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Two of the highest priorities for any governor are economic competitiveness and education. Governors in many states are increasingly seeing these two priorities as intertwined. As a result, many governors are developing new initiatives in science, technology, engineering, and math education in order to compete for high-skill, high-wage jobs. Too often, however, states’ efforts to increase economic competitiveness and raise the skills of the workforce focus primarily on K-12 education or workers with advanced degrees, leaving out vast numbers of Americans in the middle who are already in the workforce but lack a college degree or credential.
The Pathways to Advancement initiative was launched by the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices (NGA Center) to help governors and their policy advisors examine options and develop strategies for expanding working adults' access to and completion of postsecondary education. In September 2003, the NGA Center issued a request for proposals for states that wanted to participate in an action learning academy to change their policies and practices related to higher education financing, program and accreditation requirements, and student aid to enable greater numbers of adults to earn postsecondary education credentials. It indicated that the states selected to participate would receive technical support from the NGA Center, FutureWorks, Inc., and experts in education, economic development, and related fields at the Pathways to Advancement policy academy, as well as a $50,000 grant for travel to the policy academy meetings, for peer-review sessions in partner states, and to help support state-specific research, evaluation, and consensus-building activities related to improving postsecondary education for working adults. Financial support for the project was provided by the Lumina Foundation for Education.
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