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Kingsport takes education initiative to Harvard

KINGSPORT — Mayor Dennis Phillips and Northeast State Technical Community College President Bill Locke presented their case Wednesday afternoon on why Kingsport should receive a national award for governance from Harvard University.

Kingsport is among 16 finalists competing for Innovations in American Governance Awards from the Ash Institute for Democratic Governance and Innovation competition at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard.

To be in the running for the award, Kingsport submitted information on the higher education initiatives the city has taken on over the past decade to help revitalize the city’s economic and educational base.

“You simply can’t get a job today with a high school education in the businesses and industries we’re trying to recruit,” Locke said. “Our whole focus is to get (businesses) a work force, so we can entice people to come and entice existing businesses to expand.

“When people pull us up on the Internet, they’ll say ‘Look at what they’re doing with education. They’ve got a qualified work force and a plan to keep it.’”

The Model City went up against more than 600 applicants during the initial round. The field was then narrowed to 50 semifinalists earlier this month, then winnowed to 16. Programs represent innovations at the city, county, state and federal levels of government and include such issues as child welfare reform, health insurance, auto insurance fraud and education.

Six winners will be announced in September. The top three finishers each receive $100,000, and the next three receive $50,000 each.

On Wednesday, Phillips and Locke made a presentation to the Ash Institute’s National Selection Committee at Harvard, summarizing the city’s education endeavors over the past decade and answering questions from committee members.

Phillips summarized the history behind Kingsport’s education initiatives, beginning with two ideas that came out of a 1999 economic development summit in 1999 — the Educate and Grow scholarship program and the creation of the Regional Center for Applied Technology (RCAT).

The Educate and Grow program provides tuition assistance for qualifying students graduating from area high schools, while the RCAT is a downtown satellite location for Northeast State.

From there, Kingsport expanded its higher education goals with the creation of an Academic Village:

•The Regional Center for Health Professions (which houses all of Northeast State’s medical programs).

•The Kingsport Center for Higher Education (a facility where students can earn a four-year degree from a variety of colleges and universities).

•The Regional Center for Advanced Manufacturing (led by Eastman Chemical Co. and Domtar) and the Pal Barger School of Automotive Technology.

“ We know we have something good going on here,” Locke said.

Over the past decade, the city has gone from a tuition assistance program to an Academic Village in downtown Kingsport, where an estimated 2,500 students will be attending classes daily once complete.

“The downtown has become alive. Property values have increased tremendously. Years before they were stagnant and not growing whatsoever,” Phillips said.

When asked to what extent Northeast State’s curriculum changes were responsible for the health care jobs in the region, Locke said the college began offering health care classes about 12 years ago at the request of some of the local hospitals.

Reached by phone Wednesday afternoon, Phillips said he felt good about the presentation.

“I feel great about the panel and their response. I think they all have told us they were impressed with what we’re doing,” Phillips said, noting the award is a much bigger deal than he originally thought.

“This gets the attention of the United States, if not the world,” Phillips said. “There are 16 tough (competitors), but I feel ours is better than the others.”