BLOG: Community College Is STILL College

We see alarming stats of students dropping out of four-year colleges. The No. 1 reason is financial.

So many families opt for the community college route.  However, because of pride, ego, etc., many look down on the community college as a viable GREAT alternative ... treating it as an extension of high school. 

As a taxpayer, I believe a student receiving ANY kind of subsidy from our depleted tax coffers needs to treat community college with the same respect as a four-year college. The completion rates and retention rates at community college are DISMAL, and I believe much is attributed to the fact that many students don't take their higher education seriously. 

For instance, in the October 2011 American Institutes for Research report called "The Hidden Cost of Community College," these were some of the stats that came out.

• State and local governments appropriated close to $3 billion to community colleges to help pay for the education of students who did not return for a second year.
• States spent more than $240 million in student grants to support students who did not return to their community college for a second year.
• The federal government spent approximately $660 million in student grants to support students who did not return to their community college for a second year.
• In total, almost $4 billion in federal, state and local taxpayer monies in appropriations and student grants went to first-year, full-time, community college students who dropped out.

The results for four-year college are saved for another blog. But suffice to say, they also are pretty alarming. But back on point...

Lets start of with calling community college COLLEGE. It is NOT a "junior" college. Your child's college transcripts will follow them for their whole academic career. Even homeschooled children who take college classes before they are 16 need to be MATURE enough academically to understand that blowing off assignments and tests is NOT OK, and college professors have bigger fish to fry than to give your child "extra credit" or a "do-over."

While ceramics and screen painting are "fun," part of our responsibility as parents should be to teach gratitude and good stewardship, always maintaining the GOAL of higher education to be the focus. Sure, there is time for "fun" classes, like painting, but let them do that on their own dime, AFTER they get into a job or career and are self-sustaining.

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