Below are the remarks Dr. Glenn DuBois, chancellor of Virginia’s Community Colleges, gave Tuesday, January 24, 2012 to the Senate Finance Subcommittee on Education. Dr. DuBois was asked to talk to the committee about the Governor’s introduced budget bill and how it bodes for Virginia’s Community Colleges. Mr. Chairman; members of the committee; ladies and [...]

Virginia’s Community College’s workforce development could receive an additional $2 million through the proposed “The Greatest Opportunity: Jobs and Economic Development Legislative Agenda.” The funds will be added to the  $3 million appointed for the first time  last year. Gov. Bob McDonnell stated that with more than 260,000 Virginians out of a work, job creation [...]

In an effort to cut spending and increase efficiency, Gov. Bob McDonnell has unveiled a plan to reconstruct the Virginia state government. As part of this plan many Virginia boards and commissions will be merged to consolidate both time and energy. In a statement, McDonnell said: “I have taken care to focus the Commonwealth’s government [...]

Virginia’s Community Colleges received major news yesterday when the Department of Labor announced the distribution of $500 million in federal funds to community colleges nationwide – with Virginia a major “winner.” With Tidewater Community College as the coordinating college, a consortium of all 23 Virginia Community Colleges received the second-highest grant amount of $24.1 million and [...]

The redesign of developmental math courses grabbed national headlines this week as the Chronicle of Higher Education focused on the efforts of Virginia’s Community Colleges to better meet the needs of under-prepared students. The article quotes Chancellor DuBois as warning of his “perfect storm” as he initiated the reengineering process to allow the system to “become smarter in [...]

“Danville’s One Stop Center has been a great resource for me,” Connie Moore told visitors Delegate Danny Marshall, Senator William Stanley and Delegate Don Merricks during their tour of Danville’s One Stop Workforce Center on Tuesday. A single mother who had lost her job to company downsizing, she expressed her gratitude for the financial and educational assistance she had [...]

Yesterday, members of the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia (SCHEV) announced their selection of VCCS Vice Chancellor for Workforce Development, Peter Blake, as the new interim executive director. Blake previously served at SCHEV as an associate director until 1999. He also served as secretary of education in Gov. Mark R. Warner’s administration before joining [...]

U. S. Senators Mark Warner and Saxby Chambliss addressed hundreds of businesspeople at a Virginia Chamber of Commerce event in Richmond yesterday. Representing the “Gang of Six,” named for the six members of a commission dedicated to tackling the nation’s increasing debt and deficit, the senators shared that there are tough decisions ahead and sacrifices to be [...]

The General Assembly finished its work yesterday, a day later than scheduled. Included for Virginia’s community colleges over and above what the Governor had recommended in his introduced budget are: An additional $9.92 million from the general fund in FY 2012  to support the goals of the Governor’s Higher Education Commission of access, affordability, quality [...]

On February 9th, 2011 I had the chance to go to Richmond and visit the General Assembly, something you just don’t experience every day. As a student of Patrick Henry Community College, the Virginia state legislators’ decisions for funding the Virginia Community College System has a lot to do with me. I felt it was [...]