Building community: the future of higher education may depend on the success of community colleges.

Badolato, Vincent

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When President Obama outlined his plans for the American Graduation Initiative, he emphasized the critical role of community colleges in educating and training students and adults for the jobs needed to keep the United States economically competitive.

"Now is the time to build a firmer, stronger foundation for growth that will not only withstand future economic storms, but one that will help us thrive and compete in the global economy," he said in July at Macomb Community College in Michigan. "It's time to reform our community colleges so that they provide Americans of all ages a chance to learn the skills and knowledge necessary to compete for the jobs of the future."

A key goal of his plan is to see an additional 5 million people complete community college--earn a certificate or degree or transfer to a four-year school--during the next 10 years. That will help the country once again lead the world in the proportion of college graduates by 2020, a distinction now held by Canada. The administration is proposing $12 billion in competitive grants to reach that goal and, education officials hope, improve the skills of workers, pull us out of the recession and lay the foundation for economic growth.

The initiative brings a national focus on an educational area that has more often been fodder for disparaging jokes by late-night comics than viewed as a path toward a middle-class job or a four-year degree. But many see the schools as a key way to retrain laid off workers and help them gain skills that will put them back on the job.

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"Our community colleges are an integral part of the solution to help get our nation out of the current economic mess," says Washington Senator Derek Kilmer, who chairs the Higher Education and Workforce Development Committee. "They are critical for helping us retrain workers and meeting current and emerging employer demands."

Idaho Senator John Goedde agrees. "The community college is one of our best economic development tools in that it can tailor training programs to suit the needs of industry," he says. "It provides additional education to working adults in the community or those attempting to gain employment skills."

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The need to retrain and help people get back to work is critical. Unemployment reached 10.2 percent in October and some economists think it may exceed the 10.8 percent the nation hit in 1982--the highest rate since the Great Depression. The number of people unemployed was at 15.7 million in October, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

"The economy is changing, national demographics are changing, and in this new and evolving work environment, community colleges will be the driving force behind the future workforce," says Carol Lincoln, senior program director at MDC, an education and workforce consultancy.

CHANGE IN FOCUS

The original community colleges at the turn of the 20th century focused on a traditional liberal arts education. It wasn't until the Great Depression that community colleges also began to focus on job training. Then the post-World War II manufacturing boom and the original GI Bill led the Truman Commission to recommend creating a system of public colleges to serve local postsecondary and job training needs.

As baby boomers came of age in the 1960s, community colleges took off. More than 450 schools were founded during that decade. There are now about 1,200 community colleges in the United States, and the number is approximately 1,600 when school branches are included.

Community colleges enroll almost half of all American undergraduates in public institutions--6.5 million, or 46 percent--and about 5 million additional students who take classes for job skills or general educational enrichment but are not seeking a degree or certificate. These numbers are expected to be noticeably higher over the next few years as more people look to gain or improve their work skills. Taken together, community colleges award about 820,000 associate degrees or certificates annually.

Community colleges are traditionally the most affordable schools, with an average price tag of $2,361 a year compared to $6,185 for four-year public research institutions, according to the American Association of Community Colleges. And they almost always admit anyone with a high school diploma or General Educational Development certificate.

These features make community colleges the workhorses of higher education. They serve myriad roles, including helping students catch up through developmental, or remedial, classes; preparing students to transfer to four-year institutions; providing specialized workforce and jobs skills training; and teaching English as a second language. They also reach a disproportionate share of nontraditional college students--single parent, low-income, minority, immigrant, part-time, first generation and adult.

Community colleges also educate a large number of workers for vital professions. They are being called on in Michigan, for example, to help train displaced manufacturing workers for new "green jobs," such as building solar panels and wind turbines. About 80 percent of law enforcement officers, fire-fighters and emergency medical technicians and almost 60 percent of new nurses and other health-care workers are credentialed at community colleges,

A PROVEN SUCCESS

President Obama's proposed American Graduation Initiative would offer an unprecedented increase in financial support for community colleges. The $12 billion in competitive grants would help them pay for new strategies to help students complete college, offer more programs that improve educational and employment results, improve facilities and create new online courses.

Improving community college completion rates is the most crucial part of this initiative. Close to half of all people who enter community colleges intending to graduate or transfer to a four-year school don't reach their goal within six years.

"Those who begin at a community college thinking they will complete and then don't leads to a huge loss of their dollars and state dollars as well," says Theresa Lubbers, the Indiana commissioner of higher education and a recent senator. "Finding out what has contributed to their not completing--and what works to help them continue through a degree or certificate--is critical."

The need to vastly improve completion rates at community colleges is echoed by Arkansas Representative Tiffany Rogers, who is also director of continuing education at Phillips Community College of the University of Arkansas. "The access to a postsecondary education provided by community colleges is critically important, but providing access does the student or state little good if they aren't successful," she says.

Several initiatives in various community colleges throughout the country are trying to help students reach their goals. One that has shown great results is Achieving the Dream: Community Colleges Count.

The aim of this five-year initiative is to help more students reach their individual goals, which may include earning a community college certificate or degree, attaining a bachelor's degree or getting a better job.

Achieving the Dream has shown some impressive results so far. States involved have made student success a central part of their strategic plan and developed clear placement and assessment policies for remedial education. The program also rewards behavior--of both institutions and students--for promoting completion rates, and has dramatically increased data systems, allowing states to provide standardized and customized reports to the institutions to better inform policy and practice.

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CHALLENGES FOR STATES

While there is incredible potential for community colleges to help the nation meet college completion and workforce development needs, many challenges remain.

One of the most significant is improving the way remedial education classes are structured to help students finish more quickly and to reduce the need for them altogether. These classes can not only be expensive on a large scale, they also tend to discourage students from finishing college. The more of these classes students have to take, the less likely they are to get a degree or certificate.

"Unfortunately, it is not completely clear what really works to improve developmental education," says Richard Kazis, senior vice president at Jobs for the Future. "Legislatures need to take the lead to make this is a priority."

One step legislatures can take is to set a public goal to increase the number of students who successfully complete remedial classes and go on to finish a degree. Lawmakers can provide incentives and hold institutions accountable for reaching that goal.

State budget difficulties make all this more challenging. Community colleges rely on state and local appropriations for about 60 percent of their funding to keep them intentionally less expensive for students. As such, community colleges are heavily affected by cuts in state and local support.

"Decisions made at the state level have ramifications for community colleges," says Washington's Kilmer. "There is a real need for legislatures to discover and support policies that can lead to better student success rates."

Demand to attend community colleges is rising quickly during this recession while funding has dropped and looks likely to drop more in the coming years. This has caused many institutions and systems around the nation to cap enrollments to ensure they adequately support the tide of new applicants.

Miami Dade College in Florida, the largest community college in the nation, has capped enrollments for the first time in its history. And in California, the nation's largest system, $840 million in budget cuts has led to longer lines, fewer classes and higher student fees.

Advocates of community colleges, however, say it is imperative that we continue to focus on access and success. The United States is slipping behind the rest of the world in the education of its citizens. Besides ranking 10th in the world in college attainment, the United States is one of the few developed countries where a less educated generation is replacing an older, more educated generation.

"This will have serious implications for the nation's competitiveness and future economic prosperity if we are not able to adequately educate tomorrow's workforce," says Dennis Jones, president of the National Center for Higher Education Management Systems.

The national focus on community colleges to help the United States "thrive and compete in the global economy," in Obama's words, will help bolster community colleges during a difficult economic time for states. But as state institutions, the success of community colleges is the responsibility of state governments and officials.

"The national attention tells me we better perform," says Monty Sullivan, former vice chancellor for academic services and research for the Virginia Community College System. "The spotlight is on us."

CHECK OUT a Q&A with Washington Senator Derek Kilmer at www.ncsl.org/ magazine.

Vincent Badolato tracks higher education issues for NCSL.

AN AMBITIOUS EFFORT TO RESHAPE COMMUNITY COLLEGES

Achieving the Dream aims to foster change within community colleges and in state and federal policy to increase the number of students who earn a certificate or degree or transfer to a four-year school.

The program focuses on schools that serve mostly low-income and minority students, groups that traditionally have not had high success in community colleges.

The effort, started in 2004 by the Lumina Foundation for Education, at first provided money to 26 colleges in five states with several national partner organizations providing technical support. It now helps 102 colleges in 22 states with 31 organizations offering support. The total investment so far is more than $100 million. Partner organizations include MDL, Jobs for the Future, the American Association of Community Colleges and the Community College Research Center at Columbia University.

Achieving the Dream invests in an analysis of an institution's data to learn why students aren't graduating. For example, a thorough analysis of student data in Virginia demonstrated the growing role dual enrollment programs play in student success. From 2003 to 2008, the number of students gaining college credit while in high school doubled, and this was also reflected in the proportion of community college graduates who previously took advantage of dual enrollment programs. Even more impressive is that, of the 2004-05 students, more than 40 percent of the previously dually enrolled students earned an associate's degree and went on to earn a bachelor's degree at a four-year school.

Ron Abrams, president of the Ohio Association of Community Colleges, has seen the benefit of these investments. "Taking a hard look at data and institutional practices has helped policymakers better appreciate the intricacies and difficulties of meeting the needs of a diverse group of students."

The Ohio legislature approved a performance funding system for public universities and colleges that rewards institutions for improving student success. This new system, shaped in part by Ohio's participation in Achieving the Dream, has increased the focus on improving and using data to help drive decisions and obtain better results.

"Achieving the Dream has helped Connecticut develop a safe place for honest conversations with peers to foster cultural change and develop new mindsets for the benefit of the students," says Mike Meotti, Connecticut commissioner of higher education and a former senator. "It is one of the best efforts I have seen for improving student success at community colleges."

For example, the initiative has paved the way for the state to develop a common standard for placement in remedial education courses. In addition, Connecticut Community Colleges and the Connecticut State University System this year signed an agreement that guarantees a student who completes an associate's degree in the state can transfer all credits to a four-year school. These major improvements should help the state expand opportunities and improve the success of students.

CHANGING LOANS TO COLLEGE STUDENTS

The proposed $12 billion in funding to community colleges through the American Graduation Initiative is part of the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2009, which has passed the House and is currently in the Senate.

If the bill passes in its present form, the $12 billion will not be new spending. The money will come from the projected $87 billion in savings after ending a program that subsidizes private student loans.

The bill would eliminate the Federal Family Education Loan Program, which was created by Congress in 1965 to guarantee loans made by private lenders to finance student education. Backers of this approach argue the federal guarantee is needed because many students who request loans from private lenders don't have a credit history or collateral to back the loan.

The Obama administration and other supporters of the new initiative counter the existing program wastes taxpayer money. They say the program not only reimburses lenders when borrowers default on loans, but also provides capital to actually finance lending activity by providing a subsidy above the loan amount.

Rather than subsidizing and guaranteeing loans, the bill proposes that the federal government originate loans by creating a Direct Loan program. The private companies would compete for contracts to service the loans. The projected savings would then be used to pay for a variety of other education programs, including an increase in Pell Grants for low-income students and other scholarships, as well as the American Graduation Initiative.

The administration believes this will provide students with reliable, low-interest loans backed by the federal government without having to go through a bank, and also free a significant amount of money to reinvest in the education system.

Opponents say the new system will hurt an already weakened lending sector, contributing to more job cuts and less private lending, and expanding government into a traditionally private area.

INCOMES AND TAX PAYMENTS
The chart shows median earnings and tax payments of full-time,
year-round workers 25 and older by education level based
on 2005 figures.

Professional Degree          $74,500   $25,500
Doctoral Degree              $59,500   $19,900
Master's Degree              $46,600   $14,700
Bachelor's Degree            $39,000   $11,900
Associate Degree             $31,500    $9,100
Some College                 $29,000    $8,100
High School Graduate         $24,900    $6,600
Not a High School Graduate   $18,800    $4,600

After Income Tax

Taxes Paid

Source: Education Pays 2007, College Board

Note: Table made from bar graph.

LEVEL OF ACHIEVEMENT
The chart shows education level for people 25 and older lowered based
on 2004 figures.

None                0%
Doctorate           1%
Professional        2%
Master              7%
Bachelor           18%
Associate           8%
Some College       17%
High School        32%
Some High School    9%
Elementary          6%

Source: American Association
of Community Colleges

Note: Table made from pie chart.