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By Brian Friel, National Journal
© National Journal Group Inc.
Friday, Jan. 19, 2007

World War II had only recently ended, racial segregation reigned in much of the nation, and most Americans worked in agricultural or manufacturing jobs for which a high school education was sufficient. Yet millions of veterans were looking for new educational opportunities thanks to the GI Bill, which provided as much as $500 a year for college tuition plus a monthly living allowance.

It was 1947, the year a commission appointed by President Truman announced a bold goal. "We shall aim at making higher education equally available to all young people, as we now do education in the elementary and high schools, to the extent that their capacity warrants a further social investment in their training," Truman's Commission on Higher Education declared. The panel envisioned a nationwide network of community colleges. At the time, about 300 junior colleges enrolled just half a million students in two-year programs.

Today, more Americans get their postsecondary training at public community colleges than anywhere else. These institutions are particularly good at providing training that is relevant to today's workplace needs and at retooling workers who lost their jobs to globalization. Harvard, Yale, and the rest of the Ivy League can take care of themselves; efforts to improve American education need to focus not on them but on community colleges, which educate many more people.

About 1,400 public community college campuses now dot the American landscape. They enroll 11.6 million students, and range in size from the 2.5 million-student California Community College System -- with 109 campuses, the largest higher-education system in the world -- to the 100-student Nebraska Indian Community College, near the isolated Omaha and Santee Sioux reservations in the northeastern corner of the Cornhusker State. Forty-five percent of America's undergraduates attend community college. "Community colleges are a real strength in American education," said former South Carolina Gov. Richard Riley, who served as President Clinton's secretary of Education.

Community colleges are quintessentially American: open to all, regardless of high school record, religion, or race; inexpensive, or free with the help of federal and state aid; locally run, often with the involvement of business leaders; and quick to adapt, with courses changing as local job markets evolve. Walters State Community College, which has 5,900 students and four campuses in the Great Smoky Mountains and foothills of eastern Tennessee, is a prime example: Full-time tuition is a relatively low $1,200 a semester, and most students get government assistance to help pay it. In response to the closing of many of the region's textile mills and furniture factories, the college in December opened a worker retraining facility designed to give the locals advanced manufacturing skills enabling them to work, for example, in auto parts factories or at a new toothpaste plant. Nancy Brown, executive director of the college's Center for Workforce Development, said the school also plays matchmaker -- connecting students with employers in need of skilled workers. "Community colleges act as a go-between," Brown noted.

That's an increasingly important role now that American workers are competing more and more with workers around the globe, including in booming China and India. About half of community college students aren't seeking a degree; they're just taking courses to gain specific skills.

The New Commission on the Skills of the American Workforce, a panel of former government officials including Riley, called last month for revamping the nation's educational system to better deal with the demands of global competition. The panel wants to allow high school students to shift to community colleges after 10th grade to start job training earlier.

President Bush has encouraged Americans to turn to community colleges for retraining. Speaking last May at Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College, he became the first sitting president to deliver a commencement address at a two-year college.

Six decades after the Truman Commission helped spark the vast expansion of the nation's community colleges, many American students still don't have access to higher education because they're not prepared to do college-level work. According to an Education Department study [PDF], 42 percent of the students who enter community college must take remedial courses in basic subjects, such as reading and math, after enrolling. On the flip side, community colleges enroll more than 600,000 high school students in college-level courses, giving them an early start on their postsecondary training.

Bridging the gaps between high schools and four-year institutions and between employers and workers, two-year community colleges will help determine how America fares in the global economic competition. Community colleges, Riley says, are "one place where we are out in front of other countries." [an error occurred while processing this directive]

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