The state's community colleges can't go it alone when addressing education issues such as access and student preparedness and instead must join forces with other state agencies, several officials said Friday.

A group of state and education officials agreed at Friday's Bridges to Opportunity project, which was sponsored by the Wyoming Community College Commission, to take a four-point agenda participants devised and continue discussions with the governor and other state, education and business officials.

Bridges, in conjunction with funding from the nonprofit organization the Ford Foundation, has worked with other states on access and higher education issues. Besides the Bridges project, the Governor's Community College Study Commission is looking at similar issues and has a few more meetings left.

The Bridges agenda calls for looking at better serving under-prepared adults, devising uniform data on education, having priority programs align with economic diversification and looking at tax policy and governance issues to see if the priorities could be supported.

Jim Rose, executive director of the Wyoming Community College Commission, stressed the agenda is just a starting point and that more work needs to be done. The information needs to be disseminated so officials and leaders know that it's not a solo project, he said.

"We're going to try to put together as many interested and essential players as necessary," Rose said. "The whole key is to bring everyone together to address this. What is the vision of Wyoming's higher education? What does the state want to do overall with education?"

Earlier in the day, the group learned about the state community college system. They broke into three groups to tackle access issues, mission issues dealing with work force and adult literacy and funding issues.

One issue that came out of all of the groups was the need to address the high school dropout rate and how to get those adults who don't have a diploma or GED to finish their educations.

The groups cited the presentation earlier in the morning that indicated there are about 43,570 adults, or 8.8 percent of the state's residents, who don't have a diploma or GED.

Another reoccurring issue was with graduating students who enter the higher education system unprepared. Again, the groups cited 74 percent entering the community colleges and 50 percent entering the University of Wyoming as needing at least one remedial class.

Kay McClenney, one of the Bridges Initiative facilitators, urged the groups not to point the finger at one entity as the reason for that but to take ownership of it and address the problem.

"What the community colleges need to do is be prepared to deal with whoever the students are," she said.

Reach reporter Aimee Tabor at (307) 266-0593 or aimee.tabor@casperstartribune.net.