North Dakota is among the top five states for college affordability. That ranking is in a new national report, and higher-education officials say there's still a lot of work to do to attract and retain students.

North Dakota landed second on the website dealA's college affordability list. In addition to reasonable tuition at the state's public and private institutions, low cost of living for students was cited as another factor.

Lisa Johnson - vice chancellor for academic and student affairs for the North Dakota University System - said with schools around the country facing enrollment challenges, they can't let these rankings be their only selling point.

"Looking at sort of non-traditional populations of older adults," said Johnson. "So, how do we position ourselves by looking at online? Hybrid-type instruction? Accelerated courses?"

Mirroring national trends, some North Dakota schools have seen enrollment declines in recent years. However, the losses aren't as pronounced when compared with colleges and universities in other states.

Last fall, the University of North Dakota reported its highest total enrollment since 2018.

Johnson acknowledged many families face more economic pressure these days, and that requires additional steps to help meet basic needs so that students don't have to lose sight of their academic career.

"A number of our campuses have organized food pantries," said Johnson. "Some of those kind of started with student organizations."

North Dakota State University has a Food Insecurity Task Force, and a 2020 survey showed more than one in three NDSU students had experienced food insecurity.

Meanwhile, Johnson said they remain focused on providing value for the education students are paying for, with an emphasis on campuses having to demonstrate demand for new programs.

Support for this reporting was provided by Lumina Foundation.

Cuts to the U.S. education system are expected to create a profound ripple effect on students and staff in Hamtramck's already struggling school district.

Hamtramck serves more than 2,900 students, including 300 in special-education programs.

Last week, the U.S. Department of Education laid off nearly half of its employees - with approximately 89 contracts, totaling close to $900 million.

Toni Coral is a teacher and president of the Hamtramck Federation of Teachers. She highlighted how these cuts will hit her district especially hard.

"Hamtramck is a district with a lot of what we call Title 1 students," said Coral, "at-risk students, and poorer families. If Title 1 went away, or if it was substantially reduced, we would lose teachers and our students would lose a lot of services."

Staff members from the U.S. Department of Education will be placed on administrative leave starting this Friday. The federal government seeks to slash spending by as much as $2 trillion.

Title I funding was created in 1965 and helps schools with many low-income students that need financial support.

Coral discussed some of the special services that would be affected by the cuts. She noted that Title I funding is essential for providing the support certain students need to thrive.

"With Title 1 money, we're able to hire certified staff to work in smaller groups to target their reading, their literacy, to work on math skills," said Coral, "and language skills for our students in Hamtramck who are brand new to the country, or relatively new to the country and just learning English. It would be devastating."

There are plans to get rid of 17 federal education programs and slash almost $5 billion from Title I funding.

This could lead to 72,000 teachers losing their jobs in schools that serve low-income students across the country.

School employees are expressing outrage at the mass layoffs of half the U.S. Department of Education workforce.

Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said the move reflects the department's commitment to efficiency and accountability.

Carl Williams, a vice president with the American Federation of Teachers, represents classified employees in Lawndale. He worries this will lead to cuts in special education funds -- and, since the kids still need services, districts will have to find the money somewhere.

"If we're not getting the funds that we usually would get from the Department of Education, that would leave districts to figure out the funding on their own, and in doing that, it likely will result in layoffs and a reduction of services for our neediest students," he explained.

Williams added that any layoffs could have an outsized effect on classified employees -- special education aides, bus drivers, secretaries, custodians and food service workers.

McMahon pledged the department would continue to deliver on "formula funding, student loans, Pell Grants, funding for special needs students, and competitive grantmaking."

Williams said the Trump administration's cost-cutting efforts could really hurt small towns, where the school district is often the largest employer.

"The Department of Education is a crucial part of educating America's students, and we cannot do this work with less money," he continued. "My mother would call this 'cutting off our nose to spite our face.'"

The layoffs will also eliminate seven of the 12 regional offices responsible for investigating claims of civil rights violations.

By Laura Aka for WorkingNation.
Broadcast version by Kathleen Shannon for Big Sky Connection reporting for the WorkingNation-Public News Service Collaboration

Once powered by its robust, nation-building lumber industry, Missoula, Montana's economy has evolved over the years and diversified. As the country's economy has shifted, so has the types of jobs driving the region.

"Our key industries include creative, professional and business services. That is a mix of a lot of different kinds of employment opportunities that lead into those sectors," says Mayor Andrea Davis. "Bioscience technology, manufacturing, and health care is a major industry, and a major challenge, as it is everywhere."

Located in the western past of the state, Missoula is known for its vibrant outdoor recreational tourism, including skiing, fishing, and white water rafting. Of the 75,000 year-round residents about 88% are white, approximately 2% are Indigenous, and 5% are Latino/Hispanic, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Davis adds, "In Missoula, we do have a younger population than relative to the state. Our average age in Missoula is around 35 years old, whereas in the state of Montana, the average age is 40 years old."

After the passing of her predecessor John Engen in 2023, halfway through his term, Davis took over the city's mayoral duties to complete the final two years. She is seeking a full, four-year term in November.

'Leadership of Missoula comes together to strategize'

Missoula does not have an economic development office. Instead, says Davis, stakeholders work collaboratively as part of the membership-based Missoula Economic Partnership (MEP). "They not only do business support and workforce development, but they're focused on sector development."

Nicole Rush, deputy director of MEP, explains that the organization is a nonprofit, public-private economic development agency serving Missoula County. "We're funded both by local government and by contributions from most of the largest employers in and around Missoula County."

Business leaders, government officials including Mayor Davis, and educators participate in the partnership. "It's really a place where all the leadership of Missoula comes together to strategize around how we can diversify and improve our economy and create more opportunity for residents," says Rush.

"We try to stay really on top of what's going on with the economy, what are the trends we're seeing so that we can coordinate response, which I think we got pretty adept at during Covid."

MEP's current sector-focus includes advanced manufacturing, professional and technical services, high-tech bioscience, and experiential economy, which Rush explains means service industry and tourism employers.

'Our economies have really shifted'

Rush notes, "Missoula, historically, has had a lot of manufacturing and a lot of timber-focused manufacturing and all of that was in decline following the [2008] recession. And so, the mayor at that time felt it was necessary to consistently bring together community leaders to talk about how we can attract new business."

The mayor adds, "There has been a challenging dynamic over the years as our economies have really shifted from industrial, lumber-based.

"We just had another round of lumber-affiliated industry that closed [in 2024]. One in Missoula was called Roseburg Forest Products, and they made sheets of OSB (oriented strand board). It didn't have anything to do with a localized economy; it was more about the bigger picture of that company. But the same week, [Pyramid Mountain Lumber], a lumber mill in a community about 45 miles from here closed, as well.

"Missoula Economic Partnership was able to help close to 200 folks in the workforce connect with workforce training."

Rapid Response to Training Needs

MEP's Rush says, "I've really seen our educational institutions step up their ability to respond directly to changes in the economy and needs for new types of training and education.

"In both cases, our State Department of Labor successfully filed for federal support for retraining and reskilling. They've been super great about working with both of those employers as they made that announcement to their employees.

"They hosted several workshops and onsite job fairs so that we could try to make all those employees aware of all their retraining options, which because we have these rapid training programs, I know that some of those employees have been able to get retraining and reskilling in other areas. And a lot of them were retirement age, as well."

Some rapid training options Rush mentions have been facilitated by Accelerate Montana.

Accelerate Montana continues to run Job Site Ready (JSR) via various stakeholders including two-year colleges, tribal colleges, and other training providers.

The program is a University of Montana (UM) initiative and operates as a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. The rapid training courses got underway in 2022 and wrapped at the end of 2024.

JSR provides a basic entry-level understanding of construction skills and upon completion, participants - including dually-enrolled high school students - earn a microcredential.

Paul Gladen, the Accelerate Montana director and also associate vice president for research and economic development at UM, says, "We received funding from the Lowe's Foundation to buy a truck and a trailer, and pay for an instructor who can now take that training anywhere in the state.

Meeting Learners Where They Are At

"We've got a model for delivering the Job Site Ready training program through a college, through a tribal college, through a high school, through an employer, or through a community organization. If it's delivered through a high school or through a college, it's their program. We're just helping deliver -either providing the curriculum or providing our truck and trailer, and an instructor."

He explains, "We're trying to do workforce development work. Some of that is funded through federal grants, some of it through state money, some of it through foundation funding.

"But at the end of the day, our university president talks about inclusive prosperity. We talk about inclusive economic prosperity.

"So how can we move the needle for someone who's trying to start a business or grow a business - whether it's coaching, whether it's access to finance, whether it's access to workforce, and then how can we move the needle for individuals who are looking to gain the skills or to progress in their careers, hopefully with businesses and organizations in the state."

The Skills-First Approach to Building a Workforce

Gladen shares, "We're shifting our focus around bringing a credential registry, facilitating dialogue around the state, around credentials of value methodology, and trying to put in place some of the technology tools to help the skills-first approach to workforce."

He says this is to help employers better understand the skills they need, to help people better communicate the skills they have, and to provide better guidance to the workforce education and training system to ensure that their training programs are aligned for the skills needs and the skills gaps of the workforce.

Rush points out workforce issues are affected, in part, by some of the area's geographic challenges.

"I think in some industries there's a real recognition that the skills that they need, they're going to have to develop their people internally. They're going to have to invest in that training," she says. "In Montana, we're so geographically isolated from a big metro area. Missoula is the second largest city, so we're considered the big city in Montana, but we're a small city."

Population Growth Outpacing Housing Construction

The mayor has a decades-long history in the community. Davis explains why she decided to run to complete her predecessor's term.

"After a 22-year career in affordable housing development, community development, I thought, 'Okay, this is taking it to the next level where I can use my experience of affordable housing development and housing policy - at the state level - to help the city with one of its most challenging issues...which is affordable and attainable housing as we deal with rental and home ownership markets."

She says Missoula is like the state regarding numbers around housing, "We have seen an increase in population in the state of Montana of around 10%, but home production around 7%.

"We are working hard to try to do things differently, recognizing that our economy is shifting, that our housing market has shifted, our demographics are shifting."

A Growing Need for Affordable Housing Fuels Construction Training

Courtney Coronado, human resources specialist with Jackson Contractor Group, Inc., says the company is addressing the local skilled trades labor shortage by internally providing employees with apprenticeship opportunities, as well as its pre-apprenticeship program for high school students.

"The pre-apprenticeship program is our effort to get high school students from their junior year to their senior year and provide them an opportunity to dip their toes into the world of construction," Coronado explains. "As a general contractor, we have the ability to really provide a zoomed-out experience for that student because we touch all trades," she adds.

While based in Missoula, Jackson Contractor Group has additional offices in Bozeman, Big Sky, and Miles City.

"We have pretty heavy recruiting processes where we go into the high schools, especially the CTE classes, and give presentations on what it is like to have a career in construction, the many pathways that you can take and how they're not linear," says Coronado. Students must apply for the pre-apprenticeship program.

"We start those efforts March, April. Then the June timeframe comes around and those students come to us. They go through a curriculum through the [construction program] Job Site Ready. Then for their summer, they come and work with Jackson as a pre-apprentice - laborer duties to check the boxes of the on-the-job training hours that they receive."

Earn-and-Learn Opportunities

Coronado says the company pairs with the local schools but also with Job Service "to not only teach these students skills beyond what they're going to experience in the pre-apprenticeship, but also teach them some real life skills when it comes to interviewing processes, understanding how to write a resume, and those job seeker responsibilities that they will have as they grow."

The number of pre-apprentices varies each year depending on the company's workload, but Coronado says, "If a pre-apprentice is interested and they have the capabilities, we do give them the option to stay on with us through their school year.

"They're able, if we have the scopes of work, to come in before or after school to work with us. Otherwise, we love to see them reenter the workforce after they graduate."

Coronado says the wages for high school pre-apprentices are about $17 to $18 an hour. "Definitely a fair and livable wage. You are looking at it for a high school student giving their summertime. We try to provide that opportunity that makes it lucrative for them."

In addition, Missoula County Public Schools provides access to career and technical education stating in its mission that it offers "...preparation for life beyond high school regardless of their vocational pathway." Its areas of focus include - among others - welding, and design and construction.

Training for Jobs in all the Skilled Trades

Missoula College which describes itself as "the two-year unit of the University of Montana."

John Freer is the school's director of trades education and also the founder of the Job Site Ready program. He echoes the mayor's thoughts on the need for housing. "We're not populating enough people in the trades, and so there's not a large enough workforce to build the houses that we need. For every three people that are retiring or moving out of the trades, we're bringing one in - which is really unsustainable."

Regarding the Missoula College two-year trades program, Freer explains, "We build an actual house right on-site, from beginning to end.

"If they stick with the two-year program, they'll essentially have their hands on building everything, with the exception of the plumbing and the electrical. They're built as two modules, then they get picked up, put on transport, and taken out to different sites."

He adds that the program works with local organizations to locate first-time homebuyers for the completed houses. "Once we sell one of the houses, the money comes right back into the program for the next one.

"We also have classes on basic scheduling and estimating project management. We're seeing a lot more interest now from students who do recognize that there's a pretty great career path for them."

Women's Workforce Montana

Another skilled trades-centric effort is planned for launch at a date - still to be determined. Nolee Anderson is program specialist for GRIT (Girls Representing in Trades) and also owner of Joist Studio. She explains, "We are getting more into the adult focus and workforce development with the Women's Workforce Montana (WWM) program. WWM is currently accepting applications for the pending cohort."

Anderson explains, "It's a [free] series that is focused on skilled trades, employability, and clean energy basics...for women in the Missoula area."

Participants will receive JSR certifications, OSHA 10 certification, learn Clean Energy 101 - as well as soft skills training around resume writing, interview skills, and communication skills. The program also includes strength and mobility training to help enhance physical safety on a job site.

Anderson points out, "We're also going to move into the gender equity of being a woman in a male-dominated field. We're really trying to gear towards working moms, people who have been left out a certain industry opportunity and cater to them."

Freer adds, "We're just trying to educate, not just the participants, but their families and community members, as well. There's great opportunity out there and there's great need for it."

'Trade school is essentially art school'

Anderson graduated from Missoula College in 2018 and was a GRIT volunteer while in school. GRIT is housed in Missoula College's Department of Industrial Technology.

She shares her postsecondary education journey, "I ended up at Missoula College because I wanted to be an art student, and I couldn't afford it.

"Trade school is essentially art school - just with a much smaller price tag and a much higher likelihood that I get a job at the end of it. That really worked out very well for me. I get to be creative."

As the current GRIT current program specialist, Anderson says most of the program focuses on girls in middle and high school, noting "getting more women in the workforce is something that really is important to me."

Growing Local Nursing Talent

As we've seen across the country, there is a massive demand for health care workers across the country. That's also the case in Missoula.

In addition to RNs (registered nurse) and LPNs (licensed practical nurse), there is a need for CNAs (certified nursing assistant), radiology and ultrasound technicians, surgical techs, facilities engineers, and environmental service workers.

"There's no shortage of health care roles. There is something for everyone who wants to be in the health care space," says Hollie Nagel, chief nursing officer, Community Medical Center.

She notes the need for talent is not exclusive to the hospital setting, but includes home health agencies, skilled nursing facilities, and the offices of primary care providers.

As part of the effort to grow local talent, Community Medical Center donated land for the building of the new Mark and Robyn Jones College of Nursing at Montana State University.

Montana State University (MSU) has nursing school facilities in five cities including Missoula.

The groundbreaking for the new nursing school took place last April and construction is expected to be completed in Fall 2026.

"Historically, [Montana State University] graduated up to 24 students a semester. They'll actually be increasing by eight each semester, and so it'll be up to 32 each cycle, a net of potentially 16 more nurses into the community, 16 more nurses to help fill our needs," says Nagel.

"We're very excited to see them in really great spaces that can really train students but also gain some cross-pollination of our own nursing teams."

MSU offers a four-year undergraduate program, as well as an accelerated BSN (bachelor of science in nursing) program.

Part of the goal with the new nursing school campus in Missoula is to feed the local talent pipeline - with people who already live in the area and want to get into the health care sector. That may include local high school students.

With a nearby high school being the site of the Health Science Academy, Nagel says, "Before they finish high school, the majority of those students actually have their certified nursing assistant certification. They tend to do their clinical hours here with us.

"I think the majority of them go into the Health Science Academy because they know they have an interest in the health care field in some realm. So, we do a lot of outreach with those students, with that team, and making sure that they have a clinical site to really be able to practice their skills and be good additions to our workforce."

Helping Mothers on the Path to Economic Mobility

Many initiatives focus on opportunity and career exploration geared towards students. But one Missoula organization supports mothers and their young children.

Erin Scoles, director of community enrichment at Mountain Home Montana explains, "There's clearly a lot of impact on generational change, generational wealth, generational thinking, generational access."

In the last 25 years, Mountain Home Montana has grown into a therapeutic group home. Scoles says, "We have transitional living apartments on-site. We have a licensed mental health center. We have one of the state's first trauma-informed childcare centers for those kiddos and babies.

"If you think of a young mom who may be just finding out she's pregnant or has just had her baby, think about all the barriers that she may face."

Scoles says the program is currently supporting about 68 mothers, including those who live in the organization's transitional living apartments, as well as those living out in the community.

Mountain Home Montana has a supported employment and education program.

Scoles explains that staff learn IPS (Individualized Placement and Support) by taking 12-week online training modules. This allows them to then advocate as employment specialists in the community - creating connections, for the mothers, with employers and educators.

She says, "Every year, one employment specialist makes around 80 connections within the community, whether it's general or specific to that mom who wants to get a job there."

Mountain Home Montana has a strong relationship with Vocational Rehabilitation and Blind Services, according to Scoles. "We work with them really closely to get moms enrolled into their program.

"They will actually pay an employer to have a job shadow with our moms before there's any commitment of going to school to see if there's actual real interest there.

"We have moms right now who are in their second semester of college for social work and VR is paying for their schooling, plus a laptop, plus childcare stipend, plus a gas voucher."

Scoles says about 50% of the mothers find full-time employment, while another 35% are enrolled in some sort of education program.

"If you think about this mom who is making better, healthy choices for herself, that's going to trickle down to her child, that child's going to go to school," says Scoles. "I've seen it time and time again. If you ever have a hard day at work, you always try to think of the one positive thing that will make you continue to show up - and that's it for me."

'Applications that make sense in Rural America'

After losses in the lumber industry, part of Missoula's economic shift is building its tech sector. Last summer, the U.S. Department of Commerce's Economic Development Administration (EDA) announced the area's Headwaters Tech Hub was selected to receive grant funding of approximately $41 million

Davis says, "Between Bozeman and Missoula, the two university systems, we will be looking at different technological innovation in photonics, natural resources management, and remote sensing technologies.

"We will be partnering to figure out the different kinds of training, skillset, and workforce pipeline development that'll help people be able to take advantage of these new industries.

Creating a Tech Hub Serving the Rural Missoula Region

According to its site, the Headwaters Tech Hub "will develop smart photonic sensing systems that can be deployed in autonomous systems."

Tim VanReken, executive director and regional innovation officer for the Tech Hub, explains the technology. "Photonic sensing and its end-use applications are really anything that use light to understand the environment around us. That encompasses a lot of things.

"It is an enabling technology, so it's not something that anybody goes to the store to buy for themselves. It is embedded in the tools that we rely on every day and that we will be relying on more and more in the coming years and decades.

"For example, you're driving your car down the road and almost every new car will have the technology where if you start to drift, your steering wheel shakes. How does your car know where the edge of the lane is? There are photonic sensors, light-based sensors in your vehicle that are seeing where the edge of the lane is - signaling to the computer and to the rest of the automobile."

VanReken notes, "Where Montana comes in, it's not really on everybody's high visibility screen, but over decades there have been some leaders in the optical sensing space, both in industry and at the university."

"What we were able to leverage is that existing capability [including in the Bozeman area] - all of the important applications of those technologies, especially applications that make sense in rural America. Things like precision agriculture, things like natural resource management, things like infrastructure security, things like national security. Those are all places where Montana is already strong. We really did take a regional approach, and so the geography that we define is the corridor in western Montana."

Turbocharging Tech and Other STEM Careers

Projections indicate significant job growth, according to VanReken, "We think that if you count the jobs that we can create and attract both directly in our industries, but also the kind of support businesses and the broader economic impact that the increase in manufacturing and the increase in this sector would bring, we think that there's a pathway to up to 25,000 new jobs that come with this over a decade."

Regarding workforce development, VanReken points to two projects, "One is focused at the four-year collegiate, engineering training level." That includes manufacturing engineers, process engineers, and testing engineers.

He continues, "The other workforce project that I am very, very excited about is a project led by Salish Kootenai College (SKC) that's about an hour north of Missoula in Pablo.

VanReken says the goal is to build access to STEM career pathways, "Starting a little bit at the high school level, making sure that there's opportunities for kids, working to train more teachers at the high school level, and turning those into scholarships and new degree programs at the two-year college level so that there's access to careers in the trades, careers in drone operation, on-ramps into four-year degree programs, as appropriate."

VanReken says, "One area where we have some existing programs, but we would really like to continue to find ways to build up is through the credentialed skills in two years, the technician-level positions. As you scale up manufacturing, as you have precision technical manufacturing, there's a lot of dedicated skills that might cross over between industries, might cross over between job types. We think it's a good fit for the type of workforce and the type of manufacturing that we expect to have."

STEM Education Programs

SKC, like Missoula, is located in the Flathead Valley region and offers one-year, two-year, four-year, and master's degree programs.

Antony Berthelote is the school's vice president of enrollment management and student affairs and a principal investigator for the Tech Hub.

Regarding SKC's creation of a STEM education program as part of the Tech Hub, Berthelote says, "There's not a real big STEM identity. People don't see themselves becoming scientists because they don't have opportunities to experience people in lab coats in rural areas. They see farmers but they don't see scientists.

"We wanted to give them more opportunities and make clear pathways from middle school to high school into college, whether that's a certificate or an associate, and then maybe into a bachelor's or even beyond or they could go directly into a trade."

He adds, "We are going to hire faculty and build a remote sensing program because we already have a strong natural resources program with hydrology, forestry, and wildlife and fisheries, and we have cellular molecular life sciences. We already had a drone program with the unmanned aerial flight program certifications, as well."

Berthelote says, "We want to pull from the students that are in these rural and remote areas. At Salish Kootenai College, we have these great one-on-one, low population, students-to-faculty ratios. We have excellent programs of mentorship, excellent support systems at our college."

He adds, "Our retention numbers are good. So, I think that's why Tim [VanReken] is so excited about our program.

Referencing the application in rural areas, VanReken says, "We've built that into our philosophies and are really intentionally looking at this as us being a model for how other places in the country might do this."

'People...want to call it home'

The mayor of Missoula says the local economy has changed over time, but has changed in a way that benefits the community and its residents.

"People really recognize that Missoula has worked hard to create a community and an economy that offers a lot of diversity and creativity. That's often what a university town can offer." says Mayor Davis.

"There are a lot of different types of activities and services, but things that people find interesting. And as a small urban city, I think people find a little bit of everything that make them want to call it home."

She adds, "I mentioned all of the different partnerships that we have here in Missoula as it relates to just creating sustainable economy for our workforce in terms of recruiting, training, and employing our workforce.

"We are leading the way to help - whether it's supporting individuals for work in the construction trades or helping entrepreneurs launch new companies - we are working to prepare customized training for different industry needs."


Laura Aka wrote this article for WorkingNation.

Support for this reporting was provided by Lumina Foundation.


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