Video: Community College Administrators Make Their Case For Funding To State Lawmakers

BOONEVILLE, MISS. (WCBI) – The “Fall Legislative Meeting and Luncheon” allowed area lawmakers to hear from administrators with Itawamba Community College and Northeast Mississippi Community College. The meeting comes as Governor Phil Bryant says there will be little, if any increase in funding.

“What we’ve got to do now, look for next year, is level funding will be based after the budget cuts so it’s going to be a little bit of a reduction, but we’re trying to get level funding back from last year, so that will be our main objective,” said Dr. Ricky Ford, president of NEMCC.

“You have the best community college system in the nation, in Mississippi. So there’s more and more pressure on us to be able to educate people, give them the skills sets they need to be able to go out and get them a good job,” said Mike Eaton, president of ICC.

One of the biggest challenges facing community colleges is recruiting and retaining quality instructors. It is tough when those instructors can make the same amount of money in K through 12 public school system, or they can double their paycheck in the private sector.

“Nursing educators, we have here on staff, we are having associate degree nurses able to go out into the workforce and make as much and maybe even more than masters prepared nurses who are educators and we are looking at that, we have got to have these people in place to be able to produce more nurses to meet demand of the workforce,” said Dr Patti Cooper, division head of health sciences at NEMCC.

State Senator Russell Jolly understands the budget crunch, but he also believes lawmakers should make funding of community colleges a top priority.

“The junior colleges, in my opinion, is the best buy for educational system in this whole state. Hopefully the money will be there,” Sen. Jolly said.

The Mississippi Association of Community and Junior Colleges will request 51.6 million dollars in fair and equitable funding during the next legislative session.

Community colleges in Mississippi exceed the national average for college completion, according to the National Student Clearing House.