College, Knowledge, and the American Dream

Not since Gov. Mills Godwin launched the community college system a half-century ago has a Virginia governor put higher education at the top of his budget priorities.

Now, as the General Assembly prepares to act on Gov. Bob McDonnell's budget proposals, our commonwealth is poised to take another crucial step forward: investing in a 21st-century higher education system that can help expand the Virginia economy and revitalize the American Dream.

As a candidate, McDonnell highlighted the connection between college-degree attainment and Virginia's success in the competitive, knowledge-based economy of the new century. He spoke of a college degree not as the only path to fulfillment but as an avenue of opportunity that should be open to all capable and committed Virginia students.

He noted higher education's unequaled return on investment and stressed the need to reverse a decade of disinvestment in which per-student state support at four-year colleges had been cut roughly in half, forcing tuition higher.

Finally, in proposing a sustained program of reform-based investment, he challenged college administrators, business leaders and state officials to partner actively for greater innovation and efficiency, so that a nationally acclaimed Virginia higher education system can become more productive and have a broader economic impact.

Candidate McDonnell's vision was widely shared by the commonwealth's business leaders, many of whom had been advocating such a forward-looking approach for years. Now, that vision is well on its way to becoming a reality, thanks to a promise-keeping governor and supportive General Assembly who put Virginians first and partisan politics second.

Last year, the legislature unanimously enacted McDonnell's blueprint for Virginia's higher-education renaissance. The Virginia Higher Education Opportunity Act of 2011 ("Top Jobs Act") codified recommendations of the governor's higher education commission and committed the commonwealth to an ambitious but achievable goal of conferring 100,000 more college degrees on Virginia students over the next 15 years.

While the new degrees touch all disciplines, the "Top Jobs" legislation places increased emphasis on degrees in high-demand areas that are essential for American competitiveness, including science, technology, engineering, mathematics and health care ("STEM-H").

It provides for expanded partnerships in research, workforce training and business recruitment that will fuel economic development and job creation, and it promotes innovative and affordable new pathways to college degrees for more in-state students.

The landmark statute also institutionalizes reform. It requires more efficient year-round utilization of college facilities, ties resources to improving graduation and retention rates, rewards increased enrollment, and promotes technology-enhanced instruction and resource-sharing across institutions.

The key to the "Top Jobs" legislation's success will be sustained state support.

Gov. McDonnell has proposed $230 million in new funding during the coming biennium — part of a long-term investment strategy that will enhance instructional quality, expand economic impact, and enlarge affordable access for deserving students from throughout Virginia.

Since passage of the Top Jobs legislation, key stakeholders have worked to flesh out a higher education funding model that implements the new statute and integrates the individual colleges' strategic plans.

The result is a balanced plan that incorporates performance incentives, funds enrollment growth, rewards collaboration and efficiency, and supports innovative local initiatives in STEM-H, research and other Top Jobs priorities. It also begins restoring state-level base funding to reduce reliance on tuition, increases financial aid, and enhances tuition grants for students attending independent colleges.

The governor's budget proposals are supported by the hundreds of public-spirited citizens and community leaders who make up the bipartisan Grow By Degrees coalition (www.growbydegrees.org), led by the Virginia Business Higher Education Council.

Young people are also voicing support. Last week, the Virginia21 student organization presented petitions bearing more than 10,000 signatures of young people whose studies are shadowed by fears of a jobless recovery and mountains of student debt.

The governor's plan admittedly is not a panacea. K-12 schools have to do a better job of producing college- and career-ready graduates. Career and technical education, rather than college, is the right path for many young people. Even a Virginia higher education system that ranks high nationally needs to get more out of each tax and tuition dollar.

But Gov. McDonnell has picked the right place to plant the flag for Virginia's future!

In the knowledge-based economy, growing enterprises will locate facilities in countries, states and communities with the best-prepared workforces. For many of these expanding businesses, the litmus test will be the availability of employees with college degrees in demanding disciplines.

Many parents worry that their children will not enjoy the same opportunities as prior generations. They fear the American dream is dimming.

But that dream doesn't belong to sleepy citizens or a complacent commonwealth. It is a dream to be seized and shaped by people of vision and vigor. It is a dream that comes to those who will work for it, study and train for it, and invest in it.

Gov. McDonnell has crafted a reform-based investment program for higher education that is right for Virginia's economic future. In time, it may well be a model for national renewal as well.

Let's pass it promptly and get to work making the American Dream a reality for a new generation of young Virginians.

Thomas F. Farrell II, chairman and CEO of Dominion, chairs Gov. Bob McDonnell's Commission on Higher Education Reform, Innovation and Investment. W. Heywood Fralin, chairman of Medical Facilities of America Inc., leads the Virginia Business Higher Education Council.

Original source here.