STARKVILLE – Mississippi is moving ahead among other southeastern states when it comes to training the next generation of workers.
Mississippi Economic Council CEO and President Scott Waller on Monday told members of Starkville Rotary Club and the Greater Starkville Development Partnership the state ranks third among its neighbors in workforce training and development.
“We’re making really good progress in helping move our state forward, and our economy is starting to show that,” Waller said, citing Mississippi as the third highest state in the nation for GDP and income growth.
Waller gave an update of the MEC workforce development and career technical reform efforts he believes are making a difference across the state, like securing funding for career readiness assessments. All 82 counties in the state have access to high school career coaches, who help students determine their plans after graduation, he said.
But there are still more ways to improve, Waller said, including increasing postsecondary educational attainment for Mississippians.
Waller said at least 60 to 65% of jobs created today require some sort of postsecondary education, whether that is a bachelor’s degree, associate’s degree or an industry certification. The Ascent to 55% program is designed to help raise the rate of Mississippi’s receiving postsecondary education, he said.
“(When the program started), our educational attainment rate for either a bachelor’s or above, an associate’s degree or an industry certification of value was at 44%,” Waller said. “Today it’s at 49%. So in three years, we’ve seen great progress, but we’ve got to get to 55% by 2030 to keep us on track.”
One way to do that is making postsecondary education more affordable. Jean Massey, executive director of Ascent to 55%, said the MEC is advocating for wider eligibility and more funding for the Mississippi Tuition Assistance Grant program.
MTAG is designed to provide financial assistance to Mississippians attending eligible colleges and universities in the state. When the program started in 1995, eligible freshmen and sophomores received $500 while juniors and seniors received $1,000. The funding has changed since then, Massey said.
“Over the past 30 years, tuition has gone up,” she said. “At one time, the tuition that MTAG helped with covered about 14% of cost. Now it’s less than 4%. All goes to show that we need more money in this program.”
Massey said the MTAG program also needs updated eligibility requirements. Currently, part-time students, adult students and students receiving a Pell Grant are ineligible for MTAG. That leaves a large part of the state who could be in the workforce, she said.
“We have 320,000 individuals in this state that have some college credit but no degree. We need them back in,” Massey said. “We have about 300,000 individuals that have no high school diploma. If we get them back in … they’re not eligible (for MTAG).”
Massey encouraged business owners to speak to legislators about prioritizing MTAG funding.
“When educators keep going through the legislature, they just kind of roll their eyes and say, ‘Here come those educators again,’” she said. “We need business people because we need more people entering the workforce through postsecondary education.”
Businesses could also play a larger role in the K-12 education system, Waller said.
“There’s very little connection between the business and K-12 systems,” he said. “We think there’s a lot of reasons. It could be that the accountability model isn’t set up so that high schools are that interested in helping businesses in their community find out what it is that they need.”
For high schools, the state’s accountability model considers the four-year graduation rate, ACT performance and four state test assessments, as well as participation in Advanced Placement and dual enrollment courses.
Waller said MEC is advocating for a more student-based accountability model that focuses more on college and career readiness and aligns with businesses’ expectations.
“You’ve got to find a way to make sure the model is looking at what businesses need in individual communities and building that model around the needs of communities,” he said.
McRae is a general assignment and education reporter for The Dispatch.
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