Governor Ralph Northam’s Get Skilled, Get a Job, Give Back (G3) program passed the Virginia House of Delegates with near-unanimous support Thursday. HB2204 establishes a fund and program to provide free community college to low and middle-income students taking community college degrees in high-demand fields. The program is one of Northam’s signature policy proposals that he first called for in his campaign for governor, according to his January 2018 address to the Joint Assembly.
“G3 – Get a Skill, Get a Job, Give Back – is a program I have championed since before I became Governor,” Northam said in a December 2020 announcement. “It helps people get job skills training in high-need fields, through our community colleges. Even more importantly, it provides the financial aid necessary to help people get that training.”
Northam added, “G3 will provide free community college for certain low- and middle-income Virginians who enroll at our two-year colleges in pathways that lead to a high-demand job. These pathways include the skilled trades, healthcare, technology, early childhood, and public safety. For those folks who have seen their jobs disappear during this pandemic, G3 could be a lifeline.”
In December 2019, Northam announced $145 million allotted to the program in his proposed budget. But the initiative was unallotted from the budget in April 2020 amid concerns over how COVID-19 would affect Virginia’s economy and budget needs. In December 2020, Northam’s latest proposed budget called for partially re-funding the program with $36 million. House of Delegates Speaker Eileen Filler-Corn (D-Fairfax) filed the 2021 bill, HB2204, to create the G3 program. Only seven Republicans voted against the bill, which passed with 93 votes. The bill still requires approval in the Senate.
The bill requires the Virginia Board of Workforce Development to work with other government entities to make yearly recommendations about which fields should be eligible to be included in the “high-demand fields.”
To qualify, students must be enrolled for at least six credit hours of courses in a given field, and must have applied for other relevant federal or state financial aid. The courses do not have to be for credit. Students must earn no more than 400 percent above the federal poverty level, which works out to just over $51,000 a year (4 x $12,760 for individuals in 2020).
“This session, we’ve had a lot of really good bills introduced by my colleagues,” Delegate Mark Keam (D-Fairfax) said in Wednesday’s House session. “This one, HB2204, is absolutely the best bill in this session.”
He said that in the wake of COVID-19, some jobs will have disappeared, and the G3 program is a way to help people get back into the workforce while also diversifying the economy.
“It’s simply a way to incentivize those Virginians who are unable to find good jobs without certain skills that they need to be able to go back to school in the two-year programs that we have,” Keam said.
“The G3 jobs training program will equip Virginians with skills to get back in the workforce and give back to their communities through tuition free community college in fast growing industries,” Filler-Corn tweeted on Thursday.
On Saturday, she tweeted, “Grateful to have received the bipartisan support of my colleagues for this critical jobs training legislation that will provide free community college programs in fast growing sectors to middle and low income Virginians.”
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Eric Burk is a reporter at The Virginia Star and the Star News Digital Network. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Autoshop Class” by the US Department of Education. CC BY 2.0.
