[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 43 (Wednesday, March 8, 1995)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E550]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                COMMUNITY COLLEGES: PART OF THE SOLUTION

                                 ______


                          HON. CARRIE P. MEEK

                               of florida

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, March 8, 1995
  Mrs. MEEK of Florida. Mr. Speaker, an established resource for 
Florida's future economic security is in jeopardy due to lack of 
adequate State and Federal support. This resource is the community 
college system which is the access point to higher education, skills 
training, and successful employment for a growing underclass and 
increasingly diverse State population. As funding for public 
educational institutions, in Florida and elsewhere, is steadily 
declining, community colleges are faring most poorly of all as demands 
for their services continue to increase.
  While it has long been recognized that the community colleges play a 
crucial role in helping dependent individuals become self-sufficient, 
the financial commitment to this longer term, solid solution is being 
abandoned to cover prison expenditures, law enforcement, and immediate 
public assistance. The continued funding of these escalating programs 
results in a starving of the ultimate solution to these runaway 
problems, and I am sure that the State of Florida is not unique in this 
experience. As a former faculty member of Miami-Dade Community College, 
I am directly familiar with the fine educational and training services 
the school provides and its value to the greater Miami area.
  I would like to share with my colleagues the following statement by 
Dr. Robert H. McCabe, president of Miami Dade Community College, which 
points out the value of this Nations community college.
  Mr. Speaker, funding for community colleges is an investment in our 
future.
                         Starving the Solution

                         (By Robert H. McCabe)

       The growing underclass of individuals who are dependent on 
     society is threatening the well-being of all Floridians. Our 
     state is becoming overwhelmed by the cost of sustaining this 
     dependency. The number of persons receiving Aid to Families 
     with Dependent Children (AFDC) has been rising at a rate of 
     20% a year since 1988. The state's Medicaid expenditure 
     skyrocketed to almost two billion dollars by 1990 and over 
     $4.1 billion by 1993. This was equal to the state general 
     revenue budget in 1980-81. Expenditures on prison and law 
     enforcement are escalating exponentially, in Dade County 
     alone, nearly one quarter of our citizens are receiving 
     public assistance--in housing, health care, or food stamps.
       Florida has exceptional prospects for a bright economic 
     future as the business connector to the emerging nations of 
     the Caribbean and Central and South America. However, the 
     loss of our human resources, because of lack of skills, and 
     the cost of sustaining growing numbers of individuals in a 
     dependent status, threatens to destroy that potential.
       Florida's productive and efficient community colleges have 
     been the primary access to college and post-secondary 
     education for our residents. Community colleges are uniquely 
     positioned to help dependent individuals gain the skill and 
     become self-sufficient, thus providing business and industry 
     with a much needed quality work force and saving Floridians 
     literally billions of dollars. Despite the community 
     colleges' excellent record of performance, reduced resources 
     are provided to the community colleges to support essential 
     services to our communities. Over the history of the 
     community college system, the income per student has been 
     reduced from 50% more to 22% less than that provided for 
     public schools, grades K through 12. In 1994-95, community 
     colleges received just over half as much per lower division 
     student as the state universities.
       The current level of funding for community colleges 
     threatens their capacity to carry out their mission--Florida 
     is, in effect, starving the most promising solution to the 
     problem of reducing the number of dependent individuals by 
     denying the colleges the resources they need to help these 
     individuals gain the skills they need to be productively 
     employed.

     

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