Warner speaks at Germanna

Community colleges must play an increasingly important role in training a highly skilled workforce if America is to compete with rising economic powers in the global marketplace, former Gov. Mark Warner told a crowd at Germanna Community College Thursday. 
Because Warner was scheduled to be the keynote speaker at the Democratic National Convention in Denver, his comments at Germanna were carried by the national media.
“Do you think that India is going to settle for being number two?“ Warner, who is running for U.S. Senate against another former Virginia governor, Jim Gilmore, asked a crowd in the lobby of Germanna’s Workforce Building. “I’m sure you’ve been watching the Olympics. Do you think China is going to settle for a silver?“ 
Warner said that because of global competition, American youth can no longer expect to earn enough to live comfortably with only a high school degree.
He said affordable education and training provided by community colleges like Germanna will be one of the keys to the kind of quality of life young Americans experience in coming years and also could play a role in the development of new technologies, including alternative energy sources, that are necessary for the U.S. to remain an economic superpower.
Tuition at community colleges costs about one-third as much as it does at four-year schools, and Warner said Americans need to start thinking in terms of using community colleges as a bridge to even the most prestigious schools. That kind of approach, he said, would make it possible for America to cast a wider net in developing a skilled workforce that will maintain a high quality of life for all Americans.