Advocate Online

Speaking Out

The Community College Bottom Line

Over 10 million college students in the U.S. are enrolled in the nation's community colleges—nearly half of all undergraduates—yet community colleges continue to be disparaged. As I reflect on one such attack, “Community Colleges Not Making the Grade” in the December 4 Orange County Register, I realize that many fail to appreciate the role of community colleges. This editorial proposed a “bottom line” approach to judging community colleges and warned that if community colleges don’t produce more effectively, then the state’s taxpayers might revolt.

As a community college graduate myself (in fact, I graduated from the same community college as Governor Schwarzenegger and went on to graduate with honors from the University of Southern California and subsequently spent the past 40 years teaching at Cypress College), I believe that taxpayers do understand the mission of the community college.

The community college system conceives of a higher education for anyone who can benefit from it! Never before in history has a country endeavored to provide so many educational opportunities to so many people.

The editorial complains that only 10 percent of our students transfer to a four-year institutions and therefore we should receive an “F.” Of course, that statistic does not consider the many students who “stop out” while they have a child, support an ailing parent, or serve in the military, only to return and graduate at a later date.

Transfer programs aside, how can a bottom line approach be applied to educating the 40 percent of our students [in California] who do not speak English at home, the 35 percent who are the first generation in their families to attend college, or the 70 percent who come to us unprepared in reading, writing and math? We have taken on that daunting task with energy, willingness and an open heart.

So while our bottom line might not compare with private schools that provide an education only at a dear price, we are turning out future lawyers, teachers, business executives, and doctors, as well as nurses, psychiatric technicians, dental hygienists, welders, automobile specialists, refrigeration experts, students who feel enriched and know that they have a place in the world. We are turning out good citizens who will shoulder the future weight of financing an expensive public educational system. How do you measure that with a bottom line?

Donna Friess, professor of communications at Cypress College in California, has authored five books. She is active in the victims’ rights movement and lectures in the U.S. and abroad. Find out more at www.donnafriess.com.