Community Colleges Part 3 — Critical to higher ed.

Today, the Los Angeles Times published an immensely informative opinion piece on the largely ignored importance of community colleges within higher education, using California’s 110 community college system as an example. The authors (Camille Esch and Christopher Cabaldon) point out that not only are community colleges critical to the success of the four-year university system, but that Governer Arnold Schwarzenegger must ensure that these schools receive at least some of the funds he plans to set aside for colleges by 2014.

Here are some highlights of the big role community college plays in California alone:

• Nearly 3 million California students attend community college.
• Half of all Cal State students and 30% of UC students attended community college.
• Community colleges are California’s number one provider of workforce training (especially for jobs that require technical skills, but not necessarily a bachelor’s or higher degree).
• An increasing amount of low-income students, laid-off employees, returning veterans, parents and adults seeking a career change attend community college.
• Community colleges receive the least amount of funding compared with every other educational institution, despite increasing enrollment (which will continue, as no student is turned away from community college).

However, the article takes a step back to widen the scope of the argument for these two-year institutions. Noting that they shouldn’t expect to simply receive free money for admitting leagues and leagues of students, these schools must step up to the challenge of funneling more of these students toward actual college degrees.  Currently, the massive, growing numbers of attendees have lowered the rate of community college students who eventually receive degrees to under one-third.

Perhaps if community colleges were valued more as an an integral part of our system of higher education, these numbers would rise. However, it’s unrealistic to assume that these colleges can increase four-year transfer rates and improve overall performance without financial support. It’s a constant push and pull, and hopefully the greater reliance on community colleges during tough economic times (and this sweet three-part series) has pushed the issue closer toward the spotlight.

If community colleges are a prime gateway to the degrees necessary for a robust, forward-moving American workforce, I’m all for it.

This article on community colleges is part of a BetterGrads series on two-year colleges. To read last week’s post on the role of community colleges amid nation-wide public education budget cuts, check out last week’s post: Community College Part 2 — A solution to budget cuts?