Chairperson Packwood and members of the Subcommittee, my name is Gary Conkling, Manager of Governmental Relations with Tektronix, and I am here today on behalf of the Oregon Community College Association, located at 1201 Court St. NE, Salem, Oregon 97301. I am here to speak in support of S.108. Passage of this legislation would help Oregon's community colleges and business and industry to respond to the job training and economic development needs of the state by: • Extending to postsecondary occupational programs the same eligibility for equipment gifts from industry that the 1981 federal tax reforms allowed on equipment gifts to university research programs. • Allowing companies that make their staff available to teach technical and occupational courses, a $100 tax credit for each course a company professional teaches---limited to five courses per year per individual professional. • Providing a $100 tax credit for each off-term or part-time job that companies provide for a faculty member from an occupational program. Community college occupational training in Oregon is, and will continue to be, highly dependent upon cooperative endeavors with business and industry. This bill would seek to further cement the partnership between the education community and business and industry. Costly acquisition and updating of equipment are necessary if business and industry are to receive employable individuals trained on "state of the art" equipment. A May, 1983 survey of Oregon community colleges by the Oregon Department of Education identified an estimated immediate equipment need of over $5 million just to maintain current occupational/ vocational programs at a minimum level and an additional estimated amount of $16 million to improve those programs to industry standard levels. Due to the tight budgetary picture Oregon is now facing, this need will continue to remain unmet...without the assistance of the private sector. Oregon's community colleges have faced severe budget reductions during the last biennium and, at best, will hold the line on further reductions during the next biennium. Yet, the community colleges have attempted to assist in Oregon's economic recovery, to the extent possible, given budgetary realities. For example: Many have directed efforts to assist the unemployed workers. The colleges are working with their local Employment 1201 Court Street N.E.. Salem, Oregon 97301. (503) 399-9912 to receive a CETA demonstration project to train 82 Small business management programs available through most of the colleges Community colleges offer vocational education courses designed to train the Furthermore, Oregon's community colleges anticipate increased demands during the next biennium to expand their role in economic development and provide training and retraining opportunities for dislocated workers through the new Job Training Partnership Act. This new program comes at a time when the colleges are projecting an enrollment increase of over 3,400 students in the next four years. S. 108 will foster further the cooperative efforts outlined above and encourage the business community to become active partners with the community colleges in working toward the revitalization of Oregon's economy: Tektronix has recognized that community colleges are providing the important According to Tom De Pue, Personnel Manager with Siltec Corporation, located is relatively new and we anticipate a major growth in the next two years. Strong support also comes from Dr. Emil Sarpa, Corporate Manager for Academic S.108 will provide: • A major incentive through the tax credits to business and industry. Assist community colleges in upgrading their equipment. • Allow faculty to be kept current on state-of-art technologies in their field. But, ultimately, the beneficiaries of this legislation would be the people: the newly dislocated worker, the disadvantaged unemployed, and workers who are in need of upgrading their skills to keep pace with new technological advances. I urge your support of this bill...it will help to further improve educational and training opportunities in Oregon. Mr. CONKLING. High technology's ability to fulfill its promises as a creater of new markets and jobs, and as a partner with traditional industries, is predicated on the availability of highly skilled human resources; in our industry, specifically electrical and electronic engineers, computer engineers and the technicians that work with those engineers. An American Electronics Association report on technical employment projections for 1983 through 1987 indicates a need for 63.1 percent more electronic technicians, 65.5 percent more electrical and electronic engineers, 115 percent more computer, particularly software, engineers, 102.5 percent more computer analysts and programers, and 107 percent additional electronic engineering technologists. Despite what one reads about mechanization, there continues to be a healthy projected need of almost 64 percent for assemblers in our plants. I think it says a lot, Senator, that today I am appearing here on behalf of both my own company, which is Oregon's largest private employer, as well as the Oregon Community College Association, which represents our extensive community college system in the State of Oregon. I think it tells you that the partnership between private industry and between community colleges exist today, and that both of us are committed to making it a better partnership in the future. My company testified earlier this year before this same subcommittee in support of S. 1194 and S. 1195, which, as you know, would expand the use of the R&D tax credit for a number of purposes, and including the purposes included in your bill, S. 108. We feel that the problems of the 4-year institutions, which are more broadly addressed in S. 1194 and S. 1195, apply to community colleges. There are too few qualified instructors and too much outdated laboratory equipment, but an abundance of interested students. There is also an abundance of possible jobs. We feel that your bill, which we support wholeheartedly, goes a long ways toward meeting those needs. Specifically, it would extend to postsecondary occupational programs the same eligibility for equipment gifts from industry that the 1981 Federal tax reforms allowed on equipment gifts to university research programs. It also would allow companies that make their staff available to teach technical and occupational courses a $100 tax credit for each course a company professional teaches, limited to five courses per year for individual professionals. And, it will provide a $100 tax credit for each off-term or part-time job the companies provide for faculty members from an occupational program. In the interest of time I will stop here, but we hope you are successful in convincing your colleagues that S. 108 is a good bill. Senator GRASSLEY. Wayne, I will go to you now and say that you follow in the tradition of the Kirkwood Community College trustees as being a strong and principled public servant. Since it was an institution founded back in 1966 or 1967, it always has been a magnet for people who are outstanding leaders in the community and are pacesetters. You continue in that tradition and your comments will be helpful to the subcommittee today. Would you proceed, please? STATEMENT OF WAYNE NEWTON, TRUSTEE, KIRKWOOD Mr. NEWTON. Thank you, Senator Grassley. I bring you greetings from our mutual friend, B. A. Jenson and Dr. Bill Stewart, from Kirkwood. Once again, as we discussed in February, we very much appreciate your efforts in this legislation, Senate bill 108, and we also offer congratulations to your wife on the accomplishment of her degree recently. Senator GRASSLEY. You watch television. And I thank you. I will tell her you said so. Mr. NEWTON. We are extremely grateful for this opportunity to present these matters. And if my full written statement can be placed in the hearing record, I will try to paraphrase this as best I can. I deeply appreciate the contributions that the two previous speakers gave us. I think it is interesting that we should have a Congressman and a member of the private sector support a somewhat public education bill, and I think that demonstrates exactly where we are at with the relationship and the cooperation that exists between the private sector and the public sector as it relates to education. The largest phenomenon in postsecondary education in our country in the era since World War II, in terms of the numbers of learners being served, is the development and growth of community colleges. And you are well aware of that. It is not strange to the State of Iowa; it is growing by leaps and bounds. And I think without a doubt we will have a very large increase at Kirkwood as well as the other schools in Iowa. Just how vital the role and the potential of community colleges is to the national interest can perhaps be illustrated by three facts: First, well over half the citizens who now enroll in college for the first time are making their start in 2year colleges. Many of these students are enrolled to earn advancement in the jobs they hold or because they need skills that will get them jobs to pay their bills so they can continue their education and improve the quality of their lives, something all of us had ought to work toward. Second, of the more than 5 million learners who enroll in credit courses and degree programs in the community colleges in the 1982-83 academic year, almost two-thirds have been taking occupational-technical courses. And, as you know, that is a very strong debate in the State of Iowa, that we remain occupational and technically oriented, which brings us to the third point: the community and technical colleges, in cooperation with local business and industry, have generated a tremendous number of what they commonly refer to as employer specific courses, programs that are tailored to meet a particular skill need or a set of related skill needs for a specific employer. The cooperative programing ranges all the way from basic communications skills to CAD-CAM programs and other high technological specialties. This brings us to the point of this hearing. The community colleges are very grateful to you, Senator Grassley, for authorship of S. 108, and the bill you originally introduced in the last Congress, which aptly reflects the national interest in what community colleges are |