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Essay on Future of Community Colleges
Over the past century, the United States has grown increasingly complex socially, ethnically, economically, politically, and technologically. This complexity has been enabled by the evolution and development of a citizenry of many talents, interests, abilities, and backgrounds. The geographic enormity of the country has meant that in any given year or decade there have been regions of poverty and economic depression during times of general prosperity. Conversely, some states, regions, and localities have escaped general economic downturns. The opening two decades of this century, like the closing decades, have provided an enormous influx of new citizens, cultures, religions, nationalities, and ethnicities to the fabric of American society. The impact of these demographic changes has similarly not been uniform across the country.
As a distinctively American invention, the comprehensive community college stands between secondary and higher education, between adult and higher education, between industrial training and formal technical education. Community colleges have provided educational programs and services to people who otherwise would not have enrolled in a college or university. Access to community colleges has not been bounded by the norms of admissions examinations or high school grades. Community colleges have stood for open admissions, geographic proximity, and relative financial affordability to the potential students of the community and region served. Within the structure of American higher education, the community colleges's contribution has been increased accessibility and pragmatic curricular diversity geared to local and regional needs.
Future of Community College
Throughout their history, community colleges have been unquestionably committed to addressing the needs of the local community. In fact, it was once suggested that criteria could be established to determine the degree to which a community college progressed toward the goal of being an ideal college. All of these criteria were directly related to how well the college was fulfilling community needs.............
