Recently, the Kentucky Council on Post-secondary education reported some good news, with retention and graduation rates and increases in certificates, diplomas, and associate degrees awarded by the Kentucky Community and Technical College System.

Our Renee Shaw spoke with the president of CTCs to find out how the 16 colleges across the state are meeting workforce demands, serving as a launchpad for higher degree completion and skilling up former inmates for the jobs of today.

Well, Doctor Ryan Quarles, thank you for a few minutes of your time.

Glad to be back.

So talk to us about, what CTCs, the enrollment numbers, the success rates.

We know we've gotten a recent report from the Kentucky Council on Post-secondary education really bragging about some recent metrics.

What does it look like?

Well, the state of KCS is strong across all 16 colleges are enrollment is at an all time record high at 120,000 enrolled students are bumping up off of a six plus percent enrollment increase in the past year.

We have 70,000 tokens utilizing our workforce training skills as well.

Plus, the Kentucky Fire Commission, which is about 16,000.

Students, about that.

That's interesting.

They've been with us, for over 20 years.

And firefighters, like other first responders, need annual continuing education and training.

We provide that, and they're attached to us.

And so 98% of all training with our firefighters are with CTCs.

And the add up our enrollment workforce and firefighters, around 200,000 plus Kentuckians are entering our KCS facilities every single year.

And some other points of pride.

Our graduation rate just peaked at over 51%, which outpaces the national average by easily 1617 points.

And our affordability.

CPE likes to brag on this to that.

74% of our students graduate with zero student loan debt.

And that's something to be celebrated.

So why are you getting it so right?

And what could other states learn about how you're doing it?

Well, I think it's the quality of our programs that they're very relevant and they're actually tailored towards workforce needs.

And so number one is that we have program relevancy, whether it's welding, Hvac or if you want to start with us and transfer to a four years, is that there's a really strong purpose when a student starts a career pathway with us with how to get to that job.

Number two is our affordability.

80 plus percent of our students receive financial aid of some sort.

And so when you add up what our students are actually paying for an associate's or certificate, it's well, less than half the price of a public four year in Kentucky.

And the third thing is that we're actually starting students, higher education journey in high school.

Now, easily a third of our 120,000 students or high or so I think those three things is that we're starting college earlier, we're affordable, and our programs have relevancy.

The dual credit program, where kids can walk out and get a high school diploma and have an associate's degree at the same time, and that's growing in popularity.

In fact, several hundred students every single spring walk across stage at their local community college with an associate's degree before they graduate high school.

And this is something I wish was around when I was going through high school.

And what's happening here is that we're we're shortening the amount of time for that student to get their baccalaureate degree, and a lot of them are going on to med school, engineering, law school, etcetera.

But secondly, we're saving them and their family money as well that our tuition rate at dual credit is half the price while they're in high school.

And so it's not uncommon for us to have students, this year.

Go on to Howard, Yale, Harvard and our Kentucky public and private institutions, with an associate's degree with us about halfway through their baccalaureate degree.

Yeah, there used to be, a post-secondary four year institution that their phrase was, you can get there from here.

I think that was eastern at one time.

But you can say that about CTCs.

Wherever you are, you can get to where you want to go, and it can start right here.

That's right.

And I must say that we're blessed to work with our partnerships at the four years with public and private schools, that we're making sure that our transfer pathways for those 16,000 or so students that start with us and transfer to a four year is as seamless as possible right now.

And so we're making sure that all of our agreements, work both ways, and that students, when they take a class with us, it transfer to that.

But that wasn't the whole point of one of the points of House Bill one back in 1997, when the system was created to make sure there was a seamless pathway of transfer.

That's right.

And, you know, at the time is a really controversial piece of legislation moving, the community colleges out from underneath UK.

But is the right piece of public policy now that we're off and we're growing.

And then in House Bill 610 back in 2010 solidified that law.

But every once in a while we find a course here, of course there where we have to get our provost, an academic teams together to say what's what's going on here.

We got to make sure that this transfer, we're doing such a great job of that now.

Almost 30 years.

I mean, if you think about that, which is just now, it just now dawned on me, you know, the 2027, next year, it will be 30 years since the advent of the KCS system.

That's right.

And we have reason to celebrate not just with our enrollment and our affordability, etc., but for our teammates.

We have a lot of employees that actually started with Duke, and they've been with us for the entire 30 year journey, and we want to celebrate our past and also be ready for the future as we implement new reforms that will affect us.

And also new expectations for higher ed.

But we're going to take a moment to celebrate, TC's 30 years in existence.

We know our graduation rate.

Listen to this.

Used to be 41st in the nation.

Now we ranked number four in all.

The arrows are going in the right direction.

So we have a lot to celebrate at our 16 community technical colleges.

Yes.

And almost 71 campuses.

I understand there's 70, but there's another one.

Yeah.

So, do the House Bill five, sponsored by Representative Decker and championed in the Senate by Senator Storm.

We're actually going to be doing something that I think some of the national models that we're going to build a dedicated CTCs campus, which will be attached to be CTC at the Danville North Point Correctional Facility, is one of the larger prisons in Kentucky.

And long story short is that we're going to be able to have, inmates from all across the state that are in good behavior and towards the latter part of their sentencing towards that release date, if they want to and they're motivated, become students of CTCs and get job training skills on an associate's degree.

So when they leave, when they exit, they have a job ready to go.

And it says three things.

Number one, it helps fills those open jobs in Kentucky.

So there's a workforce component.

Number two, it helps reduce the crime because the number one predictor about whether or not someone commits is without their employed.

And the third thing is to save taxpayer money, because when someone's out there working, they're paying their taxes, they're providing for their family.

And we as taxpayers aren't paying for them to be incarcerated.

And we know that 95% of those inmates are going to come out.

So are they going to be successful or are they going to be recommitted behind bars?

So hopefully this is a good path.

And then that can be scaled up as the program should see.

Exactly.

So we actually anticipate starting off around 400 students, but we have the capacity to educate up to 700 at this facility.

And this is on top of what we're doing at our local jails and also one federal prison in Kentucky as well.

But you're right, 95% will be released.

And this piece of legislation doesn't affect the release states.

It affects the ability for training.

And I must say, a public thank you to the Department of Corrections for being such strong partners in this process.

One last thing.

House Bill 619 that was passed this, most recent legislative session.

What did it do?

House Bill 619 allows us to grow as an organization for the next 30 years.

And what it's going to do is going to have some governance reform.

The Board of Regents, it's going to be expanded.

There will be, organizations that represent top, industry sectors.

And Kentucky will now have a say.

So when the governor appoints from a list of their nominees, it's also going to make sure that we solidify our shared services across the system.

But also, it should be noted that 90 plus percent of what's in our reform package came from the recommendations of CTCs employees.

And so we want to say thank you for including our thoughts into this piece of legislation.

Will be implementing this over the summer into the fall.

And so for us, just like in 1997, we were created 619 on a set us up for the next 30 years.

Well, thank you, Doctor Ryan, president of CTCs, for stopping by and telling us about it.

Thank you so much.

And it's never too late to start or come back with your educational journey at CTCs.

You heard it right there.

Thank you, Doctor Gurley.

Thank you.