Yesterday's summit was a moment to both celebrate the extraordinary accomplishments of community colleges and to take stock of and action on the challenges that lie ahead. For too long, community colleges were underappreciated, underfunded, and misunderstood. Working with modest resources, community colleges now educate almost half of all college students. About half of all first-generation college students and minority students attend community colleges. It is a remarkable record. No other system of higher education in the world does so much to provide access and second-chance opportunities as our community colleges.
Community colleges have never been more important. They are educating the workforce of the future -- the radiologic technicians; the registered nurses; the installation experts on solar and wind power; the IT and cyber-security technicians; the displaced workers in need of retraining and new careers; and scientists and other professionals.
President Obama set a goal that the United States will once again having the highest college attainment rate in the world by 2020. If we are to meet that goal, community colleges must lead the way. The math is stark. According to our projections, five million of the eight million additional college graduates needed to meet the 2020 goal will be community college graduates. All of higher education must contribute to reaching this goal. But community colleges will be the linchpin.
The Obama administration has committed unprecedented federal support for community colleges, but the financial pinch on community colleges is brutal -- and it is unlikely to fade anytime soon. At the same time, full-time enrollment at community colleges increased nearly 25 percent in the two-year period from 2007 to 2009. Most revenue for community colleges comes from the states -- and state revenue shortfalls stemming from the recession are making it tougher and tougher for community colleges to fulfill their promise of open door enrollment policies.
Yesterday's summit was a beginning point, not an end point. We challenged those at the summit to replicate and take to scale the outstanding examples of community colleges. We have never before had more examples of success of community colleges boosting transfer and graduation rates with a certificate or degree; of schools building partnerships with industry that lead to real jobs; and of effective remedial instruction and online learning. But our students and our nation need success to be the norm, not a sometimes-thing.
In the years ahead, the overarching aim for community colleges must be dramatically boosting college completion and success. This is not about tinkering; it's about transformation. This is not just about getting more students to enroll; it's about getting more students to graduation day. To meet the President's 2020 goal, we project that all institutions of higher education will need to increase their college attainment rates by 50 percent over the next decade.
At present, only one in four community college students earns a degree or certificate, or successfully transfers to universities for their baccalaureate degrees. That has to change if our nation, our communities, and our students are to thrive and remain competitive in the knowledge economy.
For the sake of our students and our nation, let us work together to strengthen community colleges. Let us build the best-educated, most competitive workforce in the world, and let us nurture the citizens of tomorrow.
Danielle Wiener-Bronner: How NBC's Community Promotes Community Colleges
i made a suggestion at green college UBC 15 years ago : a graduation fee paid by big companies hiring graduates to the graduate and/or alma mater
maybe a sighing bonus for top graduates to allow them to pay off student loans
as a matter of basic policy student loans are not good social policy ; its ecxessive usury
readers of this and the impact section should knowthat the David Lynch foundation's " consciousness based education for world peace " is the most effective and economical
greatest impact for good perdollar and biggest impact for less bad
Translation: You aren't getting any money, just more happy talk from the likes of me. Good job serfs, keep supplying us with cheap labor.
Thanks for nothing Arne. And the fact that you didn't bother inviting any adjunct faculty -- that would be the 70% of the faculty, who you didn't, apparently, feel had anything substantive to add to the summit, speaks volumes about your sincerity.
The problem with this is so many of our STUDENTS are not prepared for College. A clear focus on Elementary school, middle school needs to happen FIRST. Then In HS we need to have more tracks like we did back in the older days with students taking shop classes or career focusing classes.
Wouldn't a HS class on engine mechanics be more useful to many students then that Algebra three or Trig Class? Some students will have more of an aptitude to be an office worker and there are always jobs advertised for people with clerical skills etc so give them more opportunities and incentives to track to careers that do not require college but maybe a tech school .
Filling every kids head with the idea that they MUST go to College when they are barely scraping passing grades in HS is not preparing them for success.
If the U.S. Secretary of Education wrote that sentence, it's easy to see why educational standards in the US are appalling!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
http://www.singlemomfinancialhelp.com/
Thanks for your updated status on the situation of the community colleges. To help solve the financial pinch which many colleges are under why not ask your boss to sell an aircraft carrier or eliminate an Army Division or trim the active number of B2 bomber squadrons? The displaced soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines should get priority job placement. The long term savings from these unit deactivations are justified to bring the colleges into the 21st century.
Let the young not ready for college kids learn some self discipline, valuable skills and EARN the money to go to a good college plus they can take college and CLEP tests along with industry certification tests (such as Microsoft certification tests like A+, Net+, Security + and MCSE) while serving then return with a more focused approach to college.
It is how I EARNED the money to pay for my degree.
Like I said before, I agree with you on the other Obama crew...I don't trust the vast majority of them, especially Geithner....
www.latinonationreport.c
I'm going to start paying more attention to him and what he says. What you say he stands for and fights for are the things that I think are crucial. So maybe I will like him if I check him out a bit more.
Did you see the Larry King Live last week with Michelle Rhee, John Legend, Randi Weingarten and some other folks? It was all about education reform. Really interesting. Michelle had some brilliant ideas and views on education. She's bright, smart, and has a real can do spirit about what the job and purpose of a teacher/educator/principal should be. I wasn't impressed with Randi, but that's the only time I've seen her speak, so I will hold judgement based on that one interview. I just felt like she was too firmly entrenched in the status quo. I'm all for teachers being well paid, and taken care of. I come from a fam of teachers! But the entire education system needs an overhaul, and that includes some of the teachers. I'm not sure she was willing to roll with that.