Kingsport's higher education efforts to be showcased at national education forum

KINGSPORT, Tenn. - Kingsport is once again being recognized on a national level for its superb higher education initiatives.

Kingsport Area Chamber of Commerce President & CEO Miles Burdine has been asked to represent Kingsport and showcase the city’s incredible efforts to provide higher education opportunities for its residents, most notably the creation of the Kingsport Academic Village and the Educate & Grow program.

Burdine will highlight the impact of these important initiatives at the Education Commission of the States (ECS) 2009 National Forum on Education Policy.

The event will be held Wednesday, July 8 to Friday, July 10 at the Sheraton Downtown Hotel in Nashville, Tenn.

The forum spotlighting Kingsport’s higher education efforts is entitled “Making Opportunities Affordable in an Era of Constrained Resources” and will take place Thursday, July 9 from 3 to 5 p.m.

“It’s truly an incredible honor to represent Kingsport at this national event that highlights higher educational efforts that are making a huge impact across the U.S.,” Burdine said. “It’s quite amazing what Kingsport has accomplished in the last few years in terms of providing higher educational opportunities to its residents, young people and employees of Kingsport businesses. And now other cities and academic entities across the nation are recognizing what we have done and are asking us to share this amazing story.”

Burdine will be joined on the panel by a group of nationally-renowned educational leaders and some of the nation’s top education policy experts, including: Suzanne Walsh, senior program director for the Lumina Foundation for Education, Indiana; Dennis Jones, president of the National Center for Higher Education Management Systems, Colorado; John Morgan, Tennessee deputy governor; Shirley Raines, president of the University of Memphis, Tennessee; and David Wright, associate executive director of policy, planning and research of the Tennessee Higher Education Commission.

Coordinated by the Tennessee Higher Education Commission, the session will focus on how education can be an engine to ignite the economy.

According to the ECS, Tennessee ranks 44th nationally in the percentage of its working-age adults with an associate's degree or higher and has significant gaps in participation by geographic area and student socioeconomic status, race/ethnicity and age.

Degree productivity has consistently lagged as state support per student has waxed and waned across economic cycles. Increased degree attainment became the cornerstone of Tennessee's participation in Making Opportunity Affordable (MOA), a multi-state, multi-year initiative funded by Lumina Foundation for Education to increase the degree productivity of state higher education systems.

A recent policy audit highlighted several areas in which post secondary policies lack alignment with the productivity agenda of MOA. Dennis Jones, who led the policy audit, will facilitate a conversation involving representatives of various stakeholders to examine how campuses, localities, the business community and state policymakers frame the problem and view their roles in contributing to solutions.

“The recognition that Kingsport and Sullivan County continue to receive is a testament to the belief that the city and Northeast State Community College have discovered the answer to successful economic development. The answer is improving the educational level of its citizens,” Northeast State Community College President Dr. Bill Locke said.

“This community is most grateful to Mayor Dennis Phillips, the Kingsport Board of Mayor and Aldermen, Kingsport Times-News Publisher Keith Wilson and Northeast State President Dr. Bill Locke for their outstanding leadership and extraordinary vision in making Kingsport’s higher education efforts become a living reality,” Burdine said.

Kingsport has already garnered national acclaim for its innovative higher education initiatives and has received global media coverage for its Educate and Grow program.

The city is currently one of 16 finalists nationwide for the Innovations in American Governance Award from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.

The six winners will be announced in September, with the top three finishes receiving $100,000 each, and the next three $50,000 each.

“Kingsport’s Academic Village and its many lifelong centers of learning will have not only have an enormous economic impact on this community but, more importantly, will have a lasting and profound influence on the lives of those who are now more easily able to get their college degrees,” Burdine added. “Truly what Kingsport continues to do in terms of its unending support for higher education will be felt for generations to come.”

Kingsport’s Academic Village includes the Regional Center for Applied Technology, which was the first satellite location in downtown Kingsport for Northeast State Community College, the Regional Center for Health Professions, Kingsport Higher Education Center, Regional Center for Advanced Manufacturing and the Pal Barger School of Automotive Technology.

Managed by Northeast State Community College, the Kingsport Higher Education Center provides a number of four-year degrees from Carson-Newman College, King College, Lincoln Memorial University and the University of Tennessee.

The Educate and Grow program was created in 2001 by the city of Kingsport and provides free tuition assistance from the city and Sullivan County for two years at Northeast State Community College.

The Education Commission of the States (ECS) is the only nationwide, nonpartisan interstate compact devoted to education. ECS helps governors, legislators, state education officials and others identify, develop and implement public policies to improve student learning at all levels. A nonprofit organization, ECS was formed in 1965 and is located in Denver, Colorado.

For more information on the Education Commission of the States or its 2009 National Forum on Education Policy, go to www.ecs.org.

The Kingsport Area Chamber of Commerce is a private, non-profit business organization comprised of nearly 1,000 members. The Kingsport Chamber’s mission is to utilize resources and focus efforts on enhancing a strong and viable business environment for the Kingsport area. The Kingsport Chamber has been accredited by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce for 25 years.

For more information on the Kingsport Chamber, call 423-392-8800 or visit www.KingsportChamber.org.

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