Stein lauds community colleges in Pitt visit

WINTERVILLE — Community colleges will continue to be a lynchpin in North Carolina’s status as a national business hub, gubernatorial hopeful Josh Stein said during a visit to Pitt Community College earlier this week.

Stein on Tuesday toured homes built in part by students in the construction technology program at PCC and sat down for a roundtable with campus leaders. Stein faces Republican Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson in the November election.

“North Carolina’s community college system is a treasure for this state,” Stein said. “It is such an instrumental institution in helping people get the skills they need to go get good paying jobs. We saw it here today with the construction program at Pitt Community College, incredible, and they’re doing such a good job that for some of the students they are being poached before they even finish their curriculum. There’s such a demand for their skills.”

Pitt Community College has begun construction on a $17.7 million Welding Technology Building to help meet the demand for skilled labor.

“Everywhere I go with these community colleges, and I’ve been to a number, as soon as someone gets a welding certificate they’re employed,” Stein told the roundtable.

College leaders also told Stein that Pitt Community College’s proximity to East Carolina University helps both institutions because it allows PCC students to move easily into a bachelor’s degree program at ECU while allowing students in fields like nursing to obtain training at both institutions.

“North Carolina has been number one for business two years running which is an incredible statistic,” Stein said. “It is the people of North Carolina that are driving that success, the quality of our workforce.

“We need to continually replenish folks with skills in welding, in plumbing, in framing, in technical skills, in nursing. What’s great about the way Pitt Community College and ECU partnership, particularly in nursing, is they are making sure we are getting enough nurses in the classroom getting the skills so they can come back out in the community and keep us all healthy and well.”

The Propel NC funding model, which would base funding for the state’s 58 community colleges on labor market outcomes rather than enrollment, dominated discussion on Tuesday. The $93 million plan has received round praise from community college leaders since it was introduced in January, but recent proposals by the neither the state House or Senate during the General Assembly’s short session fully funded Propel NC in budget negotiations, which are at a standstill.

“(Propel NC) is only partially funded in the House and the Senate at $18 million,” interim PCC President Ricky Brown told Stein. “Certainly we would have preferred full funding in terms of the ... model, but certainly we support that as (do) all the other 58 community colleges.”

Brown said Propel NC would provide an additional $2.2 million to Pitt Community College. He also fielded a question about whether Stein would be a benefit to community colleges if elected governor in November.

“That could be any person’s opinion of course,” Brown said. “I certainly think Attorney General Stein supports community colleges as he indicated here with us recently. Anybody that supports community colleges and supports the Propel NC funding model, we certainly would appreciate those people that support that program.”