Virginia community colleges brief appropriations subcommittee; request expanded FastForward and CTE investments

The chancellor of the Virginia Community College System told the appropriations subcommittee the system — 23 colleges statewide — has recovered enrollment and is focused on expanding career and technical training and dual-enrollment pathways. He asked the committee to support increases to FastForward and to invest in career and technical education (CTE) across regions.

The chancellor described FastForward as a pay-for-performance program with a strong return on investment and said an amendment backed by the subcommittee would raise the FastForward Fund by $16,200,000 in FY27 and $2,600,000 in FY28 to bring the program to $40,000,000 per year. He said that increase would yield an estimated 8,250 additional short-term credential completers annually with an average wage gain of about 63% for completers.

He also outlined a proposed $30,000,000 investment in career and technical education aimed at growing programs in high-demand sectors. The chancellor gave examples of specific proposed investments and expected results: a $2,900,000 start-up plus $2,600,000 ongoing package to add roughly 200 additional RNs statewide; a $620,000 start-up and $1,800,000 ongoing to double dental hygiene output at four colleges; a $1,300,000 start-up for diesel technology with $550,000 ongoing to add roughly 60 diesel technicians per year; and $500,000 start-up with $300,000 ongoing to expand industrial maintenance programs. He also cited industry contributions including a $2,000,000 investment from Sentara and $1,000,000 from Newport News Shipbuilding; amounts from Carilion and Delta Dental were noted but not specified in the transcript.

On dual enrollment, the chancellor said the system now provides the uniform certificate of general studies to school divisions at no cost, but many dual-enrollment courses still have costs, and he requested a study to examine further investment to expand no-cost dual enrollment opportunities statewide.

During Q&A, Delegate Morfield raised concerns about how the system connects smaller, rural employers to colleges. The chancellor said the system convenes statewide sector summits in skilled trades, health care and information technology and that many smaller firms attend those sector-focused meetings.

Committee members thanked the chancellor for the presentation; no formal action was taken on the requests during the subcommittee meeting.