Obama Seeks To Partner Businesses, 2-Year Colleges

In a new attempt to improve job growth in the country, President Obama is looking to partner companies and labor unions with two-year colleges. The proposal comes after Congress scaled back the President’s attempt to pump billions of dollars into community colleges.

According to USA Today, Obama is also asking public-private partnerships and philanthropies to help the schools produce a well-educated workforce.

On Monday, he announced an initiative through which companies, labor unions and two-year colleges in 50 states would collaborate to improve job training and workforce development.

Today, he is scheduled to address business leaders, educators, and others at a White House summit aimed at better aligning learning with workforce goals.

"We want to make it easier to join students looking for jobs with businesses looking to hire," Obama said Monday at the start of a meeting with his economic recovery advisory board. "We want to put community colleges and employers together to create programs that match curricula in the classroom with the needs of the boardroom."

Continue reading at USA Today.com…

For-Profit Colleges Reap Big Benefit from Stimulus

From ACJ.com:

Massage and beauty schools, online universities and other for-profit colleges in Georgia and across the nation are cashing in on federal stimulus spending, collecting $2.2 billion in tuition grants for low-income students, public records show.

That represents nearly a quarter of the stimulus money spent on these grants to date.

The taxpayer-funded grants are flowing to profit-making schools as the government is seeking to revise how those schools qualify for federal aid, partly because of concerns over how some saddle their students with substantial debt. The effort follows a federal report that cited abuses in the recruiting practices of some of the schools.

Georgia’s public colleges, meanwhile, are grappling with deep state budget cuts that are expected to increase tuition costs and class sizes. Some state officials would like to see more stimulus money come to those schools.