I frequently write about community colleges. In part, it’s because as a sociologist I’m very concerned with educational inequality and fascinated most with underdogs. In part, I enjoy complexity and I think these institutions fit that criteria. But most of all, I write about community colleges because too few people do.
Not these days, of course. These days community colleges are everywhere — the Obama administration seems fairly obsessed with visiting them, praising them, and hopefully funding them as well. But in the scholarly world, and usually in the public eye, these are the shadow colleges.
It’s time for a change. We have to start paying attention — serious, thoughtful attention — if we want to reach any of our current goals. Want out of the recession? We need more jobs and less economic inequality — and that means a more inclusive approach to postsecondary education (which includes, or should include, training). Want your kids to have a shot at living a decent life, relatively debt free? We need to embrace less-expensive options for college. Want a better health care system? We need more nurses. The community college can help.
At the same time, I have to admit — these are far from perfect schools. Kevin Carey has tried to set a bar by ranking them based on how engaged their students are, how much they achieve. It’s hard to deny how much progress must be made, when dropout rates average 50 percent. But I don’t think accountability alone is going to cut it — we need community colleges to “go big or go home” — and it’s going to take new ideas, serious money, and serious leadership to make that happen.
We need more great minds focused on first understanding, and then working to rethink the two-year sector. The best social policy reforms have emerged from thousands of creative people mulling over key issues day in and day out, debating approaches, testing empirical evidence, revising and rethinking. The study of community colleges deserves nothing less — so hey, students looking for a dissertation topic, assistant profs in need of the next paper, rethink that K-12 or elite four-year focus and go where the action is.
In the meantime, I’m betting DC can help come up with (some of) the cash. My colleagues and I argued it should in a recent Brookings paper. And the leadership is out there — heck, yesterday I lunched with three of the most exciting two-year college presidents I’ve ever met. Full of verve, just itching to try new models and get things started, these women are ready to take over the world! Give them the right to make big changes and watch them fly. Just as Michelle Rhee has been handed the reins in Washington, and given plenty of cash to try out her ideas for school reform, I think we need to give some of the gutsiest and most thoughtful two-year college leaders the nudge and support they need to take on reforms at the community college level.
We can’t do with anything less than big change. The time is now.
