McKee proposes a new program to help adults earn higher education credentials, here's how

PROVIDENCE – Rhode Island has a college attainment problem: only 53% of adults have some higher-education experience.

In Central Falls, just over one-third of residents have a high-school diploma, and only 13% have an associate’s degree or higher.

That’s why Gov. Dan McKee is pushing for a program to give adults a boost toward enrolling in college, completing college or earning technical training. The goal? To offer higher-paying jobs, especially those in fast-growing fields in Rhode Island.

The Higher Education Academy was the brainchild of Shannon Gilkey, the state’s new Commissioner of Post-Secondary Education.

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McKee, who planned to announce the initiative in his state-of-the-state address, said, “We must meet Rhode Islanders where they are and help give them the personalized, hands-on help they need to earn their credentials from our colleges and universities. The academy will help our state get more people back into the workforce in jobs that will not only earn them living wages but put them at the ground floor of careers.”

In 2017, Gilkey led a study of Rhode Island’s college attainment. One of the things he heard was a “deep hunger for a unified approach to education,” something that connects K-12 education to college.

This program will do just that, he hopes.

Here's how the program would work

A network of providers, from public colleges to nonprofit organizations, would provide academic coaching to adults hoping to attend college or earn sought-after technical skills. For some adults, it might be help with English and math. For others, it might be help with applying for financial aid. For some, it could involve figuring out an individual’s career goals, then helping them achieve them.

“It’s academic help,” Gilkey said. “It’s help filling out FAFSA forms. Rhode Island left over $6 million in financial aid on the table last year. It’s helping someone when his car breaks down or she needs childcare.”

The first communities to be targeted will be Central Falls, Woonsocket, Pawtucket and Providence. These cities have higher percentages of people without postsecondary credentials.

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Where will the funds come from, who will benefit?

“We know the pandemic has had big effects on Rhode Islanders who did not make the transition from K-12 to secondary education,” Gilkey said Tuesday. “We want to target those students, particularly in communities with underserved populations.”

Gilkey said the funds would come from the American Rescue Plan, which has flooded states with federal dollars for COVID-19 recovery. Neither Gilkey not McKee would specify the cost of the effort until the full budget is presented later this week.

Gilkey offered the following examples of who would benefit from the program:

• The recent high-school graduate who got derailed from enrolling in college due to COVID

• The young adult working two part-time jobs who can’t make ends meet

• The individual who started college but never finished

• The person who wants to pursue a career in the trades but doesn’t know how to get credentialed

Although the new initiative isn’t aimed at covering tuition, Rhode Island’s public colleges have $180 million in federal relief aid that could provide some help.

“This would be trailblazer model for the country,” Gilkey said. “It’s built on the idea that 52.9% percent of our adults have some post-secondary credentials. To make that leap forward, to reach our post-secondary goals, you have to meet people where they are. We have to build a community-based model that works.”

Former Gov. Gina Raimondo set a goal that 70% of the state’s adults would have some form of higher education by 2025.

Gilkey acknowledges that this is a lofty aim but says economists predict that 72% of all Rhode Island jobs will require some higher education credentials by 2030.

Linda Borg covers education for the Journal.

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: McKee proposes new program to help adults earn college credentials