An exploration of advantages associated with stable funding for state supported workforce education as an impetus for change in Mississippi's funding of workforce education.

摘要

The most valuable asset of any state and community is its human capital. Workforce education is a viable way to build that capital. Not only is the community college the place that is most often the best "resourced" to undertake workforce education, but also it is the "expected" place for workforce education to take place. In Mississippi, transition of the funding source for workforce education that is administered by the community colleges from the state general fund to a stable funding source will isolate the source from numerous factors that can result in a reduction of funds. Nationally, the trend is a move away from general fund appropriations towards stable, inflationary funding sources for workforce education. Knowing this is the national trend, one may ask the remaining question: what advantages can be realized as a result of deployment of stable funding for workforce education?;This study employs a quasi-experimental research design to investigate the question posed in the preceding paragraph. The research design is quantitative and explores a set of five pre-determined economic indicators that illustrate the level of advantage, or lack thereof, that states implementing a stable source of workforce funding have over those without such funding mechanisms. Once collected, the data for each indicator were sorted into two groups based on the funding mechanism associated with the respective state, and statistical analysis was performed in order to determine any significant differences between the two groups.;The results of the study are based on a review of the conclusions for each of the indicators studied and on the review of the literature. While there do appear to be quantitative differences among those states that employ stable funding sources for workforce education and those that do not, the analysis does not suggest causal evidence that there are advantages gained by one group over the other. However, the review of the literature strongly suggests that there are advantages linked to implementation of stable funding sources for workforce education and it is these advantages that continue to promote the national movement towards stable funding sources for workforce education.