As for-profit career colleges expand, community colleges must compete more aggressively for job training funds, advised James Jacobs, president of Macomb Community College in Michigan, in a panel at the American Association of Community Colleges meeting in New Orleans. From Inside Higher Ed:
In Michigan, more federal job training money goes to for-profit colleges than to community colleges, Jacobs said. Macomb lobbied its local workforce investment board for grants, arguing that community colleges are more cost-effective and more likely to produce workers with meaningful credentials.
At the federal level, community colleges risk “collateral damage” from the attacks on for-profit colleges, said David Baime, AACC senior vice president of government relations and research. Community colleges need to ensure that different “sectors receive different treatment,” he said.
