Looking for Leverage: Key Tasks and Policies

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Looking for Leverage Key Tasks and Policies

• Working Poor Families Project
• Academy on State Postsecondary Policy
• Julie Strawn
• Center for Law and Social Policy
• jstrawn_at_clasp.org
• June 2006

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What this academy is about

• Introduce you to key state policy issues and
  ideas emphasis here is on solutions
• Provide a chance to hear about experiences of
  peers who are already working on these issues
• Equip you with some resources for future work
• Lay the groundwork for working together in the
  future to help each other be more effective
  advocates for low income adults on postsecondary
  issues

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Why focus on postsecondary?

• Workers need mid-level skills?about a years
  worth of technical education and a credential?to
  qualify for many family-supporting jobs
• Businesses need more workers with mid-level
  skills (one year certificates, Associate degrees)
  
• Cant fix this only through high school reform
  
• E.g. WA state no. of workers (age 18-45) with
  h.s. ed. or less the next 10 years of high
  school graduating classes
• Current state policies are not effective in
  helping working adults to gain postsecondary
  credentials

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Why focus on postsecondary?

• Earnings and employment both increase with
  educational attainment spells of unemployment
  fall. Each year of college increases wages by
  10. (Rouse 2001)
• Premium paid by employers for college degree has
  nearly doubled in last two decades from 5.24
  in 1979 to 9.77 in 2001 (EPI, in 2001 dollars).
• Jobs requiring some sort of post-secondary
  credential are growing 60 faster than those
  requiring high school or less. By 2014
  higher-skilled jobs will increase as a proportion
  of total US jobs to around 54, up from 52.
  (BLS)
• According to the 2004 Current Population Survey,
  43 percent of adults between the ages of 25 and
  64 have high school education or less. (Jenkins,
  2006, from CPS data)

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Slower growth in skilled workersan opportunity?

• Native workforce is agingno new net growth
  expected through 2020 in prime age workers
• The rapid growth in skills of the workforce seen
  over the last 20 years is expected to slow
  dramatically (Aspen Institute 2002).
• May create chance to bring lower skilled adults
  and youth into good jobsif workforce education
  system has capacity to serve them successfully
• Big unknowns retirement choices of baby boomers,
  numbers/skills of immigrants, future job skill
  requirements

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Workers with education beyond high school
Source Grow Faster Together. Or Grow Slowly
Apart. (2002) Washington, DC The Aspen
Institute.
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Share of Workforce Growth Due to Immigration
Source Sum, A., Fogg, N., Harrington, P. with
Khatiwada, I., Trubbsky, M., and Palma, S.
(2002, August). Immigrant Workers and the Great
American Job Machine The Contributions Of New
Foreign Immigration to National and Regional
Labor Force Growth in the 1990s. Boston, MA 
Northeastern University.
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Key state policy tasks

• Create a shared vision of states future and why
  increasing access for adults to postsecondary
  credentials is key to getting there
• Set measurable goals for achieving that vision
  and ask whether funding flows in ways that
  support progress toward those goals
• Put in place mechanisms that ensure workforce
  education offerings reflect the skills workers
  need to advance and businesses need to grow

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Key state policy tasks

• Track individual outcomes across workforce
  education services and into the labor market to
  identify trouble spots and document successful
  approaches
• Fix the leaky pipeline of adults into and through
  postsecondary workforce education
• Support access and success for nontraditional
  students
• Fund continuous innovation to better meet worker
  and business needs

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Creating a shared vision and goals

• Create a shared vision of states future and why
  increasing access for adults to post-secondary
  credentials is key to getting there
• Narrative of problem may be different for each
  of you, e.g. CO Paradox state has good jobs but
  imports skilled labor In many Midwest states,
  its about having a skilled workforce to compete
  for new knowledge jobs
• Clear message about what needs done. E.g. KYs
  Education Pays/Go Higher, OH Gov.s goal of 30
  increase in postsecondary enrollment, MI Gov.s
  goal of double the numbers of college graduates

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KY GoHigher ad

• http//www.collegeaccessmarketing.org/galleryimage
  s/003_lg.jpg

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Creating a shared vision and goals

• Set measurable goals for achieving that vision
  and ask whether funding flows in ways that
  support progress toward those goals.
• E.g. GoHigher goals and progress reports
• How does state funding for workforce education
  services compare to demand for services and cost
  of services? Contrast funding for adult
  ed./ESL, noncredit and for-credit workforce
  education., college remedial education.
• Do other funding streams support these goals?
  Look at both policies and expenditures in student
  aid, TANF, WIA, incumbent worker and customized
  trg. programs, economic development, and child
  care

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KY Example GoHigher Progress Measures

• Question 1- Are more Kentuckians ready for
  postsecondary education?
• Question 2- Is Kentucky postsecondary education
  affordable to its citizens?
• Question 3- Do more Kentuckians have certificates
  and degrees?
• Question 4- Are college graduates prepared for
  life and work in Kentucky?
• Question 5- Are Kentucky's people, communities
  and economy benefiting?

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Getting businesses and workers what they need

• Put in place mechanisms to ensure workforce
  education offerings reflect the skills workers
  need to advance and businesses need to grow
• Nothing automatic about postsecondary education
  translating into either good jobs or competitive
  businesses
• E.g. Career Pathways, MI Regional Skill
  Alliances, IL Critical Skills Shortage
  Initiative, WA Skill Panels and Centers of
  Excellence, GA Statewide Skills Certifications.
• Track individual outcomes across workforce
  education services and into the labor market to
  identify trouble spots and document successful
  approaches

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WA Example Tipping Point as frame

• WA study tipping point for substantial
  earnings payoff from college is at least 30
  vocational credits plus a credential. Other
  research supports this.
• 2,700 and 1,700 more per year (respectively)
  for workforce students entering with high school
  diploma or GED
• Even larger increases for lower skilled students
  and those with limited English ESL students earn
  7,000 more per year and ABE students 8,500 more
  annually
• By contrast those in short-term customized
  training dont gain enough skills to reach
  tipping point
• Earn 3,800 less per year than those who reach
  the tipping point 6,800 less per year if they
  started from ABE. (SBCTC, 2005, outcomes for
  35,000 students)
• Tipping point workers need mid-level skills
  employers need
• Redirect s to support thisNew Opportunity
  Grants pilot, enhanced FTE for I-BEST

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Fixing the leaky pipeline

• Lack of alignment of goals and content between
  adult ed/ESL, college remediation, and non-credit
  and credit workforce education
• Low rate of transitions from adult ed/ESL and
  college remediation. into for-credit programs
• Few adult education and developmental education
  students ever complete enough postsecondary
  workforce education to pay off in labor market
• For lower skilled adults obtaining marketable
  credentials takes too long, especially given
  competing work and family responsibilities
• Adults who complete noncredit occupational
  programs often find that work does not connect to
  degrees

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Community College Adult Basic Skills Education
Outcomes (Prince and Jenkins, 2005)
Source Prince Jenkins (forthcoming).
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Percent of adult ed./ESL going on to college
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Increasing access and success

• Barriers to access and success for low income
  adults
• Lack of confidence and personal support
• Lower skills and/or limited English
• Limited exposure to career possibilities
• Financial and logistical barriers
• Difficulty of navigating complex bureaucracies
• Juggling work, family and school

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Affordability
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Community College Degree Program Education
Outcomes(Prince and Jenkins, 2005)
Source Beginning Postsecondary Students
(BPS96-01). Authors calculations.
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Venture capital for innovation

• Fund continuous innovation to better meet worker
  and business needs
• WIA performance and Gov.s discretionary funds
• Perkins and Adult Ed. state leadership funds
• TANF funds
• Incumbent worker/customized training funds
• Economic development funds
• Private foundation grants and federal grants
• Fund innovation in ways that make it sustainable,
  so it doesnt go away when grants dowhats the
  business model?