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Big Strain, Big Expectations for Community Colleges

By Catherine Gewertz — November 02, 2009 1 min read
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The stories keep rolling in about the booming demand for community colleges. Just last week, we told you about a report from the Pew Research Center showing that community college enrollment was driving an overall increase in college enrollment. The New York Times is one of many newspapers that reported recently on the surge.

Now comes an Associated Press story describing the boom and questioning whether President Obama’s pledge of increased support to two-year colleges is enough to adequately manage the increased demand. Research on community colleges, as we reported here recently, also raises questions about whether they can play an effective role in meeting Obama’s goal of putting more degrees in Americans’ hands. The American Enterprise Institute’s Rick Hess was pretty clear about his doubts in a blog post last summer.

What do you think?

A version of this news article first appeared in the High School Connections blog.