I probably read more national reports than do most people involved in education and economic, workforce and community development.  From time to time, I will provide summaries of those reports so that you can decide whether you want to read them.

Last week the Democratic Leadership Council issued a report titled: “A Matter of Degrees: Tomorrow’s Fastest-Growing Jobs and Why Community College Graduates Will Get Them.” For the record, the DLC was formed in 1985 (shortly after Ronald Reagan’s resounding defeat of Walter Mondale for the United States Presidency) by a group of Democrats convinced that the party had moved too far to the left.  Despite its rightward leanings, the DLC recently has embraced much of President Barack Obama’s political agenda.

The report ostensibly makes the case for President Obama’s plan to increase the federal investment in community colleges.  The report cites Bureau of Labor Statistics data that suggest that there will be 2 million new jobs requiring an associate’s degree or post-secondary training over the next decade (actually 2006 through 2016) and that jobs requiring an associate’s degree will grow at almost twice the rate of occupations overall (18.7 percent vs. 10.4 percent).  Importantly, 1.3 million of those jobs make the hot jobs list, meaning above-average growth and above-average wages.  The report focuses on jobs associated with health care and education, information technology, and energy and the environment.

The report’s recommendations are surprisingly breathtaking in scope:

• Make community college free for the next two years for anyone who majors in health care, education, information technology, and clean energy. The report does not provide a price tag for such a proposal, nor explain how community colleges would ramp up to handle an influx of students in these majors.  (In an earlier section of the report, the DLC notes the challenge of finding nursing faculty, who make significantly less than their colleagues working for health care facilities.)
• Launch a national public campaign against both high school and college dropouts. All I can guess is that this must be someone’s pet initiative because the recommendation fits, at best, awkwardly in this report.
• Reform higher education assistance programs to reward and demand college completion, not just showing up. The report does not explain how this should be done, but West Virginia’s Community and Technical College System has a new financing system that could serve as a national model.  The  financing system will reward institutions who get students to key educational momentum points (e.g., completion of developmental education, earning a certificate, earning an associate’s degree).  The West Virginia approach is consistent with the “tipping points” research produced for the Washington State Board for Community and Technical Colleges.
• Make the American Opportunity Tax Credit fully refundable and more generous. What is it with right-leaning Democrats and tax credits?  Research suggests that financial aid, not tax credits, are the way to go.  Making parents and students front money, rather than providing it when needed, is a barrier to access.
• Offer states job training program waivers in return for getting more of America’s workers the skills they need to excel in the new jobs market. Given recent research suggesting that traditional job training programs do not work very well, this proposal seems eminently reasonable.