- Fresh hope for community colleges
- Posted By:
- Chris J
- Posted On:
- 08-Sep-2010
-
While the education department has declared billions of dollars in education aid and federal funding, the community colleges are always at the end of the spectrum when it comes to receiving funds. This holds true for the community colleges when it comes to receiving funding from the states as well as on the national level.
However, now things look as if they are going to change. This is because the AACC is now pointing out the issues faced by the community colleges when they receive less or no funds. The problems arise on both grounds such as the access for students and contributing to the economic progress of the country.
Their study states that due to the disparity in funds, the conditions for students and teachers, the community colleges on the whole have disintegrated over time. They paint a bleak picture. not only are they not able to give much to their students, the good teachers and other staff members also leave soon. Plus they cannot sustain themselves and might have to shut down.
Students and parents opt for community colleges over private institutions and other universities because their cost is cheap. The tuition fee is much lower. There has been a surge in the admissions by 17 percent over the last few years. but the more students enrolling would mean that the demand would rise.
However, the community colleges cannot keep up with such demands leaving the students with a sour taste for their education. And then there are budget cuts every now and then. This means that they have to cut down on student access for many things that used to be available to them earlier and these are still a requirement for them. This means that they cannot afford to give the students a better education – what the students came to them for.
And the irony of the whole situation is that this is happening when the Obama government is granting billions of dollars in aid money to schools and colleges across the nation. So why aren’t the community colleges benefitting from these?
The AACC study further states that the community colleges on the whole, i.e. across the nation receive a total of twenty seven percent of the funding from the state, locally and from public donations. At least forty three percent of the graduate students study here.
Whenever they apply for more funding, it is being constantly denied. Currently they receive only 4.5 percent of the state funds as compared to the 7 percent and 5.4 percent of funds they received in the 80s and the 90s. This means there has been a considerable drop in the fund percentage and the reasons for this are unknown.
Surely something is wrong in the way in which these funding systems are designed. Because if forty three percent of the students in America study in community colleges then this makes for a huge number and the funds allotted to these colleges should much higher. It is not for the community colleges that these funds will help, it will help the students to do much better at what they are good at. Plus it will give them more exposure which is good for their future.