Tuesday, March 09, 1999
Covington hopes to lure new 2-year college
BY ANDREA TORTORA
The Cincinnati Enquirer
COVINGTON — A community college here could mean much-needed educational opportunities for Northern Kentucky's urban population and an economic spinoff that could revitalize Covington's downtown.
Employers would profit from better-trained workers. Other businesses might be lured to locate here, knowing their business — and employees — would receive support from a college just around the corner.
Before the idea can get off the ground, city and school officials say, Covington's business community needs to throw its support into the mix.
“Just about any other Kentucky community has a community college,” Covington schools Superintendent James Kemp told members of the Covington Business Council on Monday.
“And while there are some jobs which do not require a lot of post-secondary education, as we fill those spaces, the number of job opportunities for individuals with limited skills will become harder to find.”
Mr. Kemp, Holy Cross High School Principal William Goller and Covington City Commissioner J.T. Spence are pitching the community college idea to businesses and other players in the community to gather support for a project that ultimately needs an act of the General Assembly to become a reality.
Covington City Commission supports the plan and the Kentucky Technical and Community College System acknowledges Northern Kentucky is the largest area in the state without a two-year college.
“As we raise educational standards, we lose people,” Mr. Goller said. “That's where a community college comes in. If you've got a student not quite ready for a job, why not train them at the community college?”
A community college also could help residents completing their General Educational Development diploma or those students who dropped out of high school or college.
Mr. Kemp said the school system only graduates about half of students scheduled to complete 12th grade. Of those who go to college, only 30 percent receive a bachelors' degree.
Locating the community college in Covington makes it central to bus lines and the surrounding populations of Bellevue, Covington, Dayton, Ludlow and Newport.
The idea works in Maysville, Ky., where students at the community college there often move on to classes at Northern Kentucky University. The University of Kentucky operates a community college in Lexington, next to its main campus. And Northern Kentucky Technical College is starting a more formal relationship with NKU.
In all cases, the idea is the same: Work with students from where they are and push them as far as possible.
The community college also can be something Northern Kentucky can take ownership of, like Newport's aquarium and the Northern Kentucky Convention Center in Covington.
“If we're looking at trying to revitalize the area, we must look at ways to bring economic development to downtown,” Mr. Spence said.
One way that could work would be to tie the community college to development of another parking garage, much needed in a downtown that is home to a new county building and a new federal courthouse, both built on former parking lots.
Mr. Spence is working to create a 15-person task force to study the community college issue. He hopes the group can meet in March and create a proposal that can be pitched to regional authorities.
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