I just read something on Obama's plan to invest $12 billion dollars in American Community Colleges. I think it's a great thing - I definitely have made jokes about how "I probably can't even get into Oakton - ha ha," but these two-year institutions do help a lot of people out.
The only bad thing is, these community colleges don't want to stay "community" colleges. Many of them have changed their names and institutions - becoming universities that give Bachelors' degrees. It's great that they're becoming more prestigious, but that's not necessarily what they're here for, at least not in my opinion.
Being a student who is stressed about college, knowing that these $12 billion dollars can possibly make admission to any college, community or not, more difficult, is not the easiest thing to hear. It begs the question, if you aren't "good enough" to get into Community College, where do you go?
Should these institutions be REALLY REALLY good ones now that cater to anyone that needs them? Or should they grown to be up-and-coming, competitive universities?
What do you think?
I don't think that investing $12 billion into community colleges necessarily means that they will all become prestigious institutions. Also I think that as community colleges become more well regarded, addmission into them becomes more difficult. A REALLY REALLY good community college won't be able to cater to everyone because more and more people will want to get their education there but their won't be enough room. If they are successful enough they will grow into 4-year universities and that's fine, another community college will replace it.
ReplyDelete