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CHATTANOOGA 2.0Chattanooga 2.0, a report released in December, painted a sobering picture of local public school performance and its failure to produce graduates qualified to hold the jobs arriving in Hamilton County.The report, commissioned by the Benwood Foundation, the Chattanooga Area Chamber of Commerce, the Hamilton County Department of Education and the Public Education Foundation, said 83 percent of the jobs coming to Chattanooga paying a livable wage of $35,000 will require some sort of post-high school education in the next couple of years. Now only 35 percent of local public high school graduates earn any postsecondary credentials within six years, making them unqualified for these jobs.
The Tennessee Higher Education Commission is asking lawmakers to expand a $10 million grant program that paired employers with colleges to develop academic programs tailored to the needs of local job markets.
In a report released Wednesday, the commission said the Labor Education Alignment Program, which doled out the grant funding to 12 different coalitions late in 2014, had shown “major growth and success in just the first year of implementation.”
But the commission urged lawmakers to provide added funding and attention during the upcoming legislative session.
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