The Cost of Educating the Workforce of Tomorrow

IHL Commissioner Hank Bounds (second from right) presents FY 2010-2011 request to Joint Legislative Budget Committee

Day four of the Joint Legislative Budget Committee focused on educating the workforce of tomorrow. MPB's Patty Davis has more.

IHL Commissioner Hank Bounds opened the his presentation saying Mississippi can educate it's way out of the current financial situation.

Bounds: We are trying to make some predictions, trying to make certain that we are as prepared as we possibly can so that the graduates that we produce are really high level and can compete in the workforce out there.

Bounds explained cost saving strategies underway at the state's eight public universities, and asked for a commitment from lawmakers that financial aid and facilities funding would be a priority. Doug Davis chairs the University and colleges committee in the Senate.

Davis: What you saw for the first time, at least in my listening to budget presentations this year, you've got a state agency that receives a large amount of money that came forward and said we recognize the hard times, and this is how we plan to get thru em. And I was encouraged by that.

Representative George Flaggs had concerns about the affordability of a college education.

Flaggs:So what we need to do is try and look at funding them at a higher level cause if you don't do it here you're doing it in the home, so it's still a double whammy to the taxpayer.

The total budget request from IHL is 42 million dollars over current funding, and half of that is earmarked for increasing student enrollment at the University of Mississippi Medical Center. Bounds said, a healthy, educated workforce is the best way to bring jobs to the state. And it's the Mississippi Development Authority that works to attract and retain those jobs. MDA Executive Director Grey Swoope says instead of asking for more money, his agency has redirected manpower to existing business in Mississippi.

Swoope: We need to pay attention to them and make sure that we're doing things to help them to retain those jobs. So you know, that's how you can balance recourses inside the agency. That's just one example.

Lawmakers have just begun the budgeting process. The last piece of the financial forecast will come in November when state economists present their revenue projections for FY 2010-2011. Patty Davis MPB News.