Mississippi creates postsecondary council to address workforce pipeline

The Legislature passed SB 2524 creating the Mississippi Postsecondary Attainment Council, with the Office of Workforce Development serving as its hub, to pool data and coordinate the work of colleges, universities, business recruitment organizations and state agencies, lawmakers said.

During the council’s first meeting Tuesday, Sen. Nicole Boyd, R, chair of the Senate Universities and Colleges Committee, urged members to examine how to keep the state’s workforce pipeline flowing as K-12 enrollment declines. “And here is the hard truth, Mississippi can no longer afford to lose people in the gaps between our systems,” Boyd said.

Boyd warned that a shrinking pipeline would worsen staffing shortages already facing Mississippi businesses. She told the council to focus on creating clearer credential pathways that lead to family-sustaining careers and to improve high school students’ knowledge of those opportunities.

Boyd also said SB 2524 intentionally built public accountability into the council’s work. “We cannot afford for education, workforce and economic development to use different data, pursue different goals and meet at different tables,” she said. “There will be a public scorecard. There will be public reporting. The people of Mississippi should be able to see whether we are moving the needle.”

She urged members to follow the data and address where students are leaving the pipeline. “Look at which credentials actually create economic mobility. Look at whether our investments are producing results. And when the data tells us something we do not want to hear, do not explain it away,” Boyd said, telling those gathered, “You have been given a table that did not exist before. My challenge to you is: let’s do something with it.”

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