BRTC Holds Legislative Panel Session

Monday, January 6, Black River Technical College (BRTC) held a legislative panel session for its employees. This session gave employees the opportunity to talk to their legislators about concerns surrounding the future of education in Arkansas.

The attending legislators were Senator Blake Johnson, Representative Trey Steimel, Representative Fran Cavenaugh, and Representative Jeremy Woolridge. Each legislator represents a county or counties that BRTC serves. The main counties BRTC serves are Clay, Greene, Lawrence, and Randolph.

The first question legislators addressed revolved around the possibility of another LEARNS Act and how it would impact higher education. All legislators came to the agreement that there would not be another LEARNS Act.

“LEARNS was a historical act; there can’t really be a 2.0,” Cavenaugh said. The panel said instead of making a new act, the original one just needed to be examined and tweaked. They said it needs to have more focus on the workforce and the high school-to-trade school pipeline. Steimel also said it would be important to add a focus on the career coaches in high schools, since they are student’s direct connection to colleges.

Going off of the high school-to-trade school transition the panel also addressed the idea of reducing the amount of credit hours needed to receive a bachelor’s degree. Cavenaugh explained if students take the required general education courses in high school then they have already completed a majority of their first year of college.

“We have the ability to provide the opportunity to educate our own,” Woolridge said. He said putting emphasis on concurrent classes while encouraging students to attend 2-year colleges would not only allow students to pay a cheaper rate for general classes but would also allow students to go straight into classes for their desired degree after high school graduation.

The panel addressed opportunities for 2-year college growth and how they are working to provide those opportunities. Woolridge suggested showing students their potential return investment. He said students can get a lower cost education, therefore, putting students into the workforce more quickly and giving them the opportunity to make more money.

Lastly, legislators discussed the anticipated economic development and commercial growth that could come with the several new interstate connections in Arkansas. Johnson said legislators had been working on this project for a long time and they are glad to finally see it come to life. He said these connections would create opportunities for businesses to come into local communities and help them grow, because “corporations love to invest in small, growing communities.”

For more information about BRTC visit https://blackrivertech.edu/.