Welcome 2019!
It’s a new year, sure to be filled with new adventures! 2018 was a good year for KCKCC with several faculty, staff and students receiving awards and special recognition. And, the College is creating and improving relationships with businesses and community organizations throughout Wyandotte County, KC Metro, Leavenworth and surrounding counties and with entities across the state.
At this Monday’s convocation, I had the privilege to announce continued partnership development with just a few of the several companies and organizations we are currently working with. Of course, the big announcement made on Monday, and to KCKCCPrez Blog readers now…
With our great partners at USD 500 (KCK Public Schools), beginning Fall 2019, KCKCC will offer college classes at Wyandotte High School! Classes will be offered in the afternoons and evenings, and open to the public. Planning continues and we will be holding community listening sessions in downtown KCK in about a month to hear what type of classes downtown residents and businesses would like offered. Class offerings will be tailored to meet the needs of downtown KCK, with current plans to offer college-level courses, college development courses, and ESL and GED.
With the eastern half of Wyandotte County struggling to keep pace with high school completion, attainment of a college certificates or degrees, English proficiency, and being able to gain employment that provides a livable wage to lift them out of living in poverty, KCKCC is proud to “take the education where the people need it the most”!
With 55% of the Kansas economy being fueled by “middle-skills” jobs, jobs 
requiring more than a high school education but less than a four-year degree, there is much work to be done in the county and especially the KC Metro area. Community Colleges are the answer when people ask how do we solve this problem, and Kansas City Kansas Community College is proud to be the solution for our region!
Also mentioned on Monday, as we grow and thrive as an institution to meet the
ever-changing needs of our community and economy, we will do some things differently and take strategic risks. And when we do, we may not always get it right the first time as we all make “misteaks”! But, when we do we will learn from them and be smarter and stronger as a result. As stated by an unknown author, “We learn more from our smallest failures then we do our greatest successes”. (My Bluedevil colleagues will understand the imagery…)
It’s Legislative Budget Time!
This week kicked off the 2019 Kansas legislative session, with the 125 Representatives and 40 Senators returning to Topeka on Monday. This being a biennium year, budgets are typically set for the next two years. This year the Kansas Community College Presidents came forward with a collective budget request supported by the Kansas Board of Regents (KBOR). The primary requests is to restore funding to community and technical colleges that has been cut over the course of several years. For the 19 colleges, this would require $25 million for both 2020 and 2021. An additional $1.2 million in 2020 and $3 million and 2021 is being requested to support colleges offering technical education courses to high school students. An additional request is to provide dollar to dollar match money for scholarships for need-based students.
Today, Governor Kelly’s initial budget proposal includes $8.9 million for 2017 budget restoration and $400,000 to cover tuition for National Guard Members. Years of national data continues to show that higher education:
Increases personal & family prosperity,
Increases the state’s prosperity,
Increases health and wellness,
Increases social engagement & volunteerism
Decreases the need to import talent,
Decreases crime & recidivism, and
Decreases generational poverty!
Please write and call your local legislator and ask them to support KBOR’s educational budget request! While the $9.3 million is appreciated and helpful, the additional funding is necessary to prepare our communities and the people who live in them to be competitive in today’s global economy.