KENTUCKY — The 2022 Kentucky General Assembly is currently underway for its annual legislative session that runs until April.

This year is particularly important because it is a budget year in which the legislature adopts a two-year budget for the Commonwealth, including investments that policymakers will make in higher education. 

The Council on Postsecondary Education is a coordinating board overseeing Kentucky's state universities and the Kentucky Community and Technical College System. The Council also licenses non-profit and for-profit higher education institutions to operate in Kentucky.

Dr. Aaron Thompson is the President of the agency and discusses a wide range of higher education topics including the 2022-2030 state plan for higher education. Higher Education Matters: A Statewide Strategic Agenda for Kentucky Postsecondary Education, which serves as a blueprint to meet Kentucky’s educational attainment goal—and raise the percentage of Kentuckians with a postsecondary degree or certificate to 60% by the year 2030.

"A lot of students and parents feel that they can't go to college because they don't have money, well we're going to show them where the money is at if you will, to go to college. But we're also going to mitigate tuition as we have in the last three years. The average about 1% which is way below inflation, but we also want to talk about the value proposition. So many people believe that higher education isn't important. So in this agenda, we talk about why it is, we show you the data and show you the return on investment, if you get a credential, you're not going to be unemployed for not very long. Even if you are, you're going to actually make a million dollars more over your lifetime if you have a baccalaureate degree," Dr. Thompson said. 

You can watch the full In Focus segment above.