Igniting
InnovatIon
Colleges get creative to meet persistent
challenges in Race to the Top
By BOB ViOlinO
When the going gets tough, the tough get…innovative. That’s the
approach some forward-thinking community college leaders are taking
as their institutions set about the task of restocking the nation’s
workforce in the face of historic enrollments and severe, if seemingly
unending, budget cuts.
For a second straight year, President
Obama has challenged the nation’s
community colleges to play a central
role in increasing the number of college
graduates, emphasizing the need to
prepare American workers for jobs in
the global economy.
In his State of the Union address
earlier this year, Obama called on
Congress to “give more community
colleges the resources they need to
become community career centers.”
As part of his FY 2013 budget, Obama
proposed $8 billion for a new Commu-
nity College to Career Fund that would
directly inject 2 million trained workers
into an economy in need. The program
would build on the success of the
