Arkansas Last in College Degrees, Higher Ed Chief Says

Last updated Thursday, October 9, 2008 2:40 PM CDT in News

By Lana F. Flowers
THE MORNING NEWS

That means future jobs for today’s high school and college students or for workers now in their 20s and 30s.

Purcell said nurses and computer programmers and specialists also are in demand as the population grows older and needs more health care and as the economy continues shifting away from manufacturing and to knowledge-based, technology industries.

The key to the future is a college degree, Purcell said. Arkansas ranks 50th in the nation in the number of adults — about 18 percent — with at least a bachelor’s degree. The state has fewer college graduates now than in 2002, when about 20 percent of adults had bachelor’s degrees, he said.

Arkansas is doomed to continue supplying the nation with low-wage, low-skilled workers unless people pursue more degrees and communities invest in workers’ futures, Purcell said.

He cited programs in the El Dorado School District and in Kalamazoo, Mich., where local business people and community members donated money to send every child in those districts to a state college for free.

That attracted more adults who value college education and had degrees themselves to those communities, which in turn increased volunteerism, property values, average income and quality of life, Purcell said. It also encouraged more high school graduates to go to college, he said.

Not all high school graduates are ready for college, however, as the state last year spent $53.8 million on remedial courses, Purcell said. Remediation needs to change so students learn more about the areas in which they are weak more quickly, Purcell said. Remedial courses now cover a wide range of subjects within, say, English, when the student might just need “academic triage” on an area or two within English, he said.

While encouraging more students to go to college, college gets more expensive and is paid more by debt. Purcell said Arkansas students had nearly $396 million in student loans in 2007, compared with $114.2 million in scholarships.

Community colleges and universities need to diversify their funding sources, Paneitz said. She noted the community college is “a community-assisted facility, not a community-supported facility.” The college has an operating budget of about $30.3 million, with tuition and fees providing 40 percent of that money; state funding providing 35 percent; property taxes from the Bentonville and Rogers school districts providing 13 percent; and other sources 6 percent.

Paneitz said she spends about 80 percent of her time networking for funding sources so every student who wants to attend the community college can.

“We don’t want to ever cap enrollment because we know there is a need out there,” Paneitz said.

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