I’m calling attention to the questionable leadership and planning exhibited at Green River College and the taxpayer boondoggle going on there.

They are building a beautiful new trades building across the street from the campus, state of the art for the five programs that have been operating since the college opened in the 1960s. It costs $28 million to build this building, and now the president, Eileen Ely, has decided on her own to shut down two of the programs (carpentry and auto body tech), even though the programs have full enrollments and people waiting to get in.

Two paint booths worth $100,000 each are delivered and waiting to be installed, as well as new hydraulic lifts and body straightening machines. So less than three months from when the building is to be completed and the move-in started, she wants to shut the programs down? These spaces are purpose-built for carpentry and auto bodywork and won’t be easily re-configured without major expense, or sit empty. What kind of planning is that?

We spend a ton of money on higher education, and the bulk of it goes to turning out more white-collar workers. How much goes to helping people learn marketable skills who aren’t interested in working in an office? Is it too much to ask for a few programs for normal, hard-working people that want a decent life?

Several of the students are trying to find a skill set and occupation that will welcome people with a strike or two against them. Should society go out of its way to encourage this kind of effort?

Finally, what say are the politicians in Auburn, Kent, Enumclaw and Federal Way having in this decision, or the process that made it? They talk endlessly about income inequality, the need to raise wages, and here is a place where the normal person can improve their lot in life by learning hard, income-earning skills.

I hope some of them will start asking a few questions about how this decision was made and what needs to be done to reverse it.

– Dana Holgate