The grant, announced this week by U.S. Rep. Denny Rehberg, R-Mont., will be used to provide training at the certificate and associate degree level in nursing, information technology, highway construction training, dental assisting technology, business, early childhood education and elementary education.
“If you look at highway construction training, which is a one-year program, between 1999 and 2006 we had 204 students complete the course, and 165 - that's 81 percent - placed in jobs,” Peregoy said. “Their average starting wages totaled $5,187,500, and economists have long recognized that a dollar turns over four to seven times before leaving an area - which means their salaries contributed between
That's a great return on the federal grant, which comes through the Native American Career and Technical Education Program, Peregoy said.
“Nursing is even more impressive,” Peregoy added. “In that eight-year period, we've put 216 nurses in jobs, virtually all of them in Montana, and in 2006 the average starting wage was $55,000.”
That, he said, translated into between $38 million and $67 million being pumped into local economies.
The grants, Peregoy noted, help educate both Indian and non-Indian students. Twenty-two of the 28 graduates in the 2006 highway training program were enrolled tribal members, he said, while two-thirds of the nursing graduates over the last eight years were non-tribal.
“It's a demonstrable rate of return on the investment,” Peregoy said.
The money pays salaries of both instructors and employees in SKC's career center.
“These are positions we've had in the past through institutional or grant monies,” Peregoy said. “We've strengthened and revitalized curricula to satisfy the funding agency. Congress has never funded tribal colleges to the maximum allowed, and we really are dependent on these federal grants.”
“This is a great recognition of the efforts of the Salish Kootenai College,” Rehberg said. “Every student in Montana deserves access to the education and training needed to go into a skilled profession. These types of grants allow Montana schools to get new programs up and running and to build upon existing programs.”
Reporter Vince Devlin can be reached at (406) 319-2117 or at vdevlin@missoulian.com.
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