Bob Harris, EI's Senior Consultant to the General Secretary, shares information and commentary on the impact of the financial crisis on education funding, and how education can be part of the solution.
Positive developments are underway in the US, as President Barack Obama puts higher education in the centre of his policy goals. In a speech delivered last Friday 8 May, addressing the job creation and job training, President Obama referred to the loss of another 539,000 jobs in the US in the month of April, bringing the unemployment rate to its highest point in 25 years. As a solution to this problem, he identified higher education as the key to recovery.
Now, if we want to come out of this recession stronger than before, we need to make sure that our workforce is better prepared than ever before. [...] In a 21st century economy where the most valuable skill you can sell is your knowledge, education is the single best bet we can make -- not just for our individual success, but for the success of the nation as a whole.
He looked to community colleges as instrumental in solving the unemployment problem, announcing a relaxation of federal rules to make it easier for unemployed Americans to enrol for more education or training, particularly in Community Colleges.
First, we'll open new doors to higher education and job training programs to recently laid-off workers who are receiving unemployment benefits. And if those displaced workers need help paying for their education, they should get it -- and that's why the next step is to make it easier for them to receive Pell Grants.
President Obama aims to enable unemployed persons to benefit from a combined system of Pell Grants - which currently cover tuition at almost every community college in the US - and unemployment benefits across the US in order to help those who are studying to support their families at the same time. President Obama has asked his Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan, and his Secretary of Labor, Hilda Solis, to work closely with states and institutions of higher learning and encourage them not only to allow these changes, but to inform all workers receiving unemployment benefits of the training programs and financial support open to them.
This is a positive development in the struggle against the financial crisis. The affirmation that higher education is a central pillar to economic recovery is welcome.
Source: Higher Ed (online journal) from Monique Fouilhoux, EI.
More information at: http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2009/05/11/unemployed
For President Obama’s speech go to: http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/Remarks-by-the-President-on-Job-Creation-and-Job-Training-5/8/09/
Now, if we want to come out of this recession stronger than before, we need to make sure that our workforce is better prepared than ever before. [...] In a 21st century economy where the most valuable skill you can sell is your knowledge, education is the single best bet we can make -- not just for our individual success, but for the success of the nation as a whole.
He looked to community colleges as instrumental in solving the unemployment problem, announcing a relaxation of federal rules to make it easier for unemployed Americans to enrol for more education or training, particularly in Community Colleges.
First, we'll open new doors to higher education and job training programs to recently laid-off workers who are receiving unemployment benefits. And if those displaced workers need help paying for their education, they should get it -- and that's why the next step is to make it easier for them to receive Pell Grants.
President Obama aims to enable unemployed persons to benefit from a combined system of Pell Grants - which currently cover tuition at almost every community college in the US - and unemployment benefits across the US in order to help those who are studying to support their families at the same time. President Obama has asked his Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan, and his Secretary of Labor, Hilda Solis, to work closely with states and institutions of higher learning and encourage them not only to allow these changes, but to inform all workers receiving unemployment benefits of the training programs and financial support open to them.
This is a positive development in the struggle against the financial crisis. The affirmation that higher education is a central pillar to economic recovery is welcome.
Source: Higher Ed (online journal) from Monique Fouilhoux, EI.
More information at: http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2009/05/11/unemployed
For President Obama’s speech go to: http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/Remarks-by-the-President-on-Job-Creation-and-Job-Training-5/8/09/
Education International 2009
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