"The various roles of community colleges in state higher education systems - educating students who will transfer to four-year institutions, providing job training and so forth - may seem similar from state to state," Inside Higher Ed reports. "But a study being released today by the Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government - a research arm of the State University of New York - highlights vast differences in the way states make use of and support their community colleges. States vary by as much as five to one in the portion of their population attending community colleges, and the share of states' college enrollment cohort enrolled at two-year institutions was found to be four times greater in some states than others. Significant gaps were also found in tuition rates, as compared to median income in states."