Obama Administration pushes for funds, improvements for community colleges

TRANSCRIPT:

Today the White House hosted the first-ever Community College Summit in an effort to boost support for two-year colleges, which have seen a surge in enrollment spurred by the recession.

Joining the effort is the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which announced a multi million-dollar grant to help strengthen completion rates at community colleges which lag behind so-called four-year schools.

FSRN’s Jacob Fenston reports.

Second Lady Jill Biden hosted the White House summit. She’s been a community college teacher for the past 17 years and currently teaches English at Northern Virginia Community College.  She said these inexpensive schools are one of the country’s best kept secrets.

JILL BIDEN: Well, with the president of the United States shining a light on us, I think that secret is out.

The schools, she said, are especially important to low-income, and minority students, and so called non-traditional students, who are now becoming the majority of college undergrads.

BIDEN: These schools have been an option for many students who didn’t have other options. Recent immigrants, working adults, or students who couldn’t afford, or weren’t quite ready for a four-year institution.

President Obama told the crowd of educators, students and business people that community colleges are one of the keys to the country’s future.

PRESIDENT OBAMA: We know, for example, that in the coming years jobs requiring at least an associate’s degree are going to grow twice as fast as jobs that don’t require college. We will not fill those jobs, or keep those jobs on our shores without community colleges.

Obama wants the U.S. to again lead the world in the number of college graduates by 2020 — he wants eight million more graduates each year, five million coming from community colleges.

But that’s a big task for these low-budget institutions, especially at a time when states are strapped for cash. In addition, less than half of community college students graduate, or transfer to a four-year college, to get a  bachelor’s degree .

MELINDA GATES: So our task as a society now is to get that percentage up.

Melinda Gates, of the Gates Foundation announced a $35-million grant program, to help community colleges graduate more students.

GATES: We have to have a conversation that’s about college completion, and make sure all the incentives are in place so that students who walk in the front door of our community colleges complete with that degree or certificate they set out to get.

But that kind of money isn’t going to create systemic change, says Camille Esch, a fellow at the New America Foundation. She says community colleges have about half as much money per student as their four-year counterparts.

CAMILLE ESCH: Yet they’re typically educating a more challenging student population. So it costs a lot of money to provide the kind of services that will really help these students be successful, and yet the community colleges as a rule don’t have the capacity to really provide what these students need.

Another problem is confusion over transfer credits, says George Boggs, president of the American Association of Community Colleges.

GEORGE BOGGS: We need to have stronger agreements between community colleges and universities so students can transfer on and get their bachelors degrees a lot easier.

He says the schools also need a steadier stream of funding to handle the needs of students who come from high school unprepared. Some 60 percent entering community colleges need to take remedial courses, according to the Community College Research Center.

Bridget Jackson, a college counselor at a Washington, DC, charter high school, says community colleges work best for students who are well-prepared.

BRIDGET JACKSON: The kids who choose to go to community college as a part of a bigger plan.

But she says many enroll simply because they feel like they’re supposed to.

JACKSON: I think there’s such a push for kids to go to college, that some of them go to community college because they don’t know what else to do.

There are over 1,000 community colleges in the US, and with tuition around $2,500 a year, they offer one of the most affordable ways to get a degree.

- Jacob Fenston - FSRN, Washington