As the economy struggles to recover from this recession, one facet of higher education is beginning to suffer very badly: our community colleges.
A new report from the Education Policy Center at U. Alabama shows that students are taking on more and more debt to pay for college, and that community colleges are unable to meet the expanded need to retrain workers, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education.
The report, titled “Access and Funding in Public Higher Education,” is based on the results of the latest annual survey of the 51 members of the National Council of State Directors of Community Colleges, conducted from July 5 through Aug. 24, according to the Chronicle.
This report is predicting cuts to state operating budgets at community colleges, regional public universities and public flagship universities. Tuition is going to continue to grow, and financial aid won’t be able to keep up because it will continue to dwindle or remain flat, according to this report.
We need to invest in our community colleges, and President Barack Obama has taken a necessary and significant first step in proposing to do so. Obama has proposed investing $5 billion to improve facilities at community colleges and tribal colleges. Ninety-four percent of the respondents of this survey said that the new money for construction and renovation was a significant need in their state. In a separate article, Jim Hermes, the director of government relations at the American Association of Community Colleges, affirmed this need.
“This is certainly an area of great need among our institutions,” Hermes said. “We are heartened by the renewed recognition of this issue.”
Investing in community colleges has been one of Obama’s education objectives for quite some time. Shortly after his inauguration, he proposed a $12 billion program to rebuild community colleges, as well as increase the number of two-year students who graduate and go on to four-year institutions. It would have also improved remedial education and forged stronger ties between employers, according to the Chronicle. The plan, called the American Graduation Initiative, was dropped in negotiations over overhauling student-aid programs and health care legislation, according to the Chronicle.
Preserving funding for community colleges is critically important to the economic well-being of this country. Many students look to community colleges as an alternative to four-year institutions for a wide range of reasons. Some students want to train directly in their chosen profession rather than spend the extra time fulfilling the general education requirements of four-year universities.
For other students, a community college may provide a second opportunity to improve their grade-point average before applying to a public university. If students apply right out of high school, the high school GPA will be the one evaluated, whereas a community college gives the student a shot at having the community college GPA taken into consideration as well.
The other reason to preserve community colleges is a matter of helping students save money. Some students may choose to attend a community college prior to attending a four-year university in order to fulfill their general education requirements at a lesser cost. They can then choose to transfer their credits to a four-year institution that will accept them. Let’s preserve community colleges for the sake of education and the health of our economy.