Pratt Community College reports $42 million annual economic impact, outlines tuition and workforce initiatives

Mike Calvert, president of Pratt Community College, gave the commission an annual update on the college’s enrollment, tuition, workforce programs and local economic impact during a Pratt County meeting. He said the college’s most recent report estimates a roughly $42 million annual economic impact in Pratt County and described steps the school is taking to attract and train local workers.

Calvert said the college is charging $39 per credit hour for Pratt County residents and $49 for students from the college’s wider service area, a statutory six-and-a-half-county region that includes Kingman, Medicine Lodge, Attica, Greensburg and St. John. “We value our Pratt County residents…we want to do the best we can to help them out, financially and provide access and opportunity,” Calvert said.

The presentation focused on three areas: affordability and student supports, workforce and career-technical education (CTE), and measures of economic contribution. Calvert highlighted an “earn-as-you-learn” scholarship that makes concurrent high-school college credits free for students who take those credits in high school and then enroll at PCC. He also described state-level CTE funding that has expanded in recent years and said the program tied to Senate Bill 155 has grown from about $8 million in 2012 to an expected roughly $36 million in the coming year.

On workforce programs, Calvert said the college has used state workforce-development dollars to start a commercial driver’s license (CDL) program without using local operating funds. He described incremental investments — buying trucks, trailers and equipment and adding a full-time instructor after the second year — and said the program has continued to grow. Calvert also discussed partnership arrangements for nursing education: PCC is hosting Barton Community College to deliver an associate-degree registered nurse (RN) program and a one-year practical nursing (LPN) program under memoranda of understanding. “We are in year 3 of an MOU…that expires in June,” Calvert said of the RN arrangement, and he said the LPN is in year two of a three-year agreement. He told the commissioners current enrollment in the nursing programs is “a dozen students in each program.”

Calvert gave several figures from the college’s annual impact analysis: annual payroll near $7.8 million, purchases close to $3.2 million with about 27% of purchases made in Pratt County, and an overall estimated economic impact of about $42 million. He said the college uses a multiplier in its calculations and reported return-on-investment metrics: $4 returned to students for every dollar they invest, $2.79 returned to the state and $6.22 returned to Pratt County. He also noted that Pratt CC’s headcount enrollment has increased in recent years and that the college is seeing more students take concurrent high-school classes and more online students, which changes the headcount-to-FTE relationship.

Calvert addressed program sustainability, noting the college typically needs about 20 students in a program to make it financially viable and to hire dedicated faculty. He said the college has added and adjusted programs based on employer demand and cost, citing examples such as welding, automotive, esports and tennis, and saying programs like diesel or precision agriculture are on the college’s radar but carry higher costs.

Commissioners asked about nursing program capacity and long-term plans. Calvert said that when Pratt previously operated a larger associate-degree nursing program it required significant subsidy and that the current partnership with Barton places those graduates on Barton’s rolls while allowing Pratt to continue hosting clinical and lab space. He also described the state funding-provision changes that affected program costs and enrollment history.

Calvert closed by inviting commissioners and local taxing entities to monthly conversations about workforce and economic development and said the college is preparing to participate in local housing-study planning and other regional initiatives. The commission thanked him for the presentation; no formal actions or votes related to the college were taken at the meeting.