Report: Focus on Improving Outcomes, Not Making Community College Free
By Allie Bidwell, Communications Staff
The idea of debt-free and tuition-free community college has gathered steam as policymakers increasingly focus on the issues surrounding college access and affordability. But rather than focusing federal dollars on an initiative to make community college free, a new paper from the Manhattan Institute argues the money should be funneled into initiatives that improve graduation rates and lower student loan default rates.
Judah Bellin, an adjunct fellow at the Manhattan Institute, argues in the paper that although community college may be a more affordable and flexible option for certain student populations, the sector also has a lower graduation rate and higher student loan default rate than other two-year higher education sectors, including for-profit colleges.
“Absent widespread improvement of outcomes, America’s community colleges might not offer students a bargain – even if tuition were free,” Bellin writes. “To make community college a worthwhile investment, the sector should learn from the small number of successful schools that employ intensive counseling to help students graduate quickly.”
But community college officials have rebuffed claims that their graduation and student loan default rates are as grim as some claim. While the three-year cohort default rate for community colleges was 20.6 percent for students who entered repayment in 2011, community college officials say it’s important to take those numbers with a grain of salt because students at two-year, public colleges are much less likely to borrow than in other sectors. Overall, just 17 percent of students at community colleges take out student loans – compared with 56 percent of students in all other sectors – according to Community College Week. The amount they borrow is also lower than average.
Bellin argues, though, that making community college tuition-free could open the floodgates for more students to enroll in schools that might not serve them well in the end. He suggests taking a carrot-and-stick approach – similar to the Department of Education’s (ED) gainful employment regulations for non-degree-granting programs – to reward schools that perform above average and penalize those that perform more poorly, while giving them an incentive to improve by first issuing a warning and allowing for a grace period to boost outcomes before taking action.
Bellin notes, though, that any sanctions should not “starve” even the poorest performing schools of necessary resources. “Excessively draconian cuts” in federal aid, he writes, would hurt the students any stricter standards are meant to help.
“Though often discussed as an essential stepping-stone to middle-class life, America’s community college sector needs fundamental reform to deliver on its promise,” Bellin writes. “Any attempt to enroll more students in community colleges should be coupled with measures to improve outcomes.”
Publication Date: 9/24/2015
Raymond H | 9/24/2015 9:34:59 AM
I just want to start off by saying that schools should be held to the highest standards to instruct their students in the courses that they have selected and these courses should be sellable in the job market. It never ceases to amaze me that some people involved in education, have no clue as to what the real situation is. You talk about underperforming schools, and Stick and Carrot approaches for schools. It is easy to blame the schools for poor results, but the real problem is underperforming students. Many students come from backgrounds and education experience that will not and do not prepare them for higher ed. No amount of guidance or help is going to change their outcome because they come to higher ed unprepared or with excessive "baggage". Instead of talking about free tuition and awards and punishments for schools, we should be talking about funneling more money into pre-k through 12 education so we can motivate the students at an early age and make them want to strive to succeed in higher ed. Throwing money at them at the later stages is like closing the barn door after the horses have already run away. Also more money should be diverted for local programs to help guide those students who may be in depressed situations to have a caring outlet to help them through those bad socio-economic times and make them model citizens. Model citizens succeed!!!
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