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In order to try and achieve President Obama’s goal of leading the world in the field of higher education by the year 2020, policy, White House will see prominent business, philanthropy and higher education leaders meeting to focus on and discuss issues related to community colleges and determine how these colleges fit into the plan.

Hosted by Jill Biden, wife of Joe Biden, our Vice President and instructor at a community college for the past 17 years, this community college summit will address all issues that hinder education growth.

White House’s Domestic Policy Council director Melody Barnes, in a preview summit conference call said that community colleges will benefit from reward, recognition and inspiration through outstanding achievements through the $1 million Aspen Prize for Community College Excellence.

Rising stars and top performers at the community colleges will be awarded this prize starting in 2011 fall. Those who show exceptional results, workforce success and completion rates will be awarded with recognition and prize. This will ensure that measures taken towards this are of high quality and consistent and assessment benchmarks are clear.

JP Morgan Chase and Bank of America charitable foundations and the Lumina Foundation, Joyce Foundation and Aspen Institute will be partners in this prize. A great example of the commitment of the administration to work in close quarters with philanthropic and private sector willing to support community colleges, Ms.Barnes pointed out the generous $34.8 million competitive grant by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

The unveiling of “Skills for America’s Future” program on Monday was a step further towards the effective business-education concept. This program links community colleges with top companies. This in turn helps maximize development of workforce by building a network nationwide. This initiative is backed by companies such as Accenture, McDonald’s and Gap Inc.

Barnes said that the key to an educated workforce is in strengthening the system of community colleges. These colleges must be able to provide innovative and competitive tools to mid-career workers to face the stiff global economic challenge.

Towards this endeavor, the administration is committed to building strong partnerships and obtaining work-site education support with corporations and businesses. Administration also plans to promote credit transfer to other institutions and expansion of courses apart from improving adult education and developmental education. Students will be helped with staying in school and in planning their careers through personalized services.

Arne Duncan, the Secretary of Education is expected to participate in this summit. Other prominent personalities include Mike Mullen, the Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman, Hilda Solis, US Labor Secretary, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation trustee and co-chair Melinda Gates, Presidents of Michigan and Florida community colleges, community college graduates and current students.

Hope this summit gets to the bottom of various issues such as college transition, access and readiness. More such summits are required to project issues in various aspects of higher education if we want our nation to stand up on its feet once again and move forward with confidence to take over the world stage once again.