Bob Wise Talks About His Work As Co Chair On The Digital Learning Council to Forest Of The Rain Productions--The Journey Begins Internet Radio

Bob Wise is president of the Alliance for Excellent Education and former governor of West Virginia. He currently co-chairs the Digital Learning Council with Jeb Bush, former governor of Florida. Governor Wise also chairs the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards.

Under Governor Wise’s leadership, the Alliance continues to build its reputation as a respected authority on high school policy by advocating for reform in America’s secondary education system and working to ensure that all students graduate from high school prepared for college, careers, and to be contributing members of society.

Since joining the Alliance in February 2005, Governor Wise has become a sought-after speaker and advisor on education issues. He has delivered keynote addresses at high-level functions to core groups of the education community, state and federal government entities, as well as business, philanthropic, civil rights, and community organizations—all with a stake in education reform. Governor Wise has also advised the U.S. Department of Education, White House Transition Team, and frequently testifies before the U.S. Congress.

Governor Wise has appeared on national television and radio programs such as Lou Dobbs Tonight (CNN), the Charlie Rose Show (PBS), PBS NewsHour, the Diane Rehm Show (NPR), and Washington Journal (C-SPAN). He has also been featured in publications such as Newsweek, U.S. News and World Report, Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Philadelphia Inquirer, and Charlotte Observer, among others. He is author of the book Raising the Grade: How High School Reform Can Save Our Youth And Our Nation.

As governor of West Virginia from 2001 to 2005, he fought for and signed legislation to fund the PROMISE Scholarship program, which has helped thousands of West Virginia high school graduates continue their education in the Mountain State. Governor Wise also established a character education curriculum in all state schools and created the Governor’s Helpline for Safer Schools. During his administration, West Virginia saw a significant increase in the number of students completing high school and entering college.

In 2001, Governor Wise proposed salary bonuses for teachers who achieve National Board certification. The proposal was passed and, as a result, helped triple the rate of certified teachers in the state. Additionally, Education Week’s “Quality Counts 2004” report gave West Virginia the highest cumulative grade out of all fifty states. As governor, he was also the first West Virginian to chair the Southern Governors’ Association.

From 1983 to 2001, Governor Wise served in the U.S. House of Representatives representing the 2nd District of West Virginia. During his tenure, he worked aggressively to preserve federal financial aid for students to attend college and served as a member on the House Education and Labor Committee. For several terms, he was a member of the Democratic Party Leadership team as a regional whip and as a whip-at-large. Committee assignments during these eighteen years included Transportation and Infrastructure, Government Reform and Organization, and Budget. Governor Wise’s notable congressional accomplishments include the Chemical Right to Know legislation, the Wise Amendment to the Clean Air Act, and the first-ever federal Mental Health Parity legislation.

Governor Wise serves on several boards, committees, and commissions including the Public Education Network’s board of directors, the Springboard Project Commission, the board of trustees of America’s Promise, and the steering committee for the Coalition for Student Achievement. He is an advisory committee member for a number of organizations, including the Campaign for Educational Equity, Editorial Projects in Education, the Bay Area Coalition for Equitable Schools, and the National High School Center, which is funded by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Elementary and Secondary Education and Office of Special Education Programs and housed at the American Institutes for Research. He also serves on the board of advisers for the Moffitt Cancer Center and the board of directors of C-Change, which works to eliminate cancer as a major public health risk at the earliest possible time.

Governor Wise earned a bachelor’s degree from Duke University and a JD from Tulane University School of Law. He has a black belt in Tae Kwon Do. He and his wife Sandy live in Washington, DC with their two children

Questions Confronting Community Colleges

Written by
Mike Robinson

The landscape in higher education has transformed and from its conversion a highly competitive and innovative environment is forging. In this new environment, public community colleges are facing a myriad of social and economic factors that for many impeded their ongoing mission to provide comprehensive educational opportunities to their community. The need, expectation, and capability of postsecondary education to provide a product of quality, accessibility and affordability is anticipated to grow dramatically over the next decade.

The demands for higher education are greater than ever before among the citizenry and as a result the pursuit of postsecondary education is no longer institutionally driven, but is now both economically and market driven, primarily as a result of increase global competition impacting the economies of all nations (Pusser, Breneman, Gansneder, Kohl, Levin, Milam, & Turner, 2007). The question confronting community college leaders today is can they compete effectively in the heavily competitive market of higher education? And if so, what strategies have they implemented to increase and sustain their position as a provider of quality postsecondary education?

Levin (2001) suggested community colleges are impacted by the affects of globalization in the domains of economic, cultural and technological areas. He believes the most significant of the three domains as it relates to the landscape of community colleges is the economic domain. In this area community colleges face risk of allocation reductions and increase regulations or policy initiates whenever the economic stability of their state is threaten by global forces. Bailey (2002) identified seven factors challenging the role of community colleges and their ability to provide services to a demanding population of learners need for higher education in the 21 century. Two of those factors identified by Bailey were globalization and the growth and for-profit institutions. Globalization is the involvement of a growing worldwide interdependence of resources, supplies, product markets, and business competition (Schermerhorn, Hunt & Osborn, 2000).

Friedman (2005) in his book, The World is Flat suggested America’s place in the global economy is not secure and if America hopes to be a competitive nation it must aspire to send every citizen to college. A sizable task when no more than 30 percent of the adult population have a bachelor’s degree (Gallagher, 2005). Intellectual prowess will be the new currency throughout the globe, as it is expected over the next twenty years more than 12 million jobs in America will require postsecondary education (Pusser, et. al, 2005). Increase job creation will therefore precipitate a need for postsecondary as a necessity, the expectation that of the 12 million jobs to developed over the next twenty years a much as 60 percent will require some form of postsecondary training or experience (Gallagher, 2005).

In the context of higher education, globalization is a process of opening closed or semi-closed and expanding markets for educational services (Douglass, 2005).The affect of globalization on higher education according to Levin (2001) as cited in Townsend and Twombly has required community colleges respond to globalization by situating themselves closer to the marketplace.