Community Colleges Seen as Source of Engineers

By JEFFREY BRAINARD

Engineers in America are too scarce and too white. That complaint comes from corporate chieftains and education leaders alike, who see those shortfalls as a virtual guarantee that jobs and innovation will head overseas. Now many are looking to remedies to both problems from an unsung source: community colleges.

Thanks to low tuition, overall enrollment is rapidly growing at two-year colleges. It is going down, however, in colleges of engineering at four-year institutions. And while