TJC hosts summit with community college leaders and congressmen

TYLER — Tyler Junior College is hosting a summit with legislators on ways to implement programs to create a smooth transition after graduation. According to our news partner KETK, Tuesday was the reception for all 50 presidents from every community college in Texas to talk with the U.S. representatives who are in the House Education and Workforce Committee. Community college leaders want to see creativity and innovation take place on their behalf in Congress.

“We’re excited about the opportunities and the dialog that we can have between legislative champions and leaders of community colleges,” said Juan Mejia, TJC president .

On Wednesday, the legislative summit will begin with a dialogue on how to bring more money in for programs that will tie directly to jobs in their area.

“It’s about, how do we align funding streams that help us do rapid get programs, so that we can have programs ready as businesses are selecting where to make their home based, then they can hopefully select the East Texas region, so that we can then have again cash flow and multiplier effect businesses moving here,” said Mejia.

Congressman Moran (R – TX) is the only Texas representative on the House Education and Workforce Committee. He said he wants to represent Texas and bring their issues to the table in D.C.

Moran added that he wants to build on past legislation that did not make it to the president’s desk.

“We’re going to be talking about some of the failures of the federal government with the FAFSA and what are we going to be doing with the College Cost Reduction Act,” Moran said.

One of the bill’s that will be discussed is the Workforce Innovation and Opportunities Act. The bill failed to pass the Senate this summer.

“What we want to make sure is that we’re investing in the right place, that we have the right accountability, right transparency, so that we are not providing money where there’s no return on that investment,” Moran said.

These institutions are vital to East Texas community and economy.

“There’s, again, a direct correlation between an educated population and world class companies. We’re fortunate that we live in this community and it’s just working on kind of getting the money to kind of take that innovation to the next level,” Mejia said.

Policy conversations will happen more in depth tomorrow morning behind closed doors at the summit.