One to One with Bill Goodman:
Brad Cowgill
premiered January 6, 2008
Bill Goodman talks with Brad Cowgill, interim president of the Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education, about the agency’s ambitious “Double the Numbers” initiative on this edition of One to One.
Double the Numbers arose from the council’s goal of increasing the level of education in Kentucky to equal or exceed the national average by 2020. That requires doubling the percentage of Kentucky residents with college degrees. The initiative, launched in October 2007, outlines five main strategies for helping those already enrolled in college to complete their degrees and encouraging high school students, GED graduates, adult learners, and transfer students to go on to postsecondary education.
In addition to improving the lives of individual students, Double the Numbers is aimed at improving the state’s economic picture, since there is a direct relationship between the percentage of people with college degrees living in an area and that area’s per capita income. National studies have shown that areas with higher percentages of college graduates also report lower unemployment, poverty, and incarceration rates.
Cowgill, a former Lexington attorney who served as state budget director under Gov. Ernie Fletcher, became interim president of the CPE in September 2007. He and Goodman also discuss some recent successes for the council, including uniting the community and technical colleges in the state to form the Kentucky Community and Technical College System.
