21st Century Workforce through Higher Education
Two-Year Education: Building Our Workforce, Advancing Our Economy
Education is the key to development – just not for individual learners, but also for regional economies. Thanks to small class sizes and administrative flexibility, Montana’s two year campuses are all uniquely fitted to respond to the economic needs of their local communities. Through public/private partnerships, skilled worker programs such as construction trades, healthcare, and industrial technologies, provide quality educational training and workforce development for both emerging industries, and already established businesses. At a very affordable cost to both the state, and to students, the advancement of two-year education is the most effective way we can ensure today’s workforce is trained and available for tomorrow’s economic vitality. These partnerships should be encouraged and increased.
Unfortunately the colleges of technology and community colleges were ignored in recent budgets. Disproportionate budgets and a university system structured to benefit four-year universities have hampered the advancement of two-year learning, and those Montana students who select this type of education for their future. We must recommit ourselves to this type of skilled training that will not only promote the education of our many two-year students, but also further the workforce for Montana’s communities.
Grants for Educational Training and Research
The 2007 Legislature set the foundation for a true investment in vocational training by allowing for our state’s colleges and communities to compete for funds that will promote various workforce development programs. We must further these grants, while ensuring they are effective in the advancement of Montana’s economic activity. To do so, we must offer grants that are specific to areas such as energy development and healthcare, industry clusters that have unlimited potential in Montana. Moreover, these grants must be available to every campus, in every community across the state. To make these grants accountable we must further stress the need for local partnerships that match state funds and prepare these dollars for successful ventures – in classrooms and on jobsites. Through a more accountable process that stresses outcomes and results, grants for vocational training can be true investments in local economic vitality.
Furthermore, federal dollars in the form of research grants should be available for deserving programs in all the university schools, not just in Bozeman and Missoula.
Make College More Accessible for Deserving Students
Many states, including our neighbors to the south in Wyoming have it right – use available state resources to reward great students and keep them at home for college. It is absolutely critical that the most affordable place for a Montana student to pursue their higher educational goals is right here, in their home state. It is even more vital that we stop exporting our best natural resources: a young Montana mind. Diverted funds from only a small percentage of the interest gained on the Coal Severance Trust Fund will allow all of Montana’s high school graduates with a 3.7 GPA or higher to be able to attend a public university or college with no charge in tuition. This revolutionary approach to higher education is the key for us to advance as a state – by investing in the next generation of Montana.
[Read about issues in K-12 Education]