KCTCS President Ryan Quarles
By Bob Vlach
Woodford Sun Staff
Kentucky Community and Technical College System (KCTCS) just completed an academic year in which its 16 community and technical colleges set record highs in graduates (over 25,500), had a graduation rate of over 50 percent, and 74 percent of its students graduated debt-free, its President Ryan Quarles told the Sun.
With over 80 percent of its students receiving financial aid, “We’re going to help find a financial path for you,” he said, adding, “You hear this narrative about the high cost of higher education – that simply isn’t the case in our community colleges.”
Quarles credited KCTCS faculty and staff for its all-time high graduation rate, which he noted is higher than the national graduation rate for community colleges at around 37 percent. “We went from being 43rd in the nation (in the early-2000s) to fourth in the nation,” he said.
During a 30-minute interview on Sept. 4, Quarles told the Sun that KCTCS was in the midst of “a week of large gifts,” including $2 million to support Bluegrass Community and Technical College (BCTC) and an anonymous $1 million gift in Eastern Kentucky.
“We are very proud of these gifts, and also like to remind folks that a gift at KCTCS oftentimes goes towards supporting students that need a little extra help,” he said.
That includes having food pantries at all 16 colleges and other wraparound services like mental health services that support students outside of the classroom, he added.
Quarles said KCTCS welcomes students of all backgrounds, “so sometimes additional resources are needed to get that student on a pathway toward success.” Student needs vary from college to college, he added, because each has a strong local identity.
There are about 230 KCTC employees at the system office in Versailles who provide support and services to its 16 colleges, according to Quarles, who’s been KCTCS president for more than two years. He said there’s one payroll department at the system office for nearly 4,000 employees at its 16 colleges.
“So this is an opportunity … to achieve (financial) savings, but at the same time allow our 16 colleges to operate just a little bit differently around the state,” he said. “I like to think of it like Baskin-Robbins – there’s 16 different flavors. It’s still ice cream, but we’re able to deliver it in just a little bit different way depending on the local-regional needs of each college.”
Quarles said students at those 16 colleges are typically on three pathways.
About 16,000 students transfer to public and private colleges, including Midway University, to continue their education after finishing general education classes. Other students learn a trade in a variety of technical education programs. KCTCS also provides workforce training in partnership with existing industries in Kentucky, he said.
“When you add all of that together,” said Quarles, “that’s around 200,000 Kentuckians that we educate every year,” not including its significant role in training firefighters.
Last year, KCTCS had 780 tuition-paying students who were incarcerated at 14 state prisons, jails and one federal prison, he said. House Bill 5, passed during the last legislative session of the Kentucky General Assembly, could become a national model on re-entry educational programming for inmates, he said.
Further, Quarles said a planned 50,000-plus square-foot BCTC facility on the grounds of Northpoint Training Center in Danville will offer “the same high-quality educational opportunities as you would receive if you were to drive over to Georgetown … and walk next to our campus that’s near Toyota.” The reentry program will offer second-chance employment opportunities for inmates in high-demand workforce areas like automotive repair and manufacturing, he said.
“We think (it) is going to be transformational to us,” he said, by building a qualified workforce and saving tens of thousands of dollars in costs to incarcerate inmates.
In Woodford County, adults wanting to earn their GEDs can now take those free classes in the system office, and KCTCS also welcomes local organizations like the Woodford County Chamber of Commerce to use its conference room, Quarles said.
The system office is also the voice for KCTCS when it comes to public policy-making at the state and federal levels.
“So there’s an expectation that I and my team work to advocate for us in Frankfort and Washington, D.C.,” he said.