PRCC Receives Nearly $250,000 for High-Tech Equipment

HATTIESBURG, MISS. - The State of Mississippi provided $247,266 to Pearl River Community College (PRCC) to help fund high-tech equipment for the school's tech-lab. Before cutting the ribbon in celebration of the added equipment, Governor Phil Bryant addressed the public about the current employment opportunities in the state. "Just now in the state of Mississippi, we have over 37,000 job openings," Gov. Bryant said. "Mississippi people used to look for jobs, now we got jobs looking for people." Gov. Bryant went on to mention how the lowering Mississippi's employment rate helped the state provide funding to the school. "Fortunately, the Mississippi Legislature, thank y'all for y'all's support," Gov. Bryant said. "2016, I went to them and said, 'We got 50 million dollars in a fund,' Now it's a fund that is there and the revenue is there because of the low demand for unemployment insurance and compensation. See we put so many people to work, when I came into office unemployment was 9.4 percent, and it's around 4.6 percent today. So, we cut it in half." Thanks to this cut, the state decided to money from a fund originally budgeted to cover unemployment insurance compensation and decided to invest in creating more future jobs. "Well, it's another opportunity to put Mississippians to work," PRCC President Dr. Adam Breerwood said. "We are thrilled with this and we appreciate the governor's support. There was cooperation from a lot of different entities that have really been supportive of us, and we thrilled with the opportunity this is going to provide our students in the area."