Thursday, May 28, 2015
Century Foundation Report Calls for Funding Reform for Community Colleges
Community colleges tend to receive the least amount of public financial support compared to other institutions, yet they are asked to push high numbers of low-income students into the middle class with few resources. A report released by the Century Foundation today -- "How Higher Education Funding Shortchanges Community Colleges" -- calls on states to reform funding models to better help two-year institutions jump-start social mobility.
"We're in this strange situation where students who have the greatest need receive the fewest resources and those who have had lots of advantages in life then have additional resources showered on them in higher education," said Richard Kahlenberg, a senior fellow at the foundation and author of the report. "What this report is trying to do is bring together some of the earlier findings on the inequality that community colleges face with recent research on hidden subsidies that wealthy institutions receive and provide a call for action to remedy this situation...."