[Senate Hearing 114-256]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
S. Hrg. 114-256
HOW INNOVATIVE EDUCATION SYSTEMS BETTER
PREPARE STUDENTS TO ENTER THE WORKFORCE (PART 2)
=======================================================================
FIELD HEARING
BEFORE THE
COMMITTEE ON SMALL BUSINESS
AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP
UNITED STATES SENATE
ONE HUNDRED FOURTEENTH CONGRESS
FIRST SESSION
__________
FEBRUARY 20, 2015
__________
Printed for the Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship
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COMMITTEE ON SMALL BUSINESS AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP
ONE HUNDRED FOURTEENTH CONGRESS
----------
DAVID VITTER, Louisiana, Chairman
BENJAMIN L. CARDIN, Maryland, Ranking Member
JAMES E. RISCH, Idaho MARIA CANTWELL, Washington
MARCO RUBIO, Florida JEANNE SHAHEEN, New Hampshire
RAND PAUL, Kentucky HEIDI HEITKAMP, North Dakota
TIM SCOTT, South Carolina EDWARD J. MARKEY, Massachusetts
DEB FISCHER, Nebraska CORY A. BOOKER, New Jersey
CORY GARDNER, Colorado CHRISTOPHER A. COONS, Delaware
JONI ERNST, Iowa MAZIE K. HIRONO, Hawaii
KELLY AYOTTE, New Hampshire GARY C. PETERS, Michigan
MICHAEL B. ENZI, Wyoming
Zak Baig, Republican Staff Director
Ann Jacobs, Democratic Staff Director
C O N T E N T S
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Opening Statements
Page
Vitter, Hon. David, Chairman, and a U.S. Senator from Louisiana.. 1
Witnesses
Statement of Barbara Hanson, Chancellor, Louisiana Delta
Community College.............................................. 5
Statement of John Jones, Vice President of Policy and Federal
Legislative Affairs, CenturyLink............................... 8
Statement of Dana Talley, Network 2 Deputy Leader, Louisiana
Department of Education........................................ 15
Statement of Nick Bruno, President, University of Louisiana at
Monroe......................................................... 21
Alphabetical Listing and Appendix Material Submitted
Hanson, Barbara
Testimony.................................................... 5
Prepared statement........................................... 7
Jones, John
Testimony.................................................... 8
Prepared statement........................................... 10
Talley, Dana
Testimony.................................................... 15
Prepared statement........................................... 17
Bruno, Nick
Testimony.................................................... 21
Prepared statement........................................... 25
Vitter, Hon. David
Opening statement............................................ 1
Prepared statement........................................... 3
HOW INNOVATIVE EDUCATION SYSTEMS
BETTER PREPARE STUDENTS TO ENTER THE WORKFORCE (PART 2)
----------
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 2015
United States Senate,
Committee on Small Business
and Entrepreneurship,
Monroe, LA.
The Committee met, pursuant to notice, at 10:24 a.m., at
Delta Community College, 7500 Millhaven Rd., Hon. David Vitter,
Chairman of the Committee, presiding.
Present: Senator Vitter.
Also present: Representative Abraham.
OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. DAVID VITTER, CHAIRMAN, AND A U.S.
SENATOR FROM LOUISIANA
Chairman Vitter. Let's now go to the Senate Small Business
Committee field hearing portion of the program, and that's
entitled ``How Innovative Education Systems Can Better Prepare
Students to Enter the Workforce.''
I have some opening comments with slides, and then I'm
going to introduce our witnesses today.
You know, the exciting thing is there is really good
economic development and jobs coming to Louisiana. In a lot of
instances, the American energy boom, cheap American energy,
because of great entities in this part of the State like
CenturyLink and their new partnership with IBM, the Cyber
Innovation Center down I-20 in Bossier. Some great jobs are
coming this way.
But we need to link up those jobs with the skill sets folks
need to fill them and to prosper. Right now, Louisiana's
workforce is about 2.3 million working adults. Over 1 million
of these have not obtained a college degree or a post-secondary
credential, and another 600,000 don't have a high school
diploma. And today's industries rely very heavily on skills,
technology, so those folks are just going to be left in the
lurch unless we connect those dots and get them that training.
Now, here in Louisiana we have taken several positive
steps. Our high school students now have greater access to
career courses, the Jump Start program. Ralph mentioned that a
minute ago. That's positive to highlight at the high school
level that good careers are available through skills training,
but we need to go further and really put that on steroids.
A lot of the problem is at the federal level where Ralph
and I work. Too many federal programs are really antiquated and
don't allow for flexibility and for access to skills training.
We talked about Pell Grants. That's for traditional four-year
higher ed. That's great if you want and need traditional four-
year higher ed. It's not if you want skills training and want
to go into those sorts of jobs here in Louisiana or elsewhere.
So that's what we're talking about here today, where we
are, particularly in Louisiana, how we get to a better place.
And to help us in that dialogue we have four really great
witnesses. Three are here; one is on the way. I'm going to
introduce all four of them now, and then in the order I
introduced them they will each give a short, five-minute
presentation, and then we'll have a dialogue about all of these
thoughts.
First, Dr. Barbara Hanson. She served as Chancellor of
Louisiana Delta Community College since January 2013, but she
has over 29 years of higher ed experience, with 17 years in
community college administration, and that includes serving as
Chief Academic Officer, Executive Director for Program
Development, and Dean of Instruction.
Thank you in particular, Barbara, for helping host us here
today.
Next will be John Jones. John is Vice President for Public
and Federal Legislative Affairs for CenturyLink, and he's been
a very active participant in several significant federal and
state telecomm reform initiatives. Prior to joining
CenturyLink, John served as Public Affairs Director and adjunct
communications faculty member for the university for 12 years,
and he was recently appointed by Governor Jindal to the
Louisiana Workforce Investment Council.
Next will be Dana Talley, who serves as Deputy Leader for
Network 2 in the Louisiana Department of Education. Ms. Talley
is part of the team that works with local school districts to
implement initiatives in the areas of high school programs,
including Jump Start, Early Childhood, District Planning,
Principal Support, and Teacher Leaders.
And finally is Dr. Nick Bruno, who is caught in some
traffic and is on the way. Dr. Bruno became the eighth
President of the University of Louisiana at Monroe in 2010 and
has more than 35 years of work in Louisiana higher education.
In 2012, President Bruno was appointed to the West Monroe-West
Ouachita Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors, the Monroe
Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors, and the St. Francis
Medical Center Board of Directors. So he is obviously involved
in many of these issues in the community.
Thanks to all of you for being part of this program. We
look forward to your testimony. We look forward to follow-up on
that, and we'll start with Dr. Hanson.
[The prepared statement of Chairman Vitter follows:]
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STATEMENT OF BARBARA HANSON, CHANCELLOR, LOUISIANA DELTA
COMMUNITY COLLEGE
Dr. Hanson. Good morning, everyone. Thank you so much for
the opportunity to be here today.
This is my first time doing this, so I'm not exactly sure
if I'm supposed to read my statement or read----
Chairman Vitter. What you're comfortable with.
Dr. Hanson. Excellent. I wanted to start with a quote, and
that is kind of what I had in my statement. It goes like this:
``This is a critical time in our economic history. Those who do
demographics are projecting severe shortages in skilled workers
in the next 10 years. While the skills gap will be in crisis,
the lack of basic skills, technical skills and competencies is
an issue for industry right now. To meet this challenge, we
need to invest in worker education and training. Now is the
time to take a more strategic approach to workforce education
and training and create seamless, dynamic, and sufficiently
funded systems for advancing the skills and credentials and
productivity of our entire workforce.''
What is most interesting about this quote is that it was
written in 2003. It was produced in a document called the
National Center on Education and the Economy.
Although we have made great strides over the last 10 years
as a Nation, we still are experiencing that skills gap that is
referenced in this quote that took place almost 10 years ago.
Our inability as a Nation and as this great State that we live
in, in Louisiana, not to address--our inability to address the
needs of our workforce will cripple us, and it continues to
bring us down.
What we have in the State of Louisiana is not a budget
problem. It is a revenue problem, and the solution to that
problem is to provide the training for people to go to work.
That is what we need. Those people who go to work live in
communities. They contribute to the tax base. They worship in
their place of worship. They go to the grocery store. They buy
homes. They raise their families. And they enjoy the economic
prosperity that this great State and this great country wants
for each citizen in our country.
We need to continue to provide workforce and educational
training opportunities to all of our constituents so that each
and every one can realize the dream that should be theirs.
Louisiana in particular I feel has made great strides over
the last couple of years. You've heard mention of the Jump
Start program. That is an excellent initiative. You've heard
mention of the WISE program. That is also an excellent
initiative. It really started, in my mind, with the Louisiana
Economic Development Division, when they reached out and did
their statistical analysis and projected what business and
industry is going to need in the next 10 years in this State.
Jump Start was aligned to help prepare students in high
schools to meet those needs. The WISE Fund was enacted whereby
institutions of higher education to include all four systems
could apply for money, and the money that they applied for had
to be in alignment with what was the projected needs in this
State, and it was incentivized for business and industries.
There was an incentive of a 20 percent match that needed to
come from business and industry so that we could all work
together.
In my mind, the solution is our ability to collaborate, to
think differently, and to take this great State and what made
this Nation great, which is the middle class, to the next level
and let them achieve the prosperity that they deserve, and to
do it through the engine of education.
[The prepared statement of Dr. Hanson follows:]
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Chairman Vitter. Thank you very much, Dr. Hanson, and thank
you again for hosting us here at Delta Community College.
Next is John Jones with CenturyLink.
STATEMENT OF JOHN JONES, VICE PRESIDENT OF POLICY AND FEDERAL
LEGISLATIVE AFFAIRS, CENTURYLINK
Mr. Jones. First, Senator Vitter and Representative
Abraham, thank you so much for hosting this. This is a very
timely topic for our company and for this area. While we're
talking today, there have already been numerous discussions
like this down in Baton Rouge that we've already participated
in. So, thanks so much for bringing it to north Louisiana.
For the record, I'm going to go ahead and read my statement
within five minutes.
Good morning, Mr. Chairman and fellow participants. We
appreciate your interest and leadership in calling today's
hearing addressing innovation, education, and workforce
development preparation. We believe much good work has already
been done in this area. However, with the rapidly changing
economic and employment environment of our State and the rest
of the Nation, we believe more work remains to be done to
achieve greater alignment between education and the business
community. My role here today is to discuss the workforce
development challenges and opportunities we face as a
telecommunications provider headquartered in Louisiana as it
relates to education.
CenturyLink is the third largest telecommunications company
in America today. We operate one of the largest communications
networks in the United States and provide high-speed Internet,
data, voice, managed cloud, and IT hosting and entertainment to
more than 13 million customers in all 50 states and overseas.
We employ approximately 45,000 people worldwide, the majority
of them with technical, service-oriented backgrounds, along
with hundreds of others in supporting non-technical fields.
We are in the process of finalizing the construction of a
250,000-square-foot technology center on our campus that will
open this spring. The building will provide state-of-the-art
network monitoring, research and development, and IT and
engineering support to our service footprint.
As most of you know, we have agreed to increase our total
jobs in Monroe by 800 positions within the next several years.
We are moving forward with that commitment, but we do face some
challenges in filling some of those positions, one being
finding and attracting more senior-level technology-trained and
other professional employees to Louisiana and north Louisiana;
and the second being competing with larger markets in our State
and elsewhere for college graduates with the skill sets we
need.
We spoke with David, Senator Vitter yesterday about this
challenge at length. We have made significant inroads in
exploring partnership opportunities in Northeast Louisiana with
ULM, Louisiana Tech, and Delta Community College; and within
the past year we have also met with the faculties of Grambling,
LSU, Southeastern and Northwestern Universities.
Each meeting has been a learning experience for both
parties in terms of gaining a betting understanding of
curriculum needs, as well as our potential job availability for
graduates. These discussions have been invaluable for
identifying both resources and opportunities. Ultimately, the
students will be the net winners of these discussions, and they
will benefit from enhanced curriculum development that
translates into actual job opportunities or possibilities in
our State.
Going forward, we see our company, and also our vendors
like IBM, as serving in an advisory role with the universities,
and also our K-12 partners in discussing creative partnerships
and curriculums that will work.
A recent example of a partnership opportunity was this
week, and that's the announcement by IBM and the State of
Louisiana and our company earlier this week. The IBM center in
Monroe represents a transformational partnership, and I
encourage you to watch this carefully as it unfolds. That will
include expanded higher education programs related to computer
science, as well as create new economic growth opportunities in
this area. The IBM center will employ a broad range of college
graduates and experienced professionals with backgrounds in
computer science, engineering, mathematics, and science. And
that all sounds very technical, but you also have to realize
the support functions that will pop up around that entity, and
also on the 88 acres that we're developing across the road that
will require skilled labor.
The State of Louisiana is providing $4.5 million in funding
over 10 years to expand key higher education programs,
including the computer science program at ULM, the cyber
engineering program at Louisiana Tech, and the data analytics
program at Grambling State. Additionally, IBM will work closely
with local professors to recommend curriculum innovations
focused on technology, math, and the sciences.
In conclusion, I will leave you with three thoughts.
We believe that finding additional ways to improve the
communication and alignment between the business community and
our colleges and universities will foster additional
partnerships and curriculums aligned with good jobs. This
approach will benefit small businesses as well as larger
companies.
We should also focus on meaningful education reform in our
elementary and secondary education schools and curriculums. We
would like to see additional development of STEM programs and
integration and alignment of K-12 and higher education
programs.
Louisiana, and in particular the I-20 Corridor, have great
potential to embrace technology as a key economic development
driver. If our State is going to move forward with a high-tech
economy, we must begin focusing our education goals towards
math and the sciences today. This will also foster more skilled
labor employment.
Lastly, let's not forget North Louisiana. The colleges and
universities in this area have provided education for literally
thousands of students who possibly could not have gotten those
degrees because of distance and cost, and these universities
are strategically located and help thousands of people get
their education. We are hopeful that funding for our local
colleges will be restored and meet the workforce needs of our
State and overcome the negative outside perception of education
our State experiences today.
Thank you, and I'll be glad to take questions.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Jones follows:]
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Chairman Vitter. Thank you very much, John. I appreciate
it.
Next is Dana Talley from the Louisiana Department of
Education.
STATEMENT OF DANA TALLEY, NETWORK 2 DEPUTY LEADER, LOUISIANA
DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
Ms. Talley. I would like to thank Senator Vitter and
Representative Abraham for the opportunity to speak to all of
you about Jump Start today.
The greatest factor in both the growth of our State's
economy and the ability of our high school graduates to become
productive citizens will be the skills with which young people
are equipped. While most jobs do not require a four-year
college degree, high-growth high-wage jobs in Louisiana almost
always require education after high school.
Today, Louisiana students complete either a TOPS University
or Jump Start TOPS Tech graduation pathway. The two diploma
pathways ensure ninth and tenth grade students focus on
mastering a set of foundational academic skills in core
subjects. This provides students with the opportunity to
explore and discover their true interests, rather than forcing
them to commit to a single graduation path too early in high
school.
During the eleventh and twelfth grades, students will
develop basic and advanced college and workplace skills that
will prepare them for college and career success and ensure
they are competitive in any workplace or academic environment.
Jump Start is Louisiana's new program to provide career
courses and workplace experiences to high school students.
Regional Jump Start teams comprised of school districts, higher
education, the State Economic Development and Workforce
Commission, and business and industry are formed to identify
appropriate career and credentialing opportunities for high
school students. These regional Jump Start teams develop and/or
adopt pathways that outline career courses, workplace
experiences, and industry-based credentials in career fields
most likely to lead to high-wage jobs. The pathways developed
and/or adopted by each regional Jump Start team are specific to
the workforce needs in that region of the State.
Examples of Jump Start pathways this region will be
offering include the following, and there are actually about 16
total, but I'm going to give you just examples of three. One is
Health Sciences Patient Care Management. This can lead to an
industry-based credential in Certified Nurse Aid, Emergency
Medical Responder, or Emergency Medical Technician basic.
There's also Hospitality, Tourism, Culinary and Retail.
This can lead to an industry-based credential in Certified
Hospitality and Tourism Management Level II, Customer Service,
or ServSafe.
Also, there's Agriculture Tech, which can lead to an
industry-based credential in NCCER Level 1 or 2 in Carpentry,
Electrical, or Welding, for example.
Louisiana's Course Choice Program, referred to as Course
Access in other parts of the country, enables Louisiana
families and students to select from hundreds of online and
face-to-face courses not traditionally offered by high schools
and middle schools. Course Access makes sure that all students
have access to the courses they need to succeed in college and
career pathways.
Through Course Access, students can gain access to dual-
enrollment courses offered at the State's four-year
universities and career courses through private training
providers and the Louisiana Community and Technical College
System. Students now have access to foreign language courses,
career and technical education courses culminating in industry-
valued certification, Advanced Placement and TOPS-aligned
college courses, ACT prep courses to increase chances of
qualifying for a State scholarship, and math courses using Khan
Academy. All of these can be difficult to staff and offer in
rural areas but are now available to all students in all public
schools around our State.
Jump Start regional teams, the Department of Education,
Louisiana Economic Development, and the Louisiana Workforce
Commission continue in their work to create a variety of
graduation pathways, each with industry-valued credentials
attainable by all Louisiana high school students on their way
to on-time graduation. This includes specific pathways
developed for and accessible to students who have typically
struggled, as well as certain students with disabilities when
determined appropriate by their IEP teams.
In order to extend these same opportunities for these
students, the Jump Start programs have been scaffolded to
identify multiple credentials that students may pursue based on
their interests and abilities. For example, some students may
be interested in and able to complete the series of courses and
training needed to be a welder and achieve an NCCER industry
credential. Other students may not be able to complete the
welder curriculum, but can achieve a welder's helper
credential. Both provide economic opportunity for students and
are aligned to our State's workforce needs.
No other state's education department has partnered so
closely with school districts, higher education, state
agencies, and business and industry to identify appropriate
career and credentialing opportunities for high school
students. Jump Start regional teams develop and submit proposed
graduation pathways to a multi-agency review panel which
consists of members from Louisiana Department of Economic
Development, Louisiana Workforce Commission, and the Louisiana
Department of Education. This panel collaborates with the
regional teams to ensure that course offerings in a pathway are
relevant, that credentials are relevant and rigorous, and that
sample schedules provide appropriate guidance to school
counselors and educators.
The decision to approve proposed Jump Start pathways is
driven not by state or local education bureaucrats but by
business and industry, which certifies that the pathway is
indeed responsive to the needs of our State's employers and
economy. If the proposal does not meet the mark, the panel
provides valuable feedback on how to adjust the proposal to
make it meaningful and relevant.
I hope the innovative partnerships I have described show
just how much is possible when we begin with the end in mind,
when we prioritize the needs of our students and our State, and
when we admit that we as educators cannot do it alone. Thank
you for the opportunity to share this exciting work with you
today.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Talley follows:]
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Chairman Vitter. Thank you very much, Dana.
And now our final witness, Dr. Nick Bruno, President of
ULM.
Dr. Bruno, I explained you were hung up in traffic, and
I've already provided a glowing 33-minute introduction of you.
[Laughter.]
So it's all teed up.
STATEMENT OF NICK BRUNO, PRESIDENT, UNIVERSITY OF LOUISIANA AT
MONROE
Dr. Bruno. Thank you, Senator and Congressman Abraham.
Thank you for allowing me to participate.
I want to thank Senator Vitter for the opportunity to
address the very important topic of higher education and the
challenges and opportunities we face as we work toward
facilitating and advancing innovation within our institution.
Innovation and focus are critical in preparing our students for
the workforce.
The current workforce needs in Louisiana are very diverse.
We continue to have considerable necessity for a significant
blue collar workforce, but that workforce requires different
skills and technology from their predecessors.
The reliance on technology in all applications requires
training at a higher level. These jobs, such as process
technology, are intensive and comprehensive training programs
that provide not only the skills to operate in a modern plant
environment but also facilitate these jobs with a greater
understanding of the processes.
Our community and technical colleges are doing well in the
preparation of this workforce and in helping to fill the demand
for trained professionals. In addition, they are preparing many
of those students for the opportunity to earn a four-year
degree.
Louisiana's workforce is evolving and becoming more
technology based. With companies such as IBM, CSC and
CenturyLink operating in Louisiana, the need for more workers
with training in STEM-based degrees is growing faster than the
universities' ability to produce these graduates, but we
continue to work toward finding students who are well-suited
and better prepared for entrance into these fields.
In addition, the need for health science professionals will
continue to grow as a result of our aging Baby Boomers who are
nearing retirement. This is also a very important issue related
to quality of life for companies as they choose where to
locate. These trends are not limited to Louisiana and are seen
across the country.
Student well-being and support are important to both
recruitment and retention. As state support for higher
education decreases across the country, students bear a greater
proportion of the costs for their college degrees, which is
resulting in higher debt burden. We are confident that
continued conversations about lowering interest rates for these
loans will provide incentives for students to earn post-
secondary credentials and reduce the economic burden they face
later in life, and this burden is felt by both traditional and
non-traditional students.
Non-traditional workers provide a significant source of
potential students for all of higher education and to assist in
building our skilled workforce. In order to tap into that pool
of potential students, institutions must alter what has been a
delivery model focused upon students of traditional age.
Institutions should understand that non-traditional
students bring with them many life experiences which add value
to their classroom instruction. Universities will need to look
more closely and adopt effective systems of granting credit for
both the life and work experiences non-traditional students
have gained through their careers.
Another issue is that of convenience. Non-traditional
students usually work or maintain households and families.
Providing classes at times convenient to these students is
critical in maximizing their attendance and success. For
example, online instruction provides this convenience. At ULM
we have redesigned our online offerings by creating a separate
division referred to as eULM.
eULM provides eight-week modules which allow students to
opt in and out as they wish. It also provides a more expedient
path to completion. We offer 36 online degree programs ranging
from associate to doctoral level degrees. ULM has also
initiated several post-baccalaureate certificates which provide
individuals, generally non-traditional, the opportunity to
certify in high-demand fields such as accounting, computer
information systems, and financial analytics.
Finally, faculty must be made aware of the sensitivities of
the non-traditional student. These sensitivities include work
and family demands that are not as prevalent for most
traditional college students, and we try to provide services--
like the child development center; a full-time student advocate
and retention coordinator to help students resolve problems
with university procedures and policies; and four full-time
academic advisors for online students--that help our non-
traditional students advance in their coursework while
maintaining full-time careers and families.
At ULM, our community partnerships are also important to
the sustainability of our university. We have been very
aggressive in developing collaborative agreements with local
businesses, as well as educational partners like Louisiana
Delta Community College. ULM's business partners include Chase,
CenturyLink, Angus Chemical, area hospitals and clinics, and
school systems, to name a few.
In these partnerships, we become more aware of the needs
they have for the graduates we produce. To ensure our graduates
are prepared, we work with our partners to adjust curricula,
co-sponsor pertinent and timely symposia, and pursue research
in areas which will have broad-based benefit for our students,
who will hopefully become their employees.
Together with Arkansas State University, ULM has been
contracted by the Delta Regional Authority to operate a
leadership institute in the lower Mississippi River Delta. In
fact, the Louisiana Delta community is also a partner in that
grant. The program trains community leaders and develops their
skills to face the global challenges of the 21st century.
We are also currently working with JPMorgan Chase to
develop a post-baccalaureate program in mortgage analytics that
will help their employees use data more effectively. We have
also partnered with JPMorgan Chase and United Way to develop a
high school financial literacy program that has been taught to
thousands of high school sophomores throughout the region.
ULM faculty have visited local high schools to deliver the
training and have developed an online version of the program as
well. In addition to basic financial literacy concepts, the
program emphasizes the importance of education and preparation
for good paying jobs. The program has exposed students to
careers in business, an area that has many in-demand career
opportunities in Louisiana.
ULM faculty and staff worked closely with CenturyLink to
develop two innovative post-baccalaureate certificate programs
to help meet CenturyLink's workforce needs in accounting and
computer information systems. ULM and CenturyLink collaborated
to define the curriculum that would prepare existing
CenturyLink employees to move into high-demand positions.
Classes are offered onsite at CenturyLink, and the Workforce
Commission has provided funding to support those programs.
Our Office of Continuing Education provides courses for
area dentists and dental hygienists, and numerous certification
programs also are available in areas such as diabetic wound
care, phlebotomy, and certified nurse assistance.
ULM has also developed degree programs focused on the use
of unmanned aerial systems in the field of precision
agriculture. A regional Center of Excellence was also
established and has received its first external funding grant--
I thank the Senator for his assistance with that--from the
Delta Regional Authority. It will help train farmers in the use
of unmanned aerial vehicles and the data they collect.
ULM partnered with a local farmer to pilot the application
of ULM's UAS drone in precision agriculture. The ULM drone has
been flown over farmland throughout the growing season,
capturing images that have led to decisions regarding
application of fertilizer, chemicals, and water. Through this
partnership, ULM anticipates enhancing its ability to capture
data through the use of drones, but more importantly, develop
expertise in data management including data representation,
analysis, and interpretation.
We continue to develop courses and curricula based on the
use of unmanned aircraft and await the establishment of Federal
Aviation Administration policies and procedures which will
allow the developers of intellectual property to proceed within
federal laws. Innovation is a by-product of the discovery
process. Most innovation materializes as a result of pursuing
another discovery. For example, Post-It Notes was invented as a
result of a failed adhesive product. Regulations regarding
unmanned aircraft must be formulated and issued in order to
maximize the opportunities for expansion of innovation. Delays
in FAA regulations for these programs prohibit universities
from maximizing the benefits and opportunities these aircraft
can afford.
Similar to our UAS program, ULM's innovative outdoor
Construction Practices Lab simulates a construction site and
allows students to gain critical hands-on experience managing
the various aspects associated with construction projects. A
majority of equipment and supplies for the lab have been
donated by local and regional construction companies.
ULM works toward preparing our students for the workforce
by giving them the connections with community and national
partners, coupled with the skills needed to be competitive in
both the classroom and the ever-evolving job market. Our goal
is to ensure that we provide each student an education they can
be proud of and that they can use to provide intellectual
capital to our region and to our State.
We also, I'm happy to announce, are meeting with a group of
investors today which will explore the opportunities of
commercializing several of our patents in the pharmaceutical
area.
As you can tell, I am very passionate about higher
education, especially at ULM. Thank you again for the
opportunity to provide input to this committee.
[The prepared statement of Dr. Bruno follows:]
[GRAPHICS NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Chairman Vitter. Thank you very much, Dr. Bruno.
And now we're going to continue the conversation, with
Ralph and I alternating and making comments, asking questions.
I'll kick it off. And, John, I'll start with you as the
private-sector guy there, not only from the private sector but
from a company that just made exciting positive announcements
with your new IBM partnership and all of your expansion and
construction.
Two related questions. First of all, how would you grade
the responsiveness of institutions here, particularly
educational institutions, when you go to them and explain the
exact skill sets you need?
Number two, what's the conversation like in your boardroom
or with IBM when this issue of continuing higher ed budget cuts
and other things comes up?
Mr. Jones. Sure. To the first question, the discussions
we've had, not only with higher ed but also K-12, have been
really kind of exciting in a way. You can see the energy level
in the room rise as educators start tapping into what we're
trying to do. And then we're also learning at the same time
what they're able to provide.
We've made some great discoveries right in our backyard we
weren't aware of, so the dialogue is very encouraging. We had
Northwestern University's president and provost in just this
week. We don't know that much about Northwestern. It's not that
far away, but we don't know that much about their programs, and
they didn't know that much about us, really. They did a little
homework, but we had about a one-and-a-half-hour conversation
and found about four different synergies there where we could
partner in a lot of different ways.
They had two curriculums we didn't know they offered. One
was a cyber-forensics curriculum. We're one of the largest
cyber providers in the country for the government, and they had
an engineering technology program we did not know they had.
So that's just an example, and that's been duplicated over
and over again. We've met with high school principals. We met
with both superintendents here. Again, the STEM education keeps
coming up as a focal point.
Chairman Vitter. Great.
Mr. Jones. The discussions with IBM you wanted to know more
about, the reaction to education?
Chairman Vitter. Yes. I mean, obviously, these days we're
talking a lot about continuing perspective higher ed cuts, and
I know that's got to be part of the discussion you have,
particularly with partners like IBM, and I just wanted some
flavor of that.
Mr. Jones. That's really a big issue. The Internet is our
best friend and our worst enemy. We're recruiting from all over
the world. Our new strategic executive VP of planning came from
the Netherlands. So we're recruiting some of the top talent
that's out there today. They're systems people and network
people and engineers, and they have a choice of going anywhere
they want. This individual had been with Samsung that we just
recruited. So they are very picky about where they bring their
families.
So if you're thinking about going to Seattle and you had
small kids, the first thing you would do is go check on the
education system, you would check on crime, you would check on
everything that's out there, and these people are no different.
So they read about our city council, they read about our school
boards, they read about the politics and they say, you know,
I'm not really sure.
So when IBM comes, as an example, they do the exact same
thing. And I'll give the Governor's Office credit, they have
done a great job of recruiting them to Baton Rouge and to here.
But the way we actually work that is that when we engage with a
vendor, and IBM will be doing significant business with us--
I'll give Glen Post credit for this--Glen Post asked them to
put down significant stakes in this community. I think Dr.
Bruno will testify to that, is that one of those was you will
partner with the universities here in some capacity.
So we actually make a request that if they're going to
service us, then they are going to also walk the walk with us
as well. That's how we're actually working with our vendors who
are considering coming here.
But their perception of education in this State and in this
area is not good, for lack of a better term. It's not good. So
we have to overcome that perception. We have to show them their
opportunities. Once they get here and they see the educational
opportunities we have here, they see the passion of the
universities, then they get engaged. But getting them here is
sometimes a challenge just based on a global perception of
Louisiana and how it ranks in education.
Chairman Vitter. Ralph.
Representative Abraham. First a statement, and I'll use a
poor analogy, but it goes back to the ISIS question.
The good news about what we're doing here today is we're
defining the problem, and once you define the problem, then you
can work on the problem; unlike, unfortunately, we don't call
ISIL what it is.
And what a privilege for me to be among you guys. I think
we sat down and talked to everybody but Dana. But to get four
of you talking together, for me it's just huge for my district.
Two questions, and I'll ask the first one to you, Dr. Nick.
There is active discussion with Senator Vitter's group in
the Senate and certainly us in the House about reducing the
interest on the student loans down to 1 to 2 percent instead of
6 to 8 percent, where it fluctuates now. Would that help
immensely in your arena?
Dr. Bruno. Congressman, certainly it will help those
students. As tuition increases have been recurring, part of the
challenge is that with state funds restricted to maintain the
university's operations at a minimal level, the students are
being asked to pay more and more of those operating costs. So
they are forced to take loans, grants. Pell funds have been
capped, which now ULM tuition exceeds Pell monies. So students
are forced to borrow money, which puts them in a position of--
at some point you want a student who graduates to get a good
job and to be able to get a good quality of life. If they are
saddled with student loans for 20 or 30 years and those rates
continue to escalate, they will never have the opportunity to
buy homes or to reach that quality of life they had hoped for
when they pursued their degrees.
So, yes. I think--and I will commend him for that effort, I
think, to minimize those interest rates. But I think the system
has to be reviewed completely as to--I think we have to do a
better job counseling those students that you can only borrow
so much within the field you're in. We have to do a little
better in giving them financial advice, that if you're majoring
in certain fields, the amount of money that you're borrowing
you will never pay back.
So I think there are some factors that are involved that
when a student can stay in and borrow $75,000 or $100,000, if
they're majoring in history or math versus majoring in
pharmacy, the probability of payback for them is going to be
significantly different and much more adverse.
So, yes, I think if we can do that all within the concept
of some additional financial counseling to help them as it
relates to student loans and overall debt that they assume
while they're in the university.
Representative Abraham. If I might, one more?
Chairman Vitter. Sure.
Representative Abraham. Dana, I just have a question.
Dr. Hanson, do you have a comment?
Dr. Hanson. Yes. I would just like to also comment. We here
at Louisiana Delta Community College, we have access to student
loans as well as Pell Grants. From my perspective, one of the
things that I hope--and I'm in agreement with the idea of
having the conversation about lowering the percentage rate. But
one of the challenges that we face is dealing with the 600,000
folks in the state of Louisiana who do not have a high school
credential and who do not have any kind of training whatsoever.
They do not qualify to apply for those types of student loans
or for Pell Grants. So any conversations that can be held
relative to looking at using the Pell Grant in particular, and
perhaps student loans for short-term training whereby a student
can prepare themselves and that they're going to go out and get
a job.
We were recently awarded the opportunity to provide Sallie
Mae grants for a non-credit program, and that was a big deal.
That's not something they usually do, but we had a good
reputation for the program. It's our area application program.
Crop dusting, basically, is what it is, and Sallie Mae, after
much discussion, said yes. Our position was, look, you have
someone who is coming in, and it goes to what you were saying,
Nick. You have someone who is coming in who, within a very
short period of time, will be eligible to go out and earn six
figures, and we ask you to loan them $50,000; whereas you might
have someone who is going to spend four years and not get a
pharmacy degree but get an English degree, and they may or may
not be able to get immediate employment.
So that type of consideration in discussions of providing
funds that support student access would be very beneficial.
Representative Abraham. Dana, that leaves me the question I
have for you. Everyone in this room knows that we couldn't
start our car every morning if it wasn't for the technical
component of this society, thank God for them. I know it's
probably early to have actual data, but have you seen an
attitude in your high school as far as less apt to drop out
since Jump Start has been started or processed?
Ms. Talley. I want to start with I think it's going to take
a little bit of time for us to change the mindset of parents
and kids about a career diploma, and those in education know
that. We have to really start with the end in mind of what this
can do for you.
What I've heard is, I've heard a lot of parents who are
educators say to me if only this were available when my kid was
in high school. So, yes, we don't have any data yet, but I'm
having districts tell me that they think 40 to 50 percent of
their kids will end up going the Jump Start route.
Again, what we're trying to do with the credentials is
scaffold them so even those kids with disabilities or those
kids who have struggled will have an opportunity maybe to not
have a full industry-based credential but to be well on the way
to the credential when they graduate high school. And if they
see, if a kid is sitting in high school and sees that in the
end I'm going to have this credential that's going to help me
be more marketable to employers, I think that's going to be the
incentive.
So I think whether or not this impacts drop-out rates is
going to be how we frame it to parents and kids.
Representative Abraham. Okay. Thank you.
Chairman Vitter. Dr. Hanson, we've been talking about Pell
Grants. Are there particular requirements under that program
right now which make it difficult in some circumstances to use
a Pell Grant here at Delta?
Dr. Hanson. Over the course of the last few years--and I
think every institution of higher education has experienced
it--there has been a limitation relative to how Pell Grants can
be used. It was imposed, and I think it was probably done as a
cost-saving measure, and perhaps those who have more in-depth
knowledge would be better able to respond to the actualities of
it.
But right now, you have to be involved in a program, a
course of study that is so many weeks in length, has so many
contact hours. You have to be going at least half-time or full-
time. And that's great, except a lot of what we want to be able
to provide for students is short-term training where there are
jobs where they can spend 8 weeks, 10 weeks, 12 weeks. They
could very easily have education in that period of time and go
out and get a real job making a minimum wage--not a minimum-
wage job, making above minimum wage, a life-earning wage. And
that is not available right now with the Pell Grants.
I know last year that Senator Landrieu had put forward a
bill on the federal level called the Jobs Act bill, and I don't
remember all of the particulars of it, but in general my
understanding was that it would provide an opportunity to apply
for Pell Grants for short-term training, thereby moving around
some of those particular types of limitations that are put on
the current Pell Grant.
Chairman Vitter. Right. For all of you, after Pell Grants
and student loan rates--those are two obvious categories--what
else on the federal level is an impediment that we need to
break down to make this work better?
Dr. Hanson. In terms of student access?
Chairman Vitter. In terms of anything that impacts this
sort of skills training.
Dr. Hanson. Well, I don't know if it's the federal level. I
think it's the entire level. It's something that Ms. Dana just
alluded to. Somewhere along the way, if I may, it's a cultural
issue. There's a stigma attached to going into career and
technical education. Somewhere along the way it became a dirty
word. It was something less than a four-year.
It is not less than a four-year. It is different than a
four-year education, and there is a need for both. But
somewhere along the way in our Nation, we decided that unless
you're going to get a four-year degree, it's not good. But
that's not what made our Nation great.
I heard a speaker a couple of years ago who is the
president of Snap-On Tools, and he spoke very passionately
about the fact of what made this country great was those folks
who went out into the workforce who had skilled jobs, and they
contributed to the economic well-being of this Nation, and
that's where we are in Louisiana right now, and that is not to
say that there is not a need for four-year education. There is.
We have professional programs that we have to have, such as
our pharmacy school and our teacher training and things like
that. But I don't know what the federal government can do in
terms of trying to change the culture. It is different.
And I will end with telling you just one little story, if I
may. It's very short.
I always think of myself, not to be prideful, but as a
fairly intelligent person. But I took a mechanical aptitude
test once, and the gentleman who adjudicated it asked me not to
walk within 300 feet of a machine.
[Laughter.]
My mind just doesn't work that way at all, but someone's
does, and that's an intelligence that I don't have but they
have.
So I think we need to get back to the point where we
recognize that there are many, many different intelligences,
and to help people understand that there's not ``better than.''
It's ``different than,'' and we need all sorts of trained
workforce.
Chairman Vitter. Well, first of all, I agree with you
completely. I'm hoping one of the ways we change that attitude
and even the playing field, at least here in Louisiana, is when
in the next few years those folks with the right skills
training at 21 step into a job at $55,000, and in five years
they're at $100,000. That can start to change some attitudes
quickly when people notice. So I think that's part of it, not
all of it.
Any other thoughts about changes at the federal level to
make this work better?
Ms. Talley. For us, it's the exact same thing that she
said. It's about changing the mindset so that we can get kids
into careers that are going to meet their abilities and the
things that they're interested in. So I think she said it
perfectly.
Dr. Bruno. From a four-year perspective, of course,
rulemaking as I referred to in FAA. We have a technology there
that has the opportunity to really touch on all levels, as Dr.
Hanson is dealing with here at Delta, but also at the
university from the data collection and so forth. There are so
many opportunities in this new technology.
Currently, it's slipping away from us simply because you
can buy them now on the Internet. So you'll find individuals
who are flying them everywhere. They don't know what they
should be doing, and we haven't focused that attention. So
rulemaking is critical.
I think that we also need to look at the grant process, the
grant from a research perspective. It becomes quite laborious.
It engages so many people, so much time consumed, that if
proposals are done they take months and months and months to be
evaluated and responses done.
If we're going to advance technology, advance innovation,
we have to have a more expedient manner in which research
dollars, which have been reduced, research dollars have to be
increased at the federal level and brought back to the
universities in order to bring us to that next level. We have
not had significant investments in research since the space
program. So we need to revisit that and to ascertain what are
the emerging areas that the country needs, not just the states
but what does the country need, and allow the universities with
that skill to move forward on grants to develop those
innovations and technology issues.
Chairman Vitter. Great.
Go ahead.
Representative Abraham. John, just a quick question for
you. I know everybody in the room appreciates the economic
engine for this area.
Dr. Bruno, you said that there are many STEM applicants and
maybe not enough resources, and that's actually a good problem
to have, in my opinion.
John, I'll fall back on my medical. When we have student
loans in the medical field, sometimes $200,000, $300,000 when
we graduate, and if we go to an underserved area, or if we sign
a contract for six or eight years, that hospital, that company,
whoever, agrees to help us pay back that loan.
Is there a dialogue, is there discussion in companies of
your magnitude that if an applicant with a $150,000 student
loan comes to you and agrees to--let's say an engineer signs on
for six or eight years, is there any discussion or thought
about maybe helping loan repayment?
Mr. Jones. First of all, my brother is a physician, and he
actually paid off his loan in Columbia, Louisiana.
Representative Abraham. Good deal. I paid mine off.
Mr. Jones. So I understand that part of it.
We have not, to my knowledge--I'll check with our HR
Department, but to my knowledge we have not had to broach that
issue yet. I guess, at best, we would hope that the salary and
benefits we pay would help them pay down that loan faster,
because we do pay a little bit above average.
But I think those are the types of questions that are
surfacing, to be honest with you. We are getting questions like
that from individuals because the debt load is so much higher
than when I went to school. So I'm thinking that the WISE
program actually also--it's not a perfect corollary, but that
also got us thinking about how we use our budget in the company
to actually get the type of people that we need.
So I think it's really just a question at this point, but
as we keep getting deeper into the education process I'm
thinking that's something we will have to deal with going
forward.
Representative Abraham. Okay. Thank you.
Dr. Hanson. I had a comment about that.
Chairman Vitter. Sure.
Dr. Hanson. Just along those lines, and it may be something
that could be addressed at the federal level, and certainly at
the state level. Many states that I have had the opportunity to
serve in have engaged in loan forgiveness programs on the state
level for high-demand jobs. For example, when I was in Arizona,
the nursing. If you got a nursing loan to go to school, you had
to sign a promissory type situation where you would agree to
stay in the state and work for a certain number of years, and a
percentage of that loan would be forgiven every year. But it
was to grow your own, so to speak, what was needed in the
state, and that might be something that would fit well with
aligning the things that we're doing with Jump Start and WISE
that would affect both the community and technical colleges as
well as the university for those programs where we have folks
that really we need to train them for this State, but there's
an incentive then to keep them in the State.
Chairman Vitter. Right, absolutely.
Dana, let me follow up. You talked about Jump Start, which
obviously is a very important initiative that goes directly to
these issues. I've seen it very developed really being
implemented aggressively in some systems and not in others.
How do we really sort of put it on steroids and accelerate
it state-wide?
Ms. Talley. And I've seen that as well. We have some
districts in part of the State that have already been doing
career ed really well for a long time, and other districts that
have not really had any kids on the career diploma route prior
to Jump Start.
I think what I am seeing--and I just can really speak to
the 14-plus Lincoln districts that I work with, and George is
here today. I am seeing a real level of energy with the folks
at the district level who understand what this can mean for
kids and how this can totally change whether or not they even
stay in school. We know if they don't stay in school, they have
really no chance.
So what we're trying to do is really now dig into the
logistics of what pathways would these kids be interested in,
what courses should they take, what credentials can they
potentially earn, and I am actually seeing--like if you had
asked me six months ago about the Northeast and where we were,
I would say, well, we're kind of just slowly moving along.
I will tell you in the last two months I have seen a
tremendous boost in energy and attention and movement, and I
think we're well on our way. I think we are well on our way,
and I see George is shaking her head. I think we're continuing
to learn from other districts that are more advanced in terms
of where they are here, and our folks are willing to do that.
So I think we're in good shape.
Chairman Vitter. Great, great.
Ralph.
Representative Abraham. When Senator Vitter and I and the
rest of the Louisiana delegation talk about mega-sites, we're
fortunate to have several here in Louisiana. The companies are
always asking the elephant-in-the-room question about technical
labor. They are not seeing it, and sometimes that's a hindrance
to bring in the Volvos, the big companies here, because there
is a limited technical labor force.
I guess the question is, is there a mechanism that we can
reach out to those companies individually and market what we
have here in the State? We have just a wonderful group of
technical people that are very skilled, but I don't think we
have done well enough to market our skilled labor. Just
thoughts on that?
Dr. Hanson. I've been here two years, so I still have the,
I guess, opportunity to sometimes look from the outside in.
What I think we have here in Louisiana that people don't always
understand--and I'm not just saying this because you're all
sitting in the room--is the caliber of people that live in
Northeast Louisiana, their work ethic, their sense of pride and
their character.
You may not like and sometimes think you don't have
everything you should have, but this is phenomenal, this whole
culture that we have in this part of the State. I've been other
places.
So for me, again, looking from the outside in, there are so
many riches in the State, and particularly Northeast Louisiana,
because that's where I like to be. But I sometimes think that
we may not do a good job of presenting ourselves as who we are
and what we are, the cohesion that we do have and the sense of
pride that we have here.
Representative Abraham. Can we help you do that on the
federal level? That's what we're asking. We want to help.
Dr. Hanson. Right. But I use that as a preface because I
think there are a lot of other things that need to be met
immediately in terms of that technical workforce that you may
need from the two-year perspective. There are so many folks,
particularly in Northeast Louisiana, who have not, for whatever
reason--life happened, and they didn't get that high school
degree, and they can't take that first step, and they can't
qualify for federal loans because they didn't get the high
school.
There's the piece of the culture of this area, of the
people that live here, their strengths. At the same time, we
have a lot of socio-economic challenges in this area. So to get
them to that next level, what we can do at the federal level
from my perspective is to incentivize those short-term
trainings to allow folks to bring back the ability of benefit
testing that would allow someone who can demonstrate that they
have the ability to benefit from education, they can get into
school even without that high school equivalency, things like
that.
I think we have so much, and we sometimes miss that
pathway.
I don't know if I answered your question or not.
Representative Abraham. It helps.
Yes, John.
Mr. Jones. Representative Abraham, as some people in the
room know, we are leading an effort to get the community ready
for what's coming in terms of not only the employees but the
800 or so spouses that are coming with them who need jobs as
well.
Representative Abraham. That's right.
Mr. Jones. So we see at some point we could have a lot more
people looking for jobs, skilled or otherwise.
But some of the thoughts that we've had, even in the
education area--and again, we're learning as we go from the
people we're trying to recruit. We're getting direct feedback
as to why they didn't come or why they did come, and we've even
talked about the Web sites of the schools in the parishes and
the city.
My view of them a year ago is we were really talking to
people in Ouachita Parish in terms of how we presented those
Web sites and what the schools offered, and now we actually
have people clicking on those Web sites from all over the world
to check in to see if they've got these programs you're talking
about. So we really need to kind of learn to re-market
ourselves. It's a global society.
But little things like that, how we look at ourselves and
what we have to offer, we really need to start thinking about
who we are communicating with, and then adapt our messages and
our marketing, whatever it may be, to those audiences. The
Volvo CEO may be clicking on northeast Louisiana to find out
more about us.
Representative Abraham. That's right. Okay. Thank you.
Dr. Bruno. I think Louisiana has done an amazing job
selling our State from an economic development perspective. As
we look around, we see the evolution of the workforce that's
transpiring now with IBM, CSC and, of course, CenturyLink. But
it's throughout the State, in New Orleans with GE and different
areas.
If you look around the country, the areas that have
sustained the least variation in economic progress have been
those that have been focused around great educational systems.
People talk about Austin, Texas. Austin was a well-educated
area before it grew. Businesses want workforce before they
invest their dollars. In chats with IBM in the last several
weeks, they want to employ 400 people, of which I think 70 or
80 percent will be new graduates.
Just to give you a perspective, ULM, Louisiana Tech and
Grambling produce less than 100 graduates a year in those
fields. So we're already behind. So we're a little bit out of
sync. We've sold a product that we've not yet made, and if
we're going to grow and recruit the Volvos and more technology
firms and so forth--because I think John has seen it. I think
CenturyLink has seen--four years ago or five years ago,
CenturyLink was pretty much the only game in town for certain
positions. Now as you've added IBM and CSC and a firm in
Lafayette and General Electric down in New Orleans, the demand
for those graduates has gone through the roof, which has forced
them to now look internationally and nationally for employees.
Education has got to be the center, and it starts at our K-
12. They have got to prepare those students for community
colleges. They've got to prepare them for four-year schools.
They've got to prepare them for the technical colleges. And the
more we can educate our population, the more it will grow on
itself.
I was the first person in my family, both father's and
mother's side, to get a college degree. But with them, there
was no doubt, they wanted better for their children. We have to
instill that. We have to change the culture. I'm not sure quite
how to do it, but it begins in that K-12. It begins in K-4. We
have to get them reading. We have to be able to accept students
at the four-year programs that can do math, that can read and
write, that have mastered the English language in writing and
speaking.
The community colleges are in place. We turned down 400
freshman applications this year at ULM. Our freshman class is
less than 1,400. So almost over a third were turned down
because they did not meet the admissions standards. So just
think, if ULM could have accepted 400 more students, what that
could have done to this entire community. I'm sure Dr. Hanson
would have loved to have accepted 400 more in her program.
Dr. Hanson. We did.
[Laughter.]
Dr. Bruno. That's good, because if we have more high school
degreed students who are prepared, they move on to the
community colleges or four-year schools.
That workforce that we're talking about is going to evolve,
but it has to start today. We have to get funds into our
programs, wherever they come from--the state, local, federal--
because just this week I lost three math faculty, and I can't
recruit because they don't want to come to Louisiana because of
budget issues. They don't want to come because of
uncertainties, and pay. We're paying significantly less than
competitive states.
I told someone yesterday I know of a dean in one of our
Louisiana universities that just left to go to Mississippi.
Now, when we begin to lose people to Mississippi----
[Laughter.]
Representative Abraham. It's bad, it's bad.
Dr. Bruno [continuing]. It should be a clarion call that we
have to do something.
So I appreciate what you all are trying to do, but I'm not
sure federally how we can facilitate that other than assistance
for students to pursue higher ed. But from a State level, which
you all certainly have some influence on, it's important that
we focus on that and try to make sure that we stabilize these
budgets and give us more resources to meet those demands.
Chairman Vitter. Absolutely.
Dr. Hanson.
Dr. Hanson. Just to piggyback on what you said, Nick, and
you correct me if I'm wrong. We've had this conversation. I'm
also a first-generation college graduate in my family. My
family was in business. But in any case, we've often had the
conversation about we just need that generation that has gone
to college or is thinking about sending their kids to college,
and then that next generation they're going to be coming in
droves, whether they're going to a two-year or a four-year.
It's going to be more of the orientation.
But it begins, for me, as I said before, with northeast
Louisiana. Despite the riches, we have a lot of folks that have
economic challenges, and they have educational attainment
challenges.
So we've got to figure out a way to meet that need to
create the pipeline so that they can go in through high school
and they can go to the community college, they can go on to the
university if that is their goal, whatever we can do to make
that fluid.
Chairman Vitter. Right.
Okay, we're going to wrap up. I want to start to wrap up by
thanking our great witnesses. They are obviously the heart and
soul----
[Applause.]
They were the heart and soul of our discussion on this
topic today. Even more importantly, they're doing great work in
this vital area. So, thanks to all of you.
Dr. Hanson, thanks in particular for hosting us here at
Louisiana Delta Community College. This was the perfect setting
both in terms of the great facility and in terms of being at a
center for this sort of training.
I also want to thank my great colleague, Ralph Abraham.
Ralph, thanks for joining us.
[Applause.]
Chairman Vitter. Appreciate it.
And thanks to all of you for coming out.
As you know, I'm in this part of the State, like in every
part of the State, on a real regular basis with different
forums and town halls. So please continue to come out to those;
and in-between them, don't hesitate to call, email, write with
comments, concerns and suggestions.
You have a handout, and on that handout there's a blue
column on the left-hand side. That's all of my contact
information. That includes our Monroe office. That includes our
Web site, which has easy email access. So please keep that
handy.
But thanks for coming out today. Thank you very much.
[Applause.]
[Whereupon, at 11:30 a.m., the hearing was adjourned.]
[all]