Friday, October 5, 2012

California's community colleges staggering during hard times - Carla Rivera, LA Times

This is the new reality for about 2.4 million students in the nation's largest community college system. The system is the workhorse of California's 1960 Master Plan for Higher Education, which promised affordability, quality and access to all. In reality, the state's two-year colleges are buckling under the stress of funding cuts, increased demand and a weak record of student success. The situation can be seen on all 112 campuses — students on long waiting lists, those who take years to graduate or transfer and others so frustrated that they drop out. Most of them enter ill-prepared for college-level work. Eighty-five percent need remedial English, 73% remedial math. Only about a third of remedial students transfer to a four-year school or graduate with a community college associate's degree. "We're at the breaking point," said Jack Scott, who served as chancellor of the California Community College system for three years until retiring this month. http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-college-overview-20120923,0,3310236.story