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byline: Karin Kapsidelis

The free-tuition bandwagon

As Tennessee created a buzz with its decision to offer all residents a free community college education, a proposal to study something similar for Virginia quietly died in a state Senate committee in February.

But one thing remains clear in Virginia, among Republicans and Democrats alike, says Glenn DuBois, chancellor of the Virginia Community College System. “Twelfth grade is no longer the finish line” because a postsecondary credential is what a high school diploma once was.

Much like the early 20th century when states wrestled with how to finance secondary public education, he says, Virginia now must decide “how to finance the new goal.”

“I don’t believe there is such a thing as free community college,” DuBois says. “Someone has to pay for it.”

In Tennessee, revenue from the state lottery is picking up the tab for the so-called “last dollar” of tuition and fees after scholarships and grants are exhausted.

The week after the resolution for a study in Virginia failed at the General Assembly, Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam, a Republican, officially launched the expansion of a state program that has allowed recent high school graduates to enroll tuition-free at community and technical colleges. Beginning this fall, all Tennessee adults will be able to take advantage of the same free-tuition offer if they don’t already hold degrees.

“Free is kind of a relative term,” says Peter Blake, director of the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia. 

A state may need to add little if any revenue after scholarships and federal Pell Grants, which help students with the most financial need, are applied, “and you can say that person has free tuition,” Blake says.  “The advantage of what Tennessee did, in my judgment, is around marketing and telling Tennesseans that an education is achievable for them.” 

Better-educated workers
The goal of the two Tennessee programs — Tennessee Promise for recent high school graduates and Reconnect for adults — is similar to Virginia’s effort to increase the number of residents with a postsecondary degree or credential.

According to the 2017 annual report for Tennessee Promise, which began in 2015, the program cost $25.3 million in 2016-17 and will rise to about $33 million this year.  The estimated annual cost for Reconnect is $10 million.

During its last academic year, VCCS collected $460 million in tuition and mandatory fees, according to Jeffrey Kraus, assistant vice chancellor for strategic communications. Community college students were awarded $194 million in Pell Grants, although the funds can be used for educational expenses other than tuition and fees.

While “last dollar” references are often used to describe how free-tuition plans work, VCCS at this time does not collect data in that way and does not have an estimate on remaining need, Kraus says.  But a report on the financial gap facing students is expected to be presented to the state board later this spring.  

For Virginia, Blake questions what the impact might be on the state’s strong system of small private and regional public universities, which could lose enrollment if students opted to begin their studies at free community colleges rather than attend a four-year school. “Would you scramble the enrollment rather than broaden the base?” he says.

Movement in other states
The push for free community college has become a national issue.  In his 2015 proposal for two years of free tuition, America’s College Promise, President Barack Obama cited estimates that by 2020 about 35 percent of job openings will require at least a bachelor’s degree and another 30 percent will require some college or an associate degree.

During the 2016 presidential campaign, Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders and nominee Hillary Clinton supported a debt-free community college option for students. President Donald Trump recently suggested community colleges revert to the term “vocational schools.” 

The free college idea, however, is taking hold in several states in various forms.

Tuition is waived at the two-year City College of San Francisco for students with California residency living in the city.  New York’s Excelsior Scholarship covers tuition at two- and four-year state colleges for families or individuals earning up to $125,000 annually.

In January, the West Virginia Senate unanimously approved a bill making community and technical colleges free for residents, provided they pass a drug test.  A fiscal analysis accompanying the bill estimated the cost at $8 million annually. (As this issue went to press, the bill was stalled in the state’s House of Delegates.)

The newly approved North Carolina Promise will cut tuition — but not fees —  to $500 per semester for in-state students and to $2,500 for out-of-state students at three institutions in the University of North Carolina system.
Competitive advantage?

Donald J. Finley, president of the Virginia Business Higher Education Council, sees such efforts as producing a competitive advantage for neighboring states. “It has to be,” he says. “If they’re investing more in their workforce and making it easier for people to get the skills they need, then obviously they have an advantage that we would like to have.”

VBHEC has made affordable access a key component of its Growth4VA campaign to promote reform and reinvestment in Virginia’s higher education system.

“I’m a big fan of community colleges and what they have done for Virginians,” Finley says. But in over 20 years the system has gone from ranking as among the most affordable in the nation to among the least affordable. “That’s not a good thing,” he says.

VBHEC took no stand on the resolution proposed by state Sen. John S. Edwards, D-Roanoke, for the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission to study the feasibility of free community college tuition for Virginia residents.

The resolution, which Edwards also offered last session, was rejected by the Committee on Rules.  

Edwards notes that it’s been more than a half century since Virginia enacted its first sales tax in 1966 to establish the community college system.  The state has “a history of frugal government,” he says, but it needs to find a way to offer a free community college education not just for high-demand programs but “across the board.   I think it’s that important.”

Northam’s G3 plan
One proposal in Gov. Ralph Northam’s successful gubernatorial campaign last fall would make community college and workforce training free for well-paid “new-collar jobs” in high-demand fields.  Called G3 for Get Skilled, Get a Job and Give Back, the program would pay the student’s “last dollar” of tuition and fees but require a year of public service in exchange. The proposal did not become legislation this session, but Chancellor DuBois says discussions are underway on how to implement G3.  “Stay tuned,” he says.

VCCS already has a pathway to a debt-free credential or degree at some community colleges through education foundations that provide scholarships for students graduating from high schools in their regions.  New River Community College’s ACCE program, for example, is a public-private partnership that provides two years of tuition for students in participating counties.

And the General Assembly in 2016 approved the Workforce Credential Grant Program, which reduces student costs for specific credentials by two-thirds.  In financing the program, lawmakers were adamant that students must have “skin in the game” by paying for a portion of their training.

While it’s valuable to look at all options to reduce the cost of education, Blake says, the policy debate for Virginia remains what is the most efficient use of limited public dollars to reach educational attainment goals.

“I don’t think there’s an appetite for widespread, wide-open, free community college,” he says.

GO Virginia

Southern Virginia, Region 3, is the largest in land area of the nine regions making up GO Virginia, the $28 million initiative to promote economically sustainable growth across the commonwealth.

But the region, which covers a wide swath of the state’s Southside, is also the smallest by headcount, with an aging population and a 7 percent employment decline since 2006. 

So Region 3 business and community leaders see the need for workforce recruitment and training in traditional fields of health care and skilled trades, but also for collaborative new approaches to developing cyber infrastructure.

By contrast, Region 7 in Northern Virginia already is a key driver of the state’s economy. Nevertheless, the region is heavily dependent on federal spending, and its workforce is insufficient to meet the needs of technology-related occupations.

This economic kind of soul-searching is the pivotal first step for accessing grant funding under GO Virginia — short for the Virginia Initiative for Growth and Opportunity in Each Region.

In September, the board overseeing the state program approved the growth and diversification plans submitted by nine regional councils.

The plans represent 1,800 pages of “deep thinking,” says GO Virginia Board Chairman John O. “Dubby” Wynne, but no head shaking about the challenges ahead.

“We are still a startup,” Wynne says. “But we know what needs to be done.”

$400,000 to each council 
GO Virginia, established in 2016 by the General Assembly with funding over two years, is administered by the state Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD).

The program awarded each council $400,000 to develop a growth and diversification plan to assess the current economic landscape, workforce gaps and opportunities for collaboration.

Approval of the plans will allow the councils to receive grants designed to support regional ventures with a goal of making the state’s economy less dependent on the federal spending.

Bill Shelton, DHCD’s director, says the regional plans focus on “best bets” for showing immediate results for job growth, as well as clusters of crosscutting industries with potential for longer-term growth.

Information and emerging technologies represented the common industry cluster identified by all regions. Likewise, talent and workforce development was seen as a key strategy to reach goals.

The 24-member GO Virginia board approved criteria for reviewing grant applications based on the priorities submitted by each council. Board members will work in small teams with the regional groups as the grant requests are formulated.

The initial round of grants, which will total $10.9 million, are to be awarded by the end of the year to all regions proportioned on a per-capita basis, according to Christopher D. Lloyd of McGuireWoods Consulting.

A second round of grants totaling $11.3 million will be awarded through a statewide competitive process early next year. Another $250,000 also is available for research and administrative overhead if necessary.

Creating higher-paying jobs
GO Virginia’s stated purpose is “to create more higher-paying jobs through incentivized collaboration and out-of-state investment that diversifies and strengthens the economy of every region.”

The geographical regions were created for organizational and administrative purposes, not because of their similarity. Some are as diverse as the state itself.

Region 6, for example, includes Fredericksburg, the Middle Peninsula and the Northern Neck, three areas that have significant differences in economic performance.

The region also sees “daily negative out-flow of 75,412 workers” commuting to other regions. One of the plan’s goals is to reduce the percentage of commuters.

Region 4, meanwhile, includes the growing Richmond area and is attracting commuters, drawing a net inflow of 40,717 workers. The region is home to nearly 1.5 million people with average annual wages of more than $50,000.

But the region also includes areas where poverty has risen, including Petersburg, Hopewell and Greensville County.

Included in the region’s goals is an effort to stimulate growth in bioscience, manufacturing and logistics using advanced technology.

Broadband infrastructure
Region 1 in the southwest corner of the state historically has been dependent on its natural resources, such as coal, timber and natural gas, which have brought boom and bust times.

The Appalachian Mountains, which run through many of the 13 counties and three cities in the region, highlight its beauty but also its remoteness, making it difficult for residents to reach jobs.

Among its goals is an effort to leverage broadband infrastructure to help residents work remotely while also promoting the region as a “culture of wellness.”

Likewise, Region 5 plans to capitalize on unique attributes of Hampton Roads. Flooding, for example, has created a regional emphasis on water technology. Although second to Northern Virginia in population and economic output, the region is not growing as rapidly as the state or the country as a whole.

Like Northern Virginia, Region 5’s economy is heavily dependent on the federal government.  Plus, overreliance on a small set of large firms in key industries — including shipbuilding and advanced manufacturing — has left the region vulnerable.

The Region 2 plan highlights contributions of its 23 institutions of higher learning — including Virginia Tech and Radford University — but also identifies workforce educational gaps.  

The region, which includes Lynchburg, the New River Valley and Roanoke-Alleghany areas, will target four interrelated industries for growth:  manufacturing; life sciences and health care; food and beverage processing; and emerging technology and IT.

Region 8’s plan cites its “shining examples of American countryside,” such as the Shenandoah National Park, and the area’s agricultural legacy.  But the plan also sees continued strength in the region’s tradition of light manufacturing and potential to increase the depth of the entrepreneurial ecosystem.

The plan for Region 9, which includes the University of Virginia, also emphasizes startups established from commercializing university-based research.

The region lacks national-level brand recognition for its innovation assets, something comparable to North Carolina’s Research Triangle Park, the report says.

It suggests such branding for the U.S. 29 Corridor, starting in Charlottes­ville with U.Va. research, continuing northward to include the data centers in Culpeper County and reaching into Fauquier County with its defense and cybersecurity industries.

A goal of GO Virginia is “to break down silos around localities” that can hamper economic growth, Wynne says.  The work devising the plans already has fostered collaboration, he says, bringing together “people who formerly didn’t talk” to figure out how they can partner on projects.

“We’ve started a spirit in the state” for collaboration, he says.

Pathway to careers

When he was a Thomas Nelson Community College faculty member, John T. Dever would drive from its campus in Hampton to teach evening classes at Newport News Shipbuilding’s apprenticeship program.

Sometimes colleagues would question why he wanted to make the drive “when you can just walk down the hall” to teach another class, recalls Dever, who has been TNCC’s president since 2011.

His response then as now underscores the importance he sees in the connection between community colleges and the local economy.

“I had these students who’ve worked eight hard hours, and they’ve got me for three more,” he would tell his colleagues.  “And they’re always there; they’re always prepared; and they always participate.”

What he learned from his shipyard students, he says, “was the power of people who understood what they were learning and what it meant in terms of a career.”

TNCC, which will mark its 50th anniversary next year, offers multiple pathways to careers, including industry partnerships that provide training in advanced integrated manufacturing and guaranteed transfer agreements with four-year institutions that allow students to pursue bachelor’s degrees.

New workforce credential grants from the state facilitate a more immediate route to employment and save students two-thirds of the cost of training for high-demand positions such as welders, commercial truck drivers and pharmacy technicians.

Fourth-largest college
TNCC’s mission is to meet students “where they are and take them as far as they want to go,” says Dever, who served on the college’s faculty from 1975 to 1995. 

Before returning to lead Thomas Nelson, Dever was executive vice president for academic and student services at Northern Virginia Community College, the largest of Virginia’s 23 community colleges.

TNCC is fourth-largest, with a 2015-16 enrollment of about 13,900 students. Another 7,600 take noncredit classes.

Named for a Virginia signer of the Declaration of Independence, TNCC also operates a campus in Williamsburg.

The college offers six transfer associate degrees and 21 associate degrees in career and technical fields, plus certificate and career studies programs.

An agreement signed in April with Old Dominion University will allow students interested in cybersecurity to obtain their associate of applied science degree at TNCC before completing their bachelor’s at ODU.

The agreement builds on the existing cybersecurity focus at TNCC, which hosts an annual regional conference for professionals. “It’s amazing. It’s a packed house,” says Lisa Wornom-Zahralddin, who attends the conference each year.

As assistant vice president for private-public partnerships for the Peninsula Council for Workforce Development, Wornom-Zahralddin says she has seen a growth under Dever in collaborative efforts to determine the needs of the region’s industry and defense sectors. “They really ask,” she says of college officials.  “For a small campus they are very nimble.”

Raising a bridge
More than 40 percent of TNCC students are age 25 or older, and they are among the college’s best students, Dever says. “When they return, they always know why they are there.”

And about 28 percent of TNCC students have a military connection. Douglas Thompson, who left the Navy in 1994, fits both categories.  He has worked in the home improvement industry while completing his associate degree in technical studies with a concentration in industrial technology.

On a recent afternoon, Thompson was in the mechatronics lab fine-tuning the design of an electro-pneumatic circuit to raise and lower a drawbridge.  Mechatronics is the combination of industrial electronics, mechanical systems and computer technologies.

“You don’t come out of high school knowing this,” Thompson says.  “They go from zero to 100 teaching you.  They start at the bottom and go to the top.”

While in the Navy, he became familiar with schematics but says he didn’t have an opportunity to turn a concept into a design. “This is just super interesting. It will keep your mind working,” Thompson says as he demonstrates how interlocking buzzers and lights work to operate his drawbridge.

Rich Wilcox, an assistant professor in the mechatronics program, vouches for Thompson’s design.  “If it works here, it will work in the real world.” 

The mechatronics lab is housed next to the Hampton campus in the New Horizons Regional Education Center, a partnership with area school districts. High school students take dual-enrollment courses in the lab in the morning. In the afternoon and evening, adult students also can study for the Siemens Mechatronics Level 1 and Level 2 certifications under instructors trained in Germany by the manufacturing and electronics conglomerate.

That sort of mechanical training appealed to Rachel Smith, who is working toward advanced certification. After earning Level 1 certification last year, she quickly found a job with a company that allows her time to pursue higher certification.

Smith, who previously was enrolled in a health program, says she grew up watching her father, a Navy electronics technician, “fix everything. I always thought I wanted to be like that.”

One day she happened to see a mechatronics brochure and realized “I needed to follow the mechanical side of my interest.”

TNCC works with business and industry to offer customized training courses.  Recently it partnered with Continental Automotive Systems Inc. to train machinists for its Newport News plant.

“Thomas Nelson trains our community, whether it’s our truck drivers up and down the road or our welders at the shipyard,” says Michelle Manfred, director of corporate training, credentials and apprenticeship programs.

Twins’ two choices
Manfred has a personal perspective on two of the career tracks students can follow. One of her twin sons is in a two-year, guaranteed-transfer program. He plans to go to Virginia Tech.

The other twin is an apprentice at Newport News Shipbuilding, earning a salary while getting a college education and learning to make metal in the shipyard foundry. “I like to dispel the rumor that community college is for students who couldn’t get in anywhere else,” Manfred says. With her twins, “the bottom line is, it came down to economics.”

TNCC is working with employers to add to the list of apprenticeship programs, she says.  Some programs already offered include a welding apprenticeship with Liebherr Mining, automotive mechanic training at Naval Weapons Station Yorktown and child-nutrition courses for Newport News Public Schools.

Apprenticeships represent an advanced form of work-based education. Actually a centuries-old concept, an apprenticeship increasingly is viewed as a modern way to train workers for the highly technical jobs of the 21st century.

Registered apprenticeship programs must follow Virginia Department of Labor and Industry rules and lead to a nationally recognized and portable credential, Manfred says.

The Apprentice School at Newport News Shipbuilding, which was founded in 1919, has worked with TNCC since 1977 in a collaboration that has won national awards, says Christie Miller, media relations manager for Newport News Shipbuilding.

TNCC has customized associate degree programs for The Apprentice School and in 2000 launched a design co-op program to support the need for designers at the shipyard, Miller says.

Higher education’s partnerships with industry and employers yield a private benefit and a public good, Dever says. The return on taxpayer investment is high, he says, pointing to an economic analysis conducted for the college in fiscal 2014-15.

With 933 full- and part-time employees, Thomas Nelson and its students contributed $329.6 million in added income to the Peninsula region that year, the report found. State and local taxpayers paid $25 million to support the college, receiving an average annual return on investment of 20 percent, according to the analysis.

But individual benefits accrue, too.  In the back of the Goodwill Industries operations center in Hampton, Jerry Hemenway, a trades navigator for TNCC, teaches students skills that will help them enter the workforce.  

His classroom contains partially framed structures for hands-on electrical and HVAC training, plus rows of appliances, sinks and toilets to test the repair skills of future facility maintenance technicians.

The college’s Center for Building and Construction Trades, in what was once a Target store, represents not just a co-location with Goodwill but also a collaboration.

“This is a partnership with Goodwill,” Hemenway says.  Goodwill offers help with “the soft skills” students may need to prepare for interviews or understand how to conduct themselves on the job. His students might not “leave here a journeyman,” he says, but they will be ready to start a career.

The ultimate goal, of course, is employment. “If we don’t get these kids jobs, then we’re not doing anything,” he says.