La. tech college system ponders post-growth strategy

Following a record number of graduates and four-year transfers, officials with the Louisiana Community and Technical College System are wondering where additional resources will come from now that a special fund that partly contributed to this growth has been expended.

During the 2015-16 school year, the state’s community and technical colleges collectively graduated nearly 29,000 students — that’s up from nearly 23,000 graduates during the previous year.

Approximately 80 percent of these graduates earned associate degrees or certifications for in-demand, high-income fields that have been the focus of the Louisiana Workforce Commission.

The most recent school year also included a record-breaking 15,800 students who successfully transferred to four-year universities.

Tim Hardy, chairman of the LCTCS Board of Supervisors, said the results were aided by the one-time investment of the Workforce and Innovation for a Stronger Economy Fund, or WISE Fund. Signed into law in 2014 by former Gov. Bobby Jindal, it directed $12 million to two-year colleges.

Dr. Monty Sullivan, president of LCTCS, asked the system board to authorize 100 percent of the fund’s appropriation for “high-value programs aligned with local workforce demands,” like computer science, process technology, construction crafts, engineering technology, industrial production, allied health, manufacturing and accounting.

“Those funds have been able to touch thousands of people,” Sullivan said. “The result is thousands of people with credentials who are able to go to work and take care of their families who were not in that position a year ago.”

Sullivan said he does not want to lose sight of the significant role that the WISE Fund played.

“Now that WISE funds are depleted, the question becomes what’s next?” he asked. “How do we continue to close the skills gap and the educational attainment gap, which helps to solve two of our state’s biggest problems?”

As part of the solution, Sullivan pointed to “Our Louisiana 2020: Building the Workforce of Tomorrow,” which is a workforce-development plan. It calls for increasing the number of LCTCS graduates to 40,000 annually and quadrupling the number of student transfers to four-year universities.

The record-setting figures from the most recent school year puts the system on pace to accomplish these goals, Sullivan said, but there’s still a great deal of work to do.Owens building out campaign infrastructure Candidate Reldon Owens, an executive with Diamond B Construction, has finally rolled out his fundraising apparatus and has picked up a few key endorsements in the race for the 4th District seat on the Public Service Commission.

Owens, who has been endorsed by the political action committees of the Louisiana Association of Business and Industry, has hired professional fundraiser Sally Nungesser to help bring in the bucks. Three major fundraisers have already been scheduled.

Meanwhile, the PAC for Associated General Contractors has given its endorsement to Owens, as have former PSC Commissioner Jimmy Field, state Rep. Lance Harris, R-Alexandria, and state Sen. Gerald Long, R-Winnfield, according to the Owens campaign.

Also running in that election alongside Owens are lone Democrat Mary Werner and fellow Republican Mike Francis, the former state GOP chair.

The Public Service Commission is an independent regulatory agency that oversees the operations and pricing of public utilities and motor carriers.

Senate contest sees super PAC activitySuper PACs, which are a specific class of political action committees that can raise unlimited dollars, are starting to show up on television screens in Louisiana’s U.S. Senate race.

Warrior PAC, which is supporting retired Air Force Col. Rob Maness, is the most recent to air a commercial. It placed $200,000 behind its TV buy, which features a 30-second biography spot for Maness.

ESAFund, which is advocating on behalf of state Treasurer John Kennedy, was the first to go statewide with a television commercial two weeks ago.

Directed on the state level by consultant Kyle Ruckert, ESAFund dumped “six figures” into the commercial, which is another positive biography spot, this time for Kennedy. With the treasurer personally going on the attack against Congressman Charles Boustany, R-Lafayette, recently, the spots soften the candidate’s hard edges that are showing up in media coverage right now.

How much longer both super PAC stays positive, though, is the real question.

The battle of New OrleansFiring the first shot, New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu officially announced his endorsement for U.S. Senate candidate Caroline Fayard earlier this month.

Fellow Democrat Foster Campbell, though, managed to answer that shot almost right away in what is being called “The Democratic Primary” by political observers.

Campbell, a member of the Public Service Commission, rolled out New Orleans-based nods from former Mayor Sidney Barthelemy, PSC Commissioner Lambert Boissiere III, Constable Lambert Boissiere Jr., state Sen. Wesley Bishop, Councilman James Gray, former Councilwoman Cynthia Hedge-Morrell, Clerk Arthur Morrell, the BOLD organization and others.

He also joined Fayard in seeking support of the Orleans Parish Democratic Executive Committee recently and walked away with the endorsement for his campaign.

More endorsements for Fayard are coming, but all of this signals a major fight on the ground in New Orleans, which is stacked with reliable Democratic votes.

The most successful Democrats have always been able to unite the voter-rich city, but it appears to be torn for this particular race.Poll: Get Rid Of‘Em AllA new national telephone and online survey from Rasmussen Reports found that, if given the option, 60 percent of likely voters would vote in the next election to replace the entire U.S. Congress.

That’s down considerably from 78 percent in 2013 and 68 percent the previous year.

Just 17 percent would vote to keep the entire Congress, but that’s up from previous surveys. A sizable 22 percent are not sure.

The poll surveyed 1,000 likely voters on Sept. 8 and 11. The margin of error is +/-3 percent. They Said It“Of course, you have a Senate race, and what fun that is! For a while it was boring. I mean, all we had was David Duke. But now it’s great! I mean, there are prostitutes, there’s murder. It’s good!” — NPR political commentator Cokie Roberts, during her presentation at WRKF’s Founders’ Luncheon last week

 

About Jeremy Alford 227 Articles
Jeremy Alford is an independent journalist and the co-author of LONG SHOT, which recounts Louisiana's 2015 race for governor. His bylines appear regularly in The New York Times and he has served as an on-camera analyst for CNN, FOX News, MSNBC and C-SPAN.

Be the first to comment

Leave a Reply