In the 2026 Kentucky General Assembly, bills were passed into law that impact the Kentucky Community and Technical College System, and President Ryan Quarles highlighted the changes during a visit to Hopkinsville last week.
Quarles is the fourth president of KCTCS, which consists of 16 state colleges including Hopkinsville Community College. Last week, Quarles was in town for a Board of Regents meeting and discussed the new legislation at a luncheon hosted at HCC.
House Bill 619 led to the dissolution of the board of directors at all KCTCS colleges, and Quarles says those governing bodies have been replaced with College Advisory Councils to ensure that local campuses are still being represented. He also says the bill expanded the college system’s Board of Regents to include more industry leaders.
HCC hosted its final Board of Directors meeting in April.
House Bill 5 supports the establishment of the KCTCS Prison Education Program within the Department of Corrections, to provide workforce training to incarcerated Kentuckians and help them find employment once their sentences are served. The bill includes the construction of a campus to house the program at Northpoint Training Center that will serve 400 students a year.
Quarles says the campus will offer training for career paths such as advanced manufacturing, welding, diesel mechanics and much more. He says the careers paths being offered are fields where employers are open to hiring those who have criminal records.
Quarles says the workforce training included in the bill supplements the education that KCTCS already provides in Kentucky’s 14 state prisons.
KCTCS currently has 779 students who are serving time, and earlier this month, Quarles says 20 students from the Eastern Kentucky Correctional Complex graduated with associate degrees.