Posted on March 3, 2008

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Wal-Mart Foundation Awards $2.5 Million to Support Rural Community Colleges

The Washington, D.C.-based American Association of Community Colleges has announced a two-year, $2.5 million grant from the Wal-Mart Foundation in Bentonville, Arkansas, for an initiative that aims to spur economic development by creating partnerships serving resource-poor and rural regions.

The grant to the Building Better Communities through Regional Economic Development Partnerships initiative will support the efforts of twenty largely rural community colleges across the country to develop regional approaches to adult postsecondary education and workforce and economic development. AACC will partner with the D.C.-based National Center on Education and the Economy to identify the pilot schools, with the participating colleges to be announced in early September.

Mitigating the challenges confronting underresourced rural community colleges is an expanding focus for AACC, which represents more than eight hundred rural institutions. "Two-thirds of our membership represents rural colleges, and these institutions are critical to whether their communities are vital 'players' in a global economy or just bystanders on the road to a competitive future," said AACC president George R. Boggs. "Our association has taken a number of steps to support these colleges, but this new initiative provides the impetus to make community colleges an economic engine in fueling regional prosperity."

“Wal-Mart Foundation Donates $2.5 Million to Support Community Colleges.” American Association of Community Colleges Press Release 2/25/08.

Primary Subject: Community Improvement/Development
Secondary Subject(s): Higher Education
Location(s): Arizona, Bentonville, Washington, DC

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