From the Commissioner met with William Harris, Chair of the State Board of Technical and Adult Education in the president's conference room at South Georgia Technical College in Americus.

FTC: Let's start with some background, some biographical information. Where were you born?

WH: I was born in Tampa, Florida, actually. My parents had moved to Tampa from Americus, because my father couldn't get a job around here, and we returned to Americus when I was five years old.

FTC: And you've been here ever since?

WH: Yes, except for going off to school - I graduated from Georgia Tech - and I was in Naval ROTC, so I went in the navy as a commissioned officer for two years and then moved back.

FTC: Americus has the atmosphere of being a real community of people who are close and stay in touch with each other and like each other. Does it seem that way to you, too?

WH: Yes, that's why we moved back. My wife is from here also. She went to Agnes Scott, and we moved back after I got out of the navy.

FTC: So, purposely chose it as a place to . . .

WH: To come back to and live and raise a family.

FTC: Of course, we're going to be kind of highlighting the aspects of rural Georgia that are important. When you think of your life here, what are some of the things that stand out?

WH: I guess the people that have influenced me along the way - really fine people that are in this community and have been in this community and the opportunities that are available in rural Georgia. You know, I've thought about it often, if I had gone to Atlanta and gotten a job up there, maybe there would have been some great opportunities, and maybe not. You read in the paper every day about people, some I graduated with, that have done really well financially and made a lot of money and everything; I don't know if envious is the right word, but I'm not envious of that at all. I think I've had some wonderful opportunities here in rural Georgia, and the life we have here just can't be beat. If I want to go play golf at five o'clock in the afternoon or five thirty when I was working full time, I could easily do that. If I want to take off early and go hunting in the afternoon or just the different recreational things that you can participate in late in the evening and, of course, certainly on weekends. But I think the churches mean a lot in towns like Americus and Sumter County. A lot of our life is centered around the activities in the churches in the community. I'm not sure if you get all of that in the big city or if the depth goes quite as far as it does here in rural Georgia. And the people - there are no better people than those involved in agriculture. Unfortunately, agriculture kind of had its rough days, and it's still in for some rough times, but they're the salt of the earth. However, we're very fortunate now in this area to have a good blend of manufacturing, agriculture, and education. Educational facilities such as South Georgia Technical College and Georgia Southwestern State University in our community give us a good blend from an economic standpoint. The thing that we do not have that we have missed for a long time is a four-lane highway. We're working on that.

We're very fortunate that people care about the community. Downtown has been renovated. We've got the beautiful Windsor Hotel, we've renovated the theater - gosh, I've gone to more cultural events in the last couple years since we got the theater than I have in I don't know how many years. And, having a four-year university also brings a lot of other cultural aspects to a community our size, too. So, we're very fortunate to have a variety of things to do in Sumter County.

FTC: You're an employer - or you have been - you're partially retired?

WH: Yes, I was involved in the banking business, I was president of the bank here for several years and I retired from that in 1994, and I've been involved from an ownership standpoint with a food-distribution company. I don't work eight hours a day out there, but I do go in a few hours every day and check on things. It's fun. We cover all of south Georgia and do have some customers in Atlanta. It's the motherhood and apple pie and baseball concept we're using to help guide a company that has to go up against the big boys. Yet we can compete against really large companies and so that's fun. As long as you've got good people involved, and we do, then it is very exciting.

FTC: Other employers might be interested in what you see as the important features of the workforce here, about the people that you work with.

WH: Without question, the work ethic. I think not only people that work for us, but if you'll go to any of the manufacturers around here and they have workforces that have been trained at the technical college. I think that they'll tell you that the work ethic of the people here in rural areas of Georgia is great. And that's one of our main assets.

FTC: How did you first become associated with the technical education system?

WH: Well, I was on an advisory committee. Of course, I knew the president [of the school] and all the people involved.

FTC: An advisory committee for the school?

WH: Yes, it was a business advisory committee and then I got involved in adult literacy. We helped with "Learning is for Everyone," the adult literacy program here at one time. My wife and I served as first chairman of that, and so we got really involved then. And so I guess as things developed, I was nominated by Governor Zell Miller to serve on the board in, I guess '93, might have been '94, I think it was '93. It has been a great experience, and I feel fortunate to have been involved in it at a time when things are just going great as far as technical education is concerned.

FTC: Could you think back to some of those early days on the board and maybe some of the things that were going on and the difference between then and now?

WH: Sure. The things that come to mind first of all are those people that served on the board before me, the people that I learned from, as far as technical education is concerned. People like Charlie Harris, and of course, Larry Comer from here was the first chairman of the board, the DTAE board. And then I can't help but think of Bill Wiley and Gene Hunt and Charlie Brown. But Charlie Harris certainly sticks out in my mind because he was a great gentleman and a tremendous Georgian and American. So, as far as looking at things that are different now, of course the two things that come to mind are the funding for students and the name-change. And of course the HOPE Scholarship helped tremendously along the way. Those three things - the funding formula, the HOPE Scholarship, the name-change - are three big things that have helped us along the way.

FTC: When you look back to say, when you were first working with a committee here at South Georgia Tech, could you have imagined the changes that have taken place here?

WH: No, I really couldn't. As I think back, even when I was in high school, and you thought of the technical school, unfortunately, even though it served a great need back then, I don't think it had the respect that it deserved. I think, certainly, now it represents tremendous opportunities for young people to get trained and go into the workforce.

FTC: You really were pretty early in the history of the board. What were you working on back then, as a board. Were you working on standards for the programs and that kind of thing?

WH: We were working on standards, but I can also remember whenback then members of the board were really worried about our marketing efforts. Now the marketing is great. When you have a 20% or 21% percent increase - it's not a case where you have to go out and try to get more students to come to your school.If you look back, we were having increases, but nothing like what we're having now. I think the name change to college has just been tremendous, not only for marketing, but from a respect standpoint. When people now talk about technical education, they talk with a tremendous amount of respect for what's going on in all of our schools throughout the state.

FTC: It really is amazing. When you think about the system now, what do you see as some of the challenges and maybe the greatest challenge?

WH: First of all, I think Georgia has the best technical education system in the United States and even in the world. I don't think that can even be challenged. I think it's been proven year after year that we really do have the best. I have some people I know in other states who are interested in what we have because they consider ours the best. And our Quick Start program, there's no question about that. It's the best.

The challenge is, to me, or the major challenge, is if we continue to increase our enrollment like we have been over the last couple of years and it increases fifteen to twenty percent - I think the actual figure is more like twenty-one percent for this past year - then five years down the road, our enrollment will have doubled. And so funding - facilities, equipment, and, of course, instruction - is going to be a major concern. We're turning away people right now. So I think that's going to be the biggest challenge we'll have.

FTC: Let's talk more specifically about being a state board member. I know I love going to the schools, driving around different parts of Georgia and seeing the different situations. As a board member, you go to lots of events. Could you talk about some of the events - say board meetings at schools, major events like EAGLE, GOAL . . . .

WH: Well, I've thought about this a lot. To me, it's almost a higher calling; it's more than just numbers and percentages. When you go into a school, and you walk through a classroom and you see twenty or thirty people - all of them with their own computer, all of them just intent, so intent on learning what's going on, and they're from all walks of life. It's almost a spiritual thing when you think that those students are going to be, many of them within just a few months, out in the workforce. What we're doing is helping them to improve their quality of life. It's more than just numbers and all that. I can get emotional, just thinking about it, how we are serving our communities and this state and how we are directly affecting so many people and improving their quality of life.

FTC: Definitely. Going to things like GOAL and EAGLE . . . .

WH: In fact, I was at the EAGLE event the other night. There's a story attached to every person there - on how far they've come and just what they've learned and their background. You can get real emotional in a hurry. Same thing's true with GOAL programs and everything else. It really is - I just think that it's more than the numbers and reports.

FTC: And those things really help you get through the other parts, don't they.

WH: Yeah, they really do.

FTC: Recently someone who was visiting at the state office after a briefing on what the technical colleges and Quick Start do said, "This is what the state should be doing - you're helping the people who need the help, giving the help that will really make a difference."

WH: That's true. And I have, since I've been chairman, had an agenda that I have tried to put forth and emphasize. You know that of all of our graduating seniors in high school, approximately thirty percent of them go on to a four-year university. That leaves seventy percent of graduates going out into the workforce with, of course, some of them coming to the technical colleges. But, then, as you know, Georgia has a tremendous drop-out rate. And so one of the things that I wanted to push during my tenure as chairman of the board was getting the word out to a younger age, to kids that maybe come from rough backgrounds or whatever, and let them know that they don't have to go to a four-year institution to learn and be able to hold down a real good job. They need to hear the words "technical education" at a very young age, so it's embedded in their minds.

So one of the things that I have been trying to get our schools to do - and we've had some success with this - is to be involved in the communities with kids at younger ages. Maybe it's the Boys and Girls Clubs. I know South Georgia Tech has been involved in the Boys and Girls Clubs here in Americus - they help with them with computer programs and all that. At the same time, they're dealing with kids that may be ten, eleven years old - and the kids are hearing the words "technical education," they're hearing "South Georgia Technical College" and the same thing is true throughout the state. Maybe they're sponsoring a little league ball team. Those kids are hearing the word about technical education. It could be at the YMCA, but wherever our schools are located, we want them involved in youth activities.

Of course, one of the things we're really pushing is being involved with the YDCs, Youth Detention Centers. We've got several schools that are now working in the YDCs. Think about the fact that here are kids that are sixteen, seventeen, nineteen years old, and they've committed some type of a crime or they wouldn't be there. But, once they get out, the chances are, they're going to be right back in there in a few years, if they don't come out knowing that they can do something beside participate in crime. If we can help train them, it would be a tremendous benefit to society.

FTC: It really is.

WH: Here in Americus we have a YDC and so our school (SGT) is offering several programs to the residents.

FTC: So that's been something that's been important to you. . .

WH: I'm very interested in young people; I helped start the Boys and Girls Club here and it has been a very rewarding experience.

FTC: Having the basketball team here at South Georgia Tech is probably good for that, too . . .

WH: Yes, it is. It has really helped with school spirit.

FTC: You've seen so much happen with the schools since you've been on the board, so much has changed and improved. You've seen it happen across the state. What do you think the future holds, say in ten or fifteen years from now? Any sense of what we might see by then?

WH: I think you'll see more of what's going on right now. And, as I said before, the big concern is the fact that we're growing at the rate of twenty percent increase for the last couple of years and it looks like that's going to be the way it is for the next several years. So, it's going to be a real challenge to try to build enough buildings, hire enough instructors, and have the equipment available to us to meet the demand.

Oh, I think in the future you'll see more and more students going directly from high school to the technical colleges, which is something we need. That's an area that we can improve on.

FTC: Along those same lines, what if suddenly a big amount of money came your way and you could spend it any way you wanted on technical education, what would you do?

WH: Probably, I'd go back to what we're facing. First of all, you'd have to examine your enrollment and see where the demand is in the workforce. It would be a fun type of situation to have. And just let me back up a bit and say to you, too, that I think that as the respect, the understanding of technical education grows, I think you're going to see more and more community contribution and interest in what's going on. In so many areas of our state right now, the technical college is becoming the leader, or one of the leaders, in the community as far as, well definitely as far as economic development is concerned. Not only is that leadership good for those communities, it helps spread the word about technical education. So, I think you'll see more and more community understanding and community involvement in the technical colleges.

FTC: The matching funds program has been great.

WH: Yes, it has.

FTC: That also raises awareness as people get connected with the school and see what happened because of their donation.

WH: Going back to where I think we are right now; recently we were named the number one as far as workforce development by Expansion Management [holds up a reprint, which he had brought to the interview] magazine, number one in the United States, which certainly speaks well of the Department. That was a big honor.

FTC: Would you think back to the Leadership Conference last fall, which of course was the first one of its kind for the agency. Tell me how you felt being there.

WH: Oh, I felt great. It was so impressive.

FTC: Yes, it was.

WH: I think the fact that there were so many of our state leaders there shows just how important technical education is to the leadership of our state. I was just really impressed and then as you looked out in that audience and realized who was representing the various [the members of the technical college's local boards of directors] schools there - it just gives emphasis to the fact that the communities are recognizing the importance of technical colleges and that they want to be involved in them. That was really exciting. That was fun, and I don't know what meeting you could go to in the state of Georgia and have all the political leaders there like we did.

FTC: And that legislative panel . . .

WH: That was great. It really was. That was really exciting. It was kind of a mountain-top experience. And I understand that we're going to try to do it again, which will be great.

FTC: Anything you've been thinking about that we haven't covered that you would like to talk about?

WH: Let's see, I scribbled some things down. One thing, and I may have mentioned this, I went to a four-year institution and got a degree. That whole process was a great educational experience, without a doubt. I'm happy that I did it. But I have gone into these classrooms [at the technical colleges] and I've looked around and I've thought, these people are going to be in the workforce soon, and what they're doing today they're going to be using a few months from now out in the workforce. You know I can't honestly say that I was able to do that. It's so practical, what they're learning and what they're experiencing.

The other thing that we need to mention here is the fact that if you look at the cost-per-student for our system of education, it's approximately $5,000.00 per student. You compare that with any other type of educational experience and you will see it is a real bargain. Especially for what we get. So, I don't see anything but just good times ahead for technical education. And, again, the main problem I see is being able to fund the growth that we're going to have.

To me, technical education in Georgia has proven itself. When I first got on this board, I'd been involved on advisory committees and the literacy effort and all that, but I did a survey myself. I called companies in this area and I asked them what effect, or what part does our technical school play in your workforce development and in your company. I was surprised at how many of them said things like "Well, seventy percent of my workforce was trained there," or seventy-five percent or eighty. So that made me feel real good, but then the other thing that made me feel good is that if you ran a survey to find out where these people are working, they're in, most of them, in a small area within a fifty or seventy mile range of where they had their training. They stay home, a lot of them. That's not saying every one of them, but many stay within the area where they grew up. That was a little bit surprising. In my own area, we have three large companies that just sing the praises of South Georgia Tech and it's the same thing throughout the state.

Just this morning I was reading in the [Atlanta] paper about Greene County, which has a twelve percent unemployment figure. It was about how the technical college in that area is training hospitality workers for the Ritz Carlton. Now, who would be doing that, if we weren't there? In our paper, I noticed where one of our large manufacturers was making a big donation to our foundation and they were just singing the praises of the training their people receive here at South Georgia Tech. It just means so much to a community to have a technical college within its area. Fortunately, in the state of Georgia, we have 34 colleges and 17 satellite campuses.

That's not to say we don't have things that we have to continuously be aware of and work on, but I think our main problem is going to be in the area of funding our growth.

I don't know whether you've looked at our mission statement and our vision lately and our value system - they're right on target as far as I'm concerned. [Points to them on the papers he brought to the interview.]

One of the things I never will forget - I remember when I was on the advisory committee, the thing that concerned me back then was that, while we were training people who opened their own business, did they understand finances. I was in the banking business then and so I was concerned about that because I knew that an automobile mechanic, for example, could fix an automobile but did he know how to charge and how to keep his books. I think we've made a lot of improvement in that area and now we give them a well-rounded education.

What else?

FTC: I really like your statement about "who would do this if we didn't. . ."

WH: It's true, and we're working on that sort of thing around the state, with academies like the Service Industry Academy that we've got over in Columbus and several other places. Who would be teaching that if we weren't - I don't know where everybody would be getting their training if we weren't here to do it.

I do feel, as I stated before, that what we're involved in is almost like a higher calling, in the way that we're helping so many people improve the quality of life.

FTC: Definitely.