Editorial: Community colleges

No Child Left Behind: The Community College Edition

Every student who completes a federal financial aid application has to look at the dismal City College completion and graduation rates, extracted from the National Center for Education Statistics.  

In 2010, only ten percent of entering students were counted as full time. The retention rate for full time students was sixty-one percent but thirty-five percent for part time students. Only fifteen percent graduated with degrees or certificates.  Only twelve percent of LACC students transferred to universities.

In order to boost the numbers, a statewide organization known as the California Community Colleges Student Success Task Force is gearing up for reform to boost graduation and transfer rates.

How do you boost numbers?

Get rid of the weakest link—part time students who struggle with work and family duties.  They have obligations that compete with school.

The Task Force intends to prioritize fee waivers for full time students to ensure that their degrees are completed within “normal” time.  For an associate degree, three years is the maximum period of “normal” to complete that study.

Proponents of the task force have described their goals as ensuring accountability. In a financial crisis, how can the state continue to invest in “lazy” students who don't bother with their classes?  The state should allocate its funds to the more “motivated” full time students, the Task Force recommends.  

Community colleges have been known for its access. The community college system in California is the largest in the nation.  

To register for City College takes seconds whereas getting into UCLA takes months of preparations.

Should higher education really be available to everyone who desires it?

The resources and finances at community colleges are bleeding.  The Task Force argues that resources must be “rationed.”  Full time students should receive fee waivers and priority registrations. The safe investments are the students who are progressing at “normal” time, whereas, students who are progressing slower would be considered riskier investments.  When degrees are not achieved in “normal” time, the figures make City College look like a campus of idiots and dilettantes.

Vigorous opponents from San Francisco City College have argued that getting rid of noncredit courses and a prioritization for full time students as privatization.

The retention and graduation figures don't tell the full story.  They don’t reveal students who are at City to learn for the sake of learning, to dabble into a new field, to retrain, to get their feet wet into an area that they had always desired but pursued another major field because of parental pressures.  

But government likes numbers.  The percentages are too low. Make 'em higher by kicking out the ones who bring down the numbers?

Learners exploring their desires need not apply.  Financial aid will be tied to grades and “normal” pace of progress towards degrees and transferring. The Task Force intends to build a transfer powerhouse with numbers to show off.

Community colleges have always been seen as the one accessible oasis to the population with the harshest adversities: minorities, first generation college students, low income, working-class.

Students who want to explore and slow pokes who stick around City College beyond three years—Sorry, my friends, the Task Force wants you out.

Illustration by Jose Tobar

 

Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) Mark of Excellence Awards - 1st place - Editorial Writing 2012

No Child Left Behind: The Community College Edition