Thank you Senator Portman for your leadership within higher education and career and technical education. Your authorship of the bipartisan JOBS Act is crucial to helping equip people with the skills that are needed for today’s in-demand jobs.

Here in Southern Ohio we are facing a skills gap, and it’s holding back our economy from reaching its full potential. I hear regularly from employers in logistics, transportation, manufacturing, health care and information technology that they have jobs available and no one to fill them. The JOBS Act will help to close that gap and make students at Southern State Community College in shorter-term technical programs eligible for federal Pell Grants. These are currently reserved only for students in traditional college programs.

Standing up a program that does not qualify for financial aid is equally problematic for our college. When students can’t pay for a program, they don’t enroll, and soon that very opportunity disappears in our college.

I join all of my colleague community college presidents in urging Congress to pass Portman’s JOBS Act.

Sincerely,

Kevin Boys, Ed.D.

President

Southern State Community College