(Author's note: This column was initially published as an op-ed piece in the Erie Times-News).
By JOE LaROCCA
While there’s significant opposition to an Erie County Community College,
there is likely to be strong support on behalf of a community college for
Erie County.
By that seeming paradox, I mean that Erie County should not establish its own community college dependent upon increased property taxes. It can acquire one without starting from scratch with minimum expense that would not require taxpayer support, as did the failed one proposed by out-going county executive Barry Grossman and his followers.
Community colleges are a positive force wherever they exist, and would prove to be so in Erie. But the threshhold consideration here is that this county’s property taxpayers cannot afford the one proposed by the county executive. Especially when there’s another more realistic and palatable option which would be supported primarily by student tuition.
This promising alternative stems from an impressive presentation made in Erie about a year ago by Butler County’s sprawling and widely-respected community college system offering to establish a satellite campus in Erie like those highly successful ones it has already placed in Lawrence and Mercer counties. And this year it opened a new one in Brockway serving four counties: Crawford, Clearfield, Elk and Jefferson.
Unfortunately, that alternative was summarily rejected by the proponents of an Erie County-established, owned and operated institution, which would have been a redundant exercise in empire building.
Under the Butler model, the set-up, operation and maintenance of a community college in Erie by an operator with long-proven competence and success would cost the county far less than establishing anew a full-blown Erie County community college.
If Erie County political, industrial, educational, vocational and business leaders are genuinely committed to providing affordable post-secondary education for county residents and workers designed to foster a long-term economic and industrial renaissance locally, they should direct their joint efforts towards exploring a partnership with Butler County Community College much like those Butler has successfully instituted in other northwestern PA venues.
By that seeming paradox, I mean that Erie County should not establish its own community college dependent upon increased property taxes. It can acquire one without starting from scratch with minimum expense that would not require taxpayer support, as did the failed one proposed by out-going county executive Barry Grossman and his followers.
Community colleges are a positive force wherever they exist, and would prove to be so in Erie. But the threshhold consideration here is that this county’s property taxpayers cannot afford the one proposed by the county executive. Especially when there’s another more realistic and palatable option which would be supported primarily by student tuition.
This promising alternative stems from an impressive presentation made in Erie about a year ago by Butler County’s sprawling and widely-respected community college system offering to establish a satellite campus in Erie like those highly successful ones it has already placed in Lawrence and Mercer counties. And this year it opened a new one in Brockway serving four counties: Crawford, Clearfield, Elk and Jefferson.
Unfortunately, that alternative was summarily rejected by the proponents of an Erie County-established, owned and operated institution, which would have been a redundant exercise in empire building.
Under the Butler model, the set-up, operation and maintenance of a community college in Erie by an operator with long-proven competence and success would cost the county far less than establishing anew a full-blown Erie County community college.
Butler CCC has been in existence for 48 years building invaluable expertise
it would take decades for Erie County to accrue. Strategically structured, a
Butler-facilitated community college in Erie would avoid the need for new
property tax revenues. Its curricula could be designed to meet the educational
and vocational needs of Erie Countians. Face-to-face, online and hybrid courses
could be offered both full and part-time, with an open admissions policy
requiring only a high school degree or GED.
If Erie County political, industrial, educational, vocational and business leaders are genuinely committed to providing affordable post-secondary education for county residents and workers designed to foster a long-term economic and industrial renaissance locally, they should direct their joint efforts towards exploring a partnership with Butler County Community College much like those Butler has successfully instituted in other northwestern PA venues.
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