TOLEDO - The economy is improving, but more money must be spent to train workers for high-tech jobs, President Bush said yesterday in his first visit of the year to a state hard-hit by manufacturing losses and critical to his 2004 campaign.
Hours after his State of the Union speech, he called for $250 million for programs to train workers and match them with employers.
There's no better place to do that than the community college system
he said at Owens Community College, one of the state's fastest growing two-year schools. Owens in the last year alone has trained 18,000 workers for new jobs.
Two of them sat with Bush on stage.
Rebecca Albritton, of Bowling Green, enrolled after being laid off from a factory job. She is about to complete a program to become a computer technician and hopes to soon land a job, one she said she won't have to worry about losing.
Bush acknowledged that manufacturing slowdowns are creating a need to retrain workers. Ohio has lost thousands of jobs in manufacturing over the past few years.
In Ohio there are still troubled times he said. The manufacturing sector is sluggish at best. People are looking for work.
But he also pointed out worker shortages in technology and health care, saying the training is needed before workers can fill them.
There's no doubt things are getting better he said. The economy is changing because of technology. The key is to train people for the jobs that actually exist.
Bush praised the flexibility of community colleges for changing course offerings to give workers skills that local employers demand.
It's what we're all about
said Terry Thomas, executive director of the Ohio Association of Community Colleges, which represents 23 technical and community colleges.
But he added that there has been little funding for work force development, so any money from the government would help.
Owens has seen its enrollment increase for 26 consecutive semesters. It now has about 40,000 full- and part-time students at its campuses in Toledo and Findlay.
Amanda Rush, who studies commercial art at the school and works part-time at a deli, did not get one of the 300 invitations to see the president. She said she would like to hear him talk more about creating more high-paying jobs.
That's why I came back to school
said Rush, a 24-year-old with two children. Sometimes the government forgets about the little people.
Six Owens employees told The Blade they were fired Friday from the Center for Development and Training. Gary Dettling, Owens vice president for college advancement, would not discuss how many jobs were cut but said positions are being shifted to priority healthcare and computer training programs. The college has increased its overall number of job-training positions through the realignment process, he said.
Ohio's unemployment rate has jumped from 3.9 percent to 5.7 percent since Bush took office - the number of unemployed workers in the state was 331,000 in November. Those are numbers that Democrats plan on using during the campaign.
Protesters gathered at a union hall near the campus and set up an oversized inflatable rat with a sign around its neck that said, Where's the jobs? About 50 people marched from the hall in 10-degree weather to protest outside the campus auditorium where Bush was to speak.
Bush's trip to Ohio is expected to be the first of many election-year visits to the state, which has 20 electoral votes.
Bush won the state by just 3.5 percentage points in 2000 despite a decision by the Democrats to pull their advertising from the state a month before the election.
Bush has been to Ohio 13 times during his first term. Bush last came to Ohio Oct. 31 to raise money in Columbus for this year's election and speak on his energy proposal.
No Republican has won the White House without carrying Ohio.
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Protesters congregate outside before President Bush speaks at Owens Community College in Toledo yesterday. Hours after his State of the Union speech, Bush touted his proposal for new job-training grants channeled through community colleges at one of the s
