As more Americans figure out that a four-year college degree is too costly and delivers too little value, community colleges are receiving more attention. They focus on workplace skills and (mostly) eschew the kind of ideological blather that so infects most four-year institutions.

North Carolina has just brought in a new president for its community-college system, Jeff Cox, and in today’s Martin Center article, Shannon Watkins talks with him.

Regarding the need to have a workforce that’s ready for the wide array of jobs that are being created in the state, Cox says, “All of these businesses and industries that are expanding their operations, setting up shop here in North Carolina, are bringing in thousands and thousands of jobs. Almost all these jobs require some sort of post-secondary credential. Most of them are not four-year degrees, or master’s degrees, or higher-level degrees, but almost all of them require some sort of post-secondary degree. This is the heart of what the community colleges do across our great state. We’re in every community across the state, we’re within a 30-minute drive to any potential student, but also to every potential business or industry looking for a partner to help them meet their workforce talent pipeline.”

One of the major problems in North Carolina (and all other states) is that many young people graduate from high school with pathetically weak academic skills — that’s public “education” for you. Asked how he deals with that, Cox responded: “[O]ne of the services that we provide for the universities is we work with those students and help them become better students so that if they complete that associate’s degree, there’s a higher likelihood of success for them when they transfer on to the university.”