Career and Technical Education got a boost Tuesday, March 2, when voters in Muscatine, Scott, Jackson, Clinton and neighboring counties approved a measure by 70 percent of the voters to finance a $40 million bond referendum.
The funds would be used for new and expanded career training facilities at all three EICC institutions including Muscatine Community College. Funds also will be used for a new facility in DeWitt, expansion of programming at the college’s current Maquoketa training facility located next to Maquoketa High School, and a new agriculture education facility in Scott County.
“We’re very excited and grateful to see this important initiative move forward,” EICC Chancellor Don Doucette said in the release, pointing out the economic future of eastern Iowa depends on a skilled workforce and 65 percent of the jobs of today and tomorrow require education and training beyond high school. “We are thankful to our partners and the communities we serve for showing tremendous support in ensuring all members of our communities have affordable and equitable access to the educational opportunities,” he said.
Doucette says only about 45 percent of adults in the Eastern Iowa area have training beyond high school. “We have to close that gap to fill what our communities need,” he adds.
The special election had a total of 6,602 voters cat ballots throughout Eastern Iowa, approving the referendum 4,884 to 1,718, although those figures have not been part of an official canvas yet. In Muscatine County, there were only 153 ballots cast in the election in the two precincts, with 121 of those votes favoring the referendum while 32 voted against the proposal.
According to Alan Campbell, an associate director of marketing for the community colleges, the referendum will not cost property tax owners as the bonding will replace a previous tax referendum that is expiring. “We don’t anticipate any kind of tax increase,” he said.
The expansion will allow for increased services for all EICC students and those in the college’s high school Career Academies, officials said. Douchette said distance and accessibility are incredibly important in education, “if it’s more than 15-20 minute drive, it becomes difficult to access. What we’re looking at is getting equitable access to our affordable education. We know distance matters so we’re putting programs close to where people are, especially where they live. Our rural communities are underserved.”
According to college officials, career academies provide the opportunity for current high school students to receive hands-on career training and college-level credits while still in high school. They also answer a training need for those students who might not normally continue their education past high school, providing them with skills they can use to enter the job market.
“Our rural towns and counties are especially underserved by career and technical education opportunities,” Doucette said. “These facilities will bring needed CTE programming within closer reach of rural communities as well as meet the ongoing needs of business and industry by developing a skilled workforce.”
The Muscatine campus will benefit from the referendum, with expansion of facilities that will include making room for classes in auto technology, criminal justice and allied health as well as expansion of the manufacturing tech center on campus.
Expanded and proposed program areas include advanced manufacturing and robotics, agriculture, agriculture mechanics and diesel technology, allied health and nursing, business, construction technology and management, criminal justice, engineering technology, information technology including programming, networking, cyber security and augmented and virtual reality as well as polymer technolgy and welding.
Work on the new facilities will begin as early as this coming fall, with completed facilities expected to open in late 2022 or early 2023. To learn more about the college’s plans visit eicc.edu/referendum
In a related vote, unchallenged Michael Gauss was elected to the EICC District 8 Director position, getting 65 votes.