"It is a great sport to beat up on politicians, but I want to quickly add that I have a tremendous amount of respect for all of them. They work hard, most are diligent in doing their homework, most have the best interests of the country and their constituencies at heart, and the system has worked pretty well for the nation for a couple of hundred years. And right now, they have provided some real improvements in higher education access, primarily through the tax system, and perhaps more improvements will come in the pending reauthorization of the higher education act. Truthfully, the nation and the Congress are focused more on education issues now than at any time in our history. We can talk more about that in a few minutes.
Terry [Stewart] mentioned that I started my academic years on the right path--that is, I had a strong undergraduate major in English. But I veered from the path and found myself with degrees in the social sciences and education. So you'll understand if I insist a bit on some discussion of the social and political milieu which we need to understand in order to talk about the community college system in the United States. As undergraduates, I know that you were afflicted with some of those courses in which historical periods were identified as 'The Age of Reason' or 'The Era of Reformation.' So play a small game with me; plug in a tape and fast forward to a hundred years from now and ask how historians will identify the period in which we now live. It's a pretty interesting period.
1. The cold war and the threat of nuclear war, which drove much of our national policy, including education policy, have ended. But it is a time of considerable political confusion internally---divided government at the federal level (with true animosities between the parties), with very distinct political philosophies vying for attention and election; a time of devolution of power to the states and a lessening of federal authority (the start of the end of federalism?). There seems to be less national direction at a time of globalization of markets and at a time when money, goods, services, and people can easily transcend national boundaries. The globalization of the food supply now means we can get food poisoning from countries whose names we can barely pronounce.
2. There is an unbelievable explosion of knowledge. I've read that from the Renaissance to about 1900, knowledge doubled every 100 years. In the early 1900's, the rate was about every 40 years. But knowledge now doubles every 5 years--eliminating jobs, creating new ones, easing and complicating our lives. Ninety-five percent of all scientists who have ever lived are living today--cloning cattle, finding genetic markers for disease and perhaps even for behavior characteristics--the latest finding, supposedly, is a DNA link that predisposes individuals to violence or markers that incline us toward certain diseases. What are the social and ethical ramifications of that? How do you deal with 'bias on the basis of genetic markers'? And interestingly, what do you, as teachers, assign as reading to shape thinking about such things? Does the old literature still apply? A friend of mine suggests that the only appropriate literature for some of this [knowledge explosion and its implications] is to be found in science fiction.
3. The knowledge explosion has gone in lock step with the computer revolution. Clearly, we can see the positive effects of this on information processing, data storage, world wide access to information or misinformation (including Kurt Vonnegut's commencement speech), design improvements, weather forecasting--maybe even college administration. Here are a few numbers about computers in our lives:The Internet and our computers have completely changed the way we communicate. I can sit in Washington and debate with Terry the writings of some obscure Canadian author, for example. Or, more seriously, I can sit in Washington and take one or more of 50,000 college courses now offered on the Internet.
- in 1948, in American schools, the student-computer ratio was one in 125. Today, it is less than 1 in 10.
- about 37 percent of American homes now have computers--about the same as Japan. No other country comes anywhere close.
- of the 50 million users of the Internet in the world, 30 million are in the U.S.
- CD-Rom technology first came to market in 1989 when Sony produced 100,000 of them. The projected market in 2001 is 6.7 billion.
- one CD-Rom will hold the equivalent of 330,000 pages of material. Four years of college material can easily be put on one disc.
4. And finally, it is a time when this country is recognized as having the best higher education system in the world, and a failed elementary and secondary educational system. Seventy-five percent of fourth graders, 72 percent of eighth graders, and 63 percent of twelfth graders fail to reach a proficient level in reading. Math numbers are worse. Only 71 percent of all students entering ninth grade graduate four years later. We are producing about a million high school drop outs a year--with few skills and fewer opportunities. In 1950 this country ranked thirty-first in the world in adult literacy; today we rank forty-ninth. We have 40 million functionally illiterate adults in this country. The concern is that we are beginning to produce a permanent underclass in the United States. The top fifth of the income groups in this country now earn nearly 50 percent of all income, while the bottom fifth continues to sink lower and lower. One author, a former Bush White House staffer, James Pinkerton, wrote the following: 'The result, in the coming century, is that one lobe of the transnational gray matter grows a rich green while the other lobe fades away. On the bottom of the split: a stinking poverty that includes not just low incomes but even lower, deeper social disintegration. On the top side of the split, riches and freedom of a magnitude never seen in world history.'
We could add more, but let's turn off the tape machine. Those are some of the facets of our current society, and we'll let future historians and political scientists define the age from their perspective 100 years from now. Maybe they'll conclude that it was the best of times and the worst of times.
However, as many of us see the situation currently, there is one institution that is fighting much of the negativity that the foregoing implies. It does sound hokey and overly optimistic--but that institution is today's community college, doing the traditional educational job of transmitting culture and knowledge (but at a much lower cost than traditional four-year colleges and universities). It is also preparing the American work force with job training and retraining, providing remediation and second chances for those who need them, and increasingly focusing on international and intercultural transitions. Community colleges clearly represent the democratization of higher education in this country. Compare that with any other country in the world. I suppose Mr. Bush would have said community colleges were 'points of light' and Mr. Reagan would have called them 'shining cities on a hill.' Mr. Clinton was a bit more prosaic when, in the course of last year's campaign, he said, 'To me, the community college is the institution in America which most clearly reflects how we ought to be organized, how we ought to work together, and what we ought to be trying to do as we move America into the 21st century. This country would work better if it worked like a giant community college.' Of course, the President didn't say [those words] in the middle of salary negotiations with a recalcitrant, tightfisted, stingy, penny pinching college administration, but it was a good line--and an accurate one.
So why all the emphasis on community colleges? The President, by the way, has visited 14 of them so far during his administration, so he is serious in what he says. And what do we inside the beltway know about them as models for moving into the 21st century?
Well, we know there are about 1500 of them in the United States, about 200 of them private, the rest public, with about half serving rural populations. Importantly, there is one within an hour's drive of 96 percent of the American population. So we know that community colleges are accessible.
We also know that the [community college] physical plant is relatively mature. While there are some exceptions, primarily in Louisiana and Arkansas, the creating and building boom is over. Someone has computed the net value of this physical plant at $65 billion, although I don't know who does that kind of research.
We also know that [community colleges] are affordable: 99 percent have tuition of less than $1500 per year. And we know that the American population is not afraid to go on these campuses. People who wouldn't set foot on a four-year college campus or university readily come to community colleges.
We know, and are proud of the fact, that community colleges are the entry points for America's minorities. Forty-five percent of African-American students, 52 percent of Hispanic students, 41 percent of Asian/Pacific Islander students, 52 percent of all Native American students, and 58 percent of women students enter American higher education in community colleges. And community colleges now enroll 46 percent of all undergraduates in the United States. If the concept of the 'melting pot' is alive anywhere, it is at community colleges. Community colleges look like America.
We know that over a quarter of a million people serve as faculty in community colleges in the United States. Unfortunately, more than half (65%) are part-time, which means that they may not be able to devote their full attention to teaching or to students. Clearly, staffing patterns must change in the next few years, especially in light of the projected enrollment increases coming down the pike, the 'baby boom echo,' as someone dubbed it.
We know that because of the 'echo,' enrollments, especially here in the Southwest, are set to skyrocket. Nationally, enrollments in community colleges, based only on the 18-to-24 age groups, are expected to increase by 11 percent between now and 2006. And that's just straight- line enrollment, not taking into consideration the increasing percentage of high school graduates who will go to college (62% to 65% last year). Add in those who will come for job training or for personal enrichment, and enrollments will grow even more. Indeed, we are starting to see people who already have bachelor's degrees enrolling in community colleges. About 6 percent of the individuals enrolled in community colleges today already have a bachelor's degree.
Just to continue this for a moment more. More than 52.2 million students entered the nation's elementary and secondary schools this year. That's an all time high, which will be eclipsed every year for the coming decade before leveling off. The Department's National Center for Education Statistics does not project college enrollments, but it does project high school graduation rates which can give you some idea of the projected increases or decreases in your states; Arkansas, +2.4%; Louisiana, -3.7%; Oklahoma +8.4%; Texas, +19.7%; New Mexico, +23.1%; Colorado, +28.2%; and Kansas, +14.7%. I also want to note that because of this baby boom echo, there will be a need for two million more elementary and secondary teachers over the next ten years, not replacement teachers but new positions. In particular, there is a need for math and reading and English teachers.
We expect that community colleges will have a strong role in preparing this work force because most of them will complete their first two years at a community college and because we think--and are preparing legislation to facilitate--a closer working relationship with the community colleges and four-year institutions to help fill this need. Title V of the higher education reauthorization, which should be passed by next spring, should provide substantial sums of money for this purpose. As these potential teachers pass through your classes, make sure they can read and write.
We also think that there will be a significant 'bump' in enrollment, which will come from recent tax bill changes. Let me give you a few details on that. As you know, the President made the concept of the Hope scholarship the cornerstone of his agenda for higher education in this term. And that proposal recently passed in the balanced budget tax law and has now been signed into law. The President's proposal was designed to make the first two years of college as nearly universal as a high school education. And it's been done. Basically, Americans have been given a get-into-college-free card. Under this legislation, which takes effect on December 31 this year, students will be eligible for a tax credit equal to 100 percent of the first thousand dollars of tuition and fees and 50 percent of the second thousand dollars--and these numbers will be indexed for inflation after 2001. And this is per student, not per family. The credit is phased out for single filers earning $40-50,000 and joint filers earning $80-$100,000 adjusted gross income. So a family with an adjusted gross income of $79,999 can now send every eligible family member to a community college and get a tax credit for all or almost all their tuition and fees. If I were a college president or dean of admissions or faculty members, I'd be standing on street corners passing out literature stating, 'Get your free college education here.' Basically, this tax credit will cover full tuition and fees in thirty-two of the fifty states and almost all of the tuition and fees in the other eighteen. Is that an incentive for enrollment increases or for retention of students in the second year of college? With this legislation alone, the administration will commit $35 billion in the next five years for higher education.
For those who wish to go beyond grade one (I hate that designation)--or for any of you who wish to do additional graduate work--the legislation provides for a Lifetime Earning Credit which will give you a 20 percent tax credit for the first $5000 of tuition and fees (or a $1000 rebate) through the year 2002 and 20 percent of the first $10,000 thereafter. This becomes effective June 30, 1998.
And for those of you with young children, for each child under 18, you may open an education IRA and deposit up to $500 a year in it. Earnings will accumulate tax free, and no taxes will be due upon withdrawal for postsecondary tuition, fees, books, equipment, and room and board. There is a high-income phase-out (you can't do this if your income is more than $150,000 per year), and you can't use tax-free distributions in the same year as you use Hope benefits. But big deal. Use Hope for the first two years and ED-IRA for the second two. No brainer.
And there are some other provisions that are also beneficial: withdrawals from regular IRA's, without a penalty, for higher education expenses for yourself, spouse, child or grandchild; employer-provided education benefits, tax free, of up to $5,250 per year community service loan forgiveness if you work for a nonprofit service organization; and some other changes on prepaid tuition plans and things like that.
Can we estimate what impact all this will have on enrollments at community colleges? Not really. Do we think it will have a positive effect? You bet. Someone described this legislation as the single biggest educational improvement since the GI bill. Actually, I think it may be more important than that.
Now back to what we think we know about community colleges. We know that the technology changes that have swept business, and even government, are also sweeping community colleges. Fifty-eight percent of public two-year colleges offered distance learning courses in 1995, or 39 percent of all such courses in higher education. Twenty-five percent of those that did not offer such courses in 1995 planned to do so in the next couple of years. So clearly that trend is set. And the cutting edge can be found with the Colorado Electronic Community College; or the Education Network of Maine; or the distance education networks in Oregon, Iowa, Kentucky and Wisconsin; or the Western Governors' University. Actually, one community college in Georgia has gone so high-tech that all students are required to lease a laptop from a computer from the school for two years, and all instructors are required to use the computer in their instruction and in dealing with all student concerns, questions, materials, and grades--or leave the institution. I think no one can predict where this will all lead, just that more and more instruction and interactions will take place via the computer and that the classrooms will become more active than they are now. You (we, if I ever make it back to a classroom) will teach differently from the way our professors did.
Clearly, there are wide variations on the technology levels in community colleges. And colleges were left out of the national technology legislation that provided low-cost access to the Internet for elementary and secondary schools, so all of this may move slower than expected. However, our office in early spring will be sponsoring a televised forum on the technology needs of community colleges--downlinks, etc. So stay tuned.
We know that community colleges are--and will remain. They will develop even more as training grounds for the local and regional work forces and as close partners with the business community. This [work force development partnership with the local community] is unique to community colleges and one of the things educators from other countries are most interested in when they visit the United States. Probably the most spectacular theme that emerges from reviewing community colleges is that virtually everything involves institutional collaborations--with other schools and with business and industry. This [collaboration] just isn't true in the four-year sector.
Also, a number of foundations--Ford and Kellogg, for example--have begun to focus on community colleges as 'economic development engines,' especially for rural areas. From the perspective of many of us in the social sciences and humanities, this isn't the traditional role of colleges, but community colleges are not traditional colleges. They always have been, and will continue to be, institutions that 'break the traditional architecture of higher education.' And while most of the people who come to the colleges for job training or economic development are not going to become English majors or political scientists, they will be exposed to new ideas, new thoughts, new cultures, and new challenges. We can't help but be better for that, individually and nationally. So in the context of training and economic development, expect continued expansion of the role of community colleges. Business knows that to be competitive it needs knowledgeable, literate, problem solving, civic-minded workers for the next century, and community colleges can provide these well-trained workers for them.
We also know that community colleges are leaders in developmental education, that they are major providers of remedial courses in U.S. higher education. They provide 56 percent of the remedial reading courses, 80 percent of pre-algebra, and 61 percent of pre-college algebra. At a lower level, community colleges are major providers of GED and ESL programs. In Los Angeles, one community college provides ESL to eighty different language groups. Over half the community colleges in the country offer GED courses, and 64 percent of those who successfully complete them go on to enroll in those colleges. Nationwide, 6 percent of all community college enrollees are GED graduates. Think about those numbers: 6 percent are GED graduates, and another 6 percent already have bachelor's degrees. Community colleges are indeed unique and a model to the world.
Consequently, we believe, that the AA degree (which nationally only 28 percent of community college attendees actually earn) will be a significantly more important credential than it currently is. And we now have statistics that show that those with AA degrees will earn $250,000 more in a lifetime than those with just a high school diploma. And we also know, from some recent research, that of the top twelve courses taken for credit in community colleges, the number one course is English composition.
So all of this bodes well for community colleges, and English teachers, for the next 10 to 20 years. However, one final thing we know is that currently it is questionable whether the nation's Old Guard academic and political leadership recognizes the increasing influence of community colleges and the growing role they are playing in this society and culture. Most legislators (and many leaders within the Department of Education) are more attuned to the agendas of four-year colleges and universities. It has to become our agenda to educate policy makers about the role of the institutions which we serve. There are, for example, only two agencies in Washington that have community college units---the Department of Education (ED) and the National Science Foundation (NSF). And NSF is more advanced than we are because it has given its unit significant program activities and dollars. At ED we just advise and propagate the faith. But even here, we are seeing the start of a new awareness. A couple of examples are as follows: The College Board has now set up a special community college unit; the Education Commission of the States is now researching the role of community colleges in various states; two federal agencies (Labor and Transportation) have visited with us about creating community college units; the foundations, as I mentioned, are stepping up their activities with community colleges; our office has just completed a series of meetings under the sponsorship of the Stanley Foundation and the American Council on International and Intercultural Affairs on the role of community colleges in defining 'a globally competent student'; NSF and our office will soon hold a conference on the role of two-year colleges in math and science education, and so on.
Now, clearly, there's a lot I've not said about community colleges, and some things I've covered in a fairly shallow way, but the overall conclusion I want to leave you with is this: the view from inside the beltway about community colleges is positive, complimentary, optimistic, hopeful, and sometimes even euphoric. Again to quote the President, "I believe community colleges are the ultimate democratic institution, small d: open to everybody, where everybody has a chance; results-oriented; flexible, not bureaucratic; working in partnership with the private sector; guaranteeing opportunity for everybody who is responsible enough to see it.' So the President likes you, and we like you!"
© Dr. Allen Cissell. All rights reserved.
