With 42 out of 100 adults age 25-34 with bachelor’s degrees or higher, Lexington-Fayette County is Kentucky’s best educated community. By comparison, only 19 out of 100 Owensboro-Daviess County adults of that age have college degrees. To match Lexington-Fayette County, we would need more than twice as many college graduates of that age – 4,828, compared to the 2,138 we have now.
A new citizens group has been formed to devise a strategy to address this deep-seated community challenge. Ably chaired by David Searles and comprised of the Owensboro mayor, Daviess County judge-executive, presidents or representatives of our local higher education institutions, and experienced members of the Citizens Committee on Education, the Higher Education Advocacy Group includes the stakeholder perspective and firepower needed to work through the delicate loyalties and complexities of this challenge toward substantive outcomes.
It is certainly ambitious and may not be quickly attainable to reach the Fayette County benchmark. In 2005, Brescia University, Kentucky Wesleyan College and Western Kentucky University-Owensboro graduated only 341 students with bachelor’s degrees, and many of them subsequently left our community for job opportunities.
To increase the number of college graduates in Owensboro-Daviess County, we must instill in our culture a greater appreciation for education; we must also better prepare students for college. We must produce more graduates of our local institutions and keep more of them here after they complete their degree. We must attract more graduates of out-of-town colleges – those from our community and those from other places. And on a parallel track, we must attract and expand businesses and create an inviting climate for entrepreneurial start-ups.
We must create more higher education opportunities through increased collaboration among our high schools, colleges and universities; new fields of study; and better ways for students to manage and afford college course work.
All of this may mean offering more graduate degrees to complement Brescia’s social work and management programs and the executive MBA recently announced by Kentucky Wesleyan.
It may mean seizing more opportunities in health care: nursing, physical therapy, occupational therapy and more. It may mean landing one of several new pharmacy schools planned for Kentucky or more programs connected with the cancer research initiatives at our hospital.
It may mean taking advantage of niche opportunities in agriculture technology, biotechnology, and cutting-edge uses of tobacco designed and developed by Kentucky Bioprocessing LLC (formerly Large Scale Biology).
It may mean devising technological programs to prepare workers for jobs of the future: nanotechnology, mechatronics, gene modification/therapy and more.
It may mean offering programs of distinction that expand our connection to the global community: language and international studies programs, exchange programs and more.
It may mean expanding distance learning opportunities that connect us with leading institutions, scholars and instructors across the nation and planet.
But these things won’t just happen. It will take a community vision that transcends institutional interests. It will take leadership, teamwork and adequate funds for staff, research, consultants, and visits to other communities that have developed innovative, effective higher education models.
The new Higher Education Advocacy Group represents an important step forward. Few citizen initiatives are more important to the future of our community. Few are more worthy of public support.
Note: Rodney Berry is a member of the Higher Education Advocacy Group.