In July President Barack Obama announced his plan to expand the amount of federal funding provided to community colleges across the nation. The program would provide $12 billion to community colleges over 10 years. The administration sees this program as a way to increase the number of college graduates by about 5 million by 2020.
Although this plan may potentially increase the number of college graduates and aid in healing the job market, there are some problems that need to be examined further: Where will the funds come from? How will the funds be distributed? How will community colleges cope with the drastic increase in the student population?
A Wall Street Journal article reported the average age of a student attending a community college was 29. To me, this indicates the majority of community college students have been members of the workforce at some point in their lives. Now, I’ll be the first to admit the job market is bad, but wouldn’t the students leaving their jobs find it even more difficult to find jobs once they graduate? Of course, this will depend on how fast our economy can recover from the recession.
Increasing the number of college students is excellent; I believe everyone should receive some sort of higher education, whether it’s from a community college or an Ivy League university. However, considering the size of many community colleges, some may not be able to cope with the large influx of students.
Many community colleges pride themselves on their small classroom setting, and with more students already attending community colleges because of the lower tuition, increasing the student population even further would make it difficult for these smaller colleges to cope.
With the government providing more than $100 billion on corporate bailouts, another $10 billion makes Congress look like it’s swimming in cash. But since the federal government is trillions of dollars in debt, that’s not the case. So where is this extra $10 billion going to come from?
The Wall Street Journal reported funding would come from the billions of dollars the federal government would save through the proposed Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act. According to an announcement on the House Committee on Education & Labor Web site, the act would save the government about $87 billion in 10 years.
Another concern of providing more funding to community colleges is how the funds will be distributed. Sunday’s Associated Press article addressing the issue reported there were about 1,200 community colleges in the U.S. When you do the math, that’s $1 million a year per college or $2,400 for each of the anticipated 5 million graduates (and that’s not including the students who won’t graduate).
These numbers may seem large, but when one considers how much money it takes to run a college, it’s not very big at all. The Associated Press reported in California alone, there were $840 million in community college budget cuts.
What will happen after 2020 when the $10 billion is depleted? Will the federal government continue to promote community colleges so enthusiastically, or will they be left to survive without the extra help? What about when an associate degree isn’t enough anymore?
During the last decade, many jobs have started requiring a college degree. In an article on the CNN Web site, Obama is quoted saying, “... jobs requiring at least an associate degree are projected to grow twice as fast as jobs requiring no college experience.” What will happen when those jobs start requiring a bachelor’s degree and then a master’s degree and so on?
Many things sound good in the present, but seem to lose their excellence when thought about in the long run. I have no doubt extra community college funding would benefit many Americans, but I’m afraid of what might accompany those benefits. Federal funding isn’t something to be taken lightly, especially when our national debt is in the trillions of dollars.
Be the first to comment on this article!