An overwhelming majority of Americans say it is better for some students to go to community colleges instead of four-year colleges and universities, according to a poll released today by the Associated Press and Stanford University. Respondents also said community colleges were “good” or “excellent” at almost the same rate as four-year colleges. The poll’s release coincides with a White House summit in which politicians are meeting with leaders from businesses, community colleges, and nonprofit organizations to discuss how those colleges can help meet the country’s job-training and education needs.
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Amen
I wholeheartedly agree with this. There is no mention of trade schools in this survey (unless they lumped them in with the community colleges), but there are some excellent training and certification programs at the technical schools available at a low cost to those who don’t want to go to college.
That is good news. I hope the overwhelming majority also think that CC’s are worth considering for their children, not only somebody else’s children. It would be better for family budgets, students, and my university if we could admit a higher ratio of students who are prepared to be here, who really want to be here, and who are ready to work hard enough to continue past the first year.
Even for those who do eventually want to earn a Bachelor’s Degree, nobody’s diploma has an asterisk on it because they started out at a community college. Especially those not quite sure of what they want to study or what career they want to pursue, in this economic environment, why would you not save the money and start off at your local community college?
In response to the question at the end of comment 4… it is not a rhetorical question. There are indeed many reasons some students should begin and end at a four-year college (which I will not try to cover in a comment post.) But the key in the larger question is not which type of institution is the best, but which type of institution is the best for each student and her or his situation, goals, learning style, maturity level, etc. How reassuring that the public at large seems to already sense this.
Hear, hear. And this is anecdotal, but our experience has been that, when it comes to accommodation of special needs, such as deafness, our community college has come through in ways that the entrenched four-year schools wouldn’t.I fully agree that it’s reassuring that the public understands that one-size-fits-all makes very little sense.
(If only they realized that this is also true of elementary and secondary schools.)
(And graduate schools.)
Dank48 — you can say that again!
This is good. It is certainly preferable to the current practice of turning four-year institutions into community colleges, and holding departments accountable for the jobs graduating students do or do not get. On Florida, they are allowing more community colleges to grant four-year degrees. So much for academic integrity.