After an evaluation of its truck driver training program, Ozarks Technical Community College announced this week the course will cease operations as of June 30, the end of the school’s fiscal year.
“We’re very confident that we had a really good program that turned out highly qualified drivers; it just was no longer economically viable for the college to keep going,” OTC spokesman Mark Miller said.
Over 360 students have earned their commercial driver’s licenses through OTC’s Transportation Training Institute, but the current class has just five students. The program’s budget for the 2014-15 academic year was $343,356, part of which included a monthly expense of $4,100 to fuel and maintain four big rigs.
School officials cited several reasons for the decision to shut down the CDL training program, which included a loss of venue for driving classes at the former Price Cutter Park in Ozark, now
set to become the site of an independent minor baseball league. Other factors are increased competition from area truck driving programs, limited funding and low student demand.
“I think the combination of the large numbers of people being trained by Prime, and then losing the training facility put together, that made the decision for me,” OTC Chancellor Hal Higdon said.
Grants were a significant contributor toward funding the program. OTC received a $247,087 grant in May 2008 through the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, 80 percent of which was federal money, with the remainder funded by the college. Community Foundation of the Ozarks awarded OTC a $25,000 grant in August 2010, and another $50,000 dollars was raised for that grant in matching donations. The most significant source of funding, for which the school could not find a suitable replacement, was a one-time Training for Tomorrow grant of $205,625 received in March 2010 from the Missouri Department of Economic Development.
“Raising tuition would not have done anything to increase the numbers,” Higdon said, adding tuition for the five-week course had increased from $2,800 to $3,500 per student over its eight-year lifespan. “It’s an affordability issue. Because it’s not a credit program, you can’t use federal financial aid, so they have to pay for it out of their pocket.”
While OTC has no future plans to reintroduce the program, Higdon said the school would be receptive to input from those in the trucking and transportation business.
“The last time we did this in ’07 was at the behest of the industry,” he said. “If the industry came back and said ‘We’ll do it’, if they need it and they’ll pay for it, we’ll always be glad to do it.”
