The Case for More Aid to Community Colleges

Richard Kahlenberg makes it.

According to research by Anthony Carnevale and Jeff Strohl of Georgetown University, rich students outnumber poor students by 14 to 1 at selective four-year colleges, but at community colleges, it is poor students who outnumber rich ones, by nearly 2 to 1. There is also considerable stratification within the two-year sector, such that the most racially isolated quartile of community colleges has student populations in which almost two-thirds are from underrepresented minority groups. Community colleges, like public schools, tend to reflect the economic and racial segregation of surrounding neighborhoods.

…Stunningly, over the past decade, inflation-adjusted spending at public research universities has increased roughly $4,200 per student, compared with just a $1 per student increase for community colleges.

Community colleges generally achieve poor outcomes, although individual students are exceptions. It is not clear to me that this is because those colleges lack resources. A lot of it could be the null hypothesis (that education interventions to not make a big difference at the margin). If that is true, then putting more resources into them is not the solution.

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