A new piece of legislation aims to reduce or eliminate the cost of attending community college in the United States. Senators Patty Murray (WA) and Tammy Duckworth (WI) and Representatives Teresa Leger-Fernandez (NM), Robert Scott (VA) and Madeleine Dean (PA) introduced legislation in both chambers to make two-year colleges free to eligible students.
I can’t help but notice that nobody’s rushing to make the cost of attending a four-year university free of charge, even though a bachelor’s degree would produce substantially better economic outcomes for students. The average cost of full-time attendance at a community college is about $2,100 per semester. The average cost of a 3-credit class at a public university is about the same. So, that means the average full-time semester at a public university is somewhere in the neighborhood of $10,000.
Community college is already the cheapest option available. Prospective students who truly lack the means to attend community college can use Pell Grants and other need-based aid to remove any cost barriers that exist. Community college costs are not onerous.
The real issue that keeps people out of community college classrooms is the return-on-investment for an associate degree. For some reason, two-year colleges have specialized in training people for low wage work. As it turns out, the people who can least afford college are also those who can least afford to get stuck in low-wage jobs. I mean, they may also end up in low-wage jobs if they don’t attend a community college, but at least they will not have wasted time and money (or Pell Grant eligibility) on getting a piece of paper to go along with their small paycheck.
Improving community college ROI will take authentic educational leadership
The easiest, fastest, and most certain way to fill community college classrooms is by offering programs that enable people to get jobs that allow them to enter the middle class. That entry point is a moving target, but right now, that’s approaching $50,000. So, community colleges will need to make it a habit to review programs for economic viability and eliminate those programs that don’t pass the test.
Additionally, two-year colleges will need to spend lovingly each year on developing new occupational and vocational programs that prepare people for jobs in emerging fields. It also probably means coming up with more efficient ways to deliver a full degree program in less than two calendar years. That might mean re-examining the traditional 15-week model. It might mean running legitimate, regular summer semesters and weekend classes, with a selection of self-paced and online classes thrown in. (Can you compress a 60-credit program into five 10-week, 12-credit semesters? Can you combine a 60-credit, industry-sponsored, academic program and paid experiential learning in a two-year program? Maybe even expand the size of the full-time faculty?)
Seems like something a community college with nearly a dozen vice presidents should be able to accomplish…
Photo Credit: elment, via Flickr
