More than a third of community college students have vanished in the United States

[sanantone]

There are lot of young people who don't want to go to college at all these days, but the administrative issues have long been a problem at community colleges. When students get frustrated, they often go to for-profit colleges, which make it easier to enroll, but have outcomes that are just as bad or worse than those of community colleges. I agree with Dfrecore, though. Many community college students have no intention to graduate, but they select a degree program so they can receive financial aid. Some of them will transfer to a 4-year school before graduating with their associate's degree.

My daughter went to a CC, then another (actually she's taken courses at 4 of them), with the intention to either get her Bachelor's (as a transfer student but not with a degree) or else an AAS maybe - she may do the first year of a 2yr program to get a couple of courses she needs to become something that just needs those 2 courses, but the school won't let her take without being in the full degree program.  We set it up so that she has all of the pre-reqs she needs to do this particular program, but also has all of the courses needed for a 4yr school that her work will pay for, as well as UMPI and/or TESU.  So she has a good amount of credits, and lots of options going forward - but will be considered a "failure" or "dropout" to her current CC.

I went to 3 CC's and 3 4yr schools, and I'm a "dropout" at most of them - even though I was able to get all of my credits to transfer to TESU and get a degree later.  I also took 5 courses at one of the 4yr schools in order to get a certificate, so I guess they don't think of me as a loser, lol.  But the fact is, I was at a CC first to get gen eds, then to get some accounting courses under my belt (my manager suggested it), and just slowly worked my way through over the years.  I didn't actually NEED a degree at any point along the way, I just needed some of the knowledge from some of the courses I took.

I was also a degree-seeking student at a couple of community colleges. Even though I transferred dozens of CC credits to TESU to finish two bachelor's degree, I would be counted in the statistics as a dropout. This reminds me that an advisor at one of the CCs I attended warned me about the courses I was signing up for. I was a criminal justice major, but I wasn't following the degree plan because I knew what I needed to transfer to TESU. I prioritized finishing the BA at TESU over finishing the associate's at the CC, and the government saved money because I could have ended up receiving the Pell Grant for another year if I had focused on fulfilling the requirements for the associate's. 

I've also seen courses that do not allow a student to enroll unless they've been admitted to the program. These are often healthcare and other vocational courses.

[Vle045]

We have a very robust community college here with several campuses. At my son's high school, some teachers are dual employed. Meaning, they are HS teachers, but also college professors who teach the CCP classes right at the high school. My husband is a Police Captain and they do their ongoing training at the local campus where they also have a Police Academy. I might be considered a "drop out" only because I took one class there just because I wanted to learn the topic. Since my son has ADHD, his grades aren't the greatest. When he considers going to college, one thing we talk about is going to the community college first and see if he can do better at that stage in life, then transfer. But at the community college, they have other job training options in addition to traditional Associate degrees.

As for that article, I think the title/premise is misleading. They didn't "vanish". (Maybe I am too literal). They just dropped out. Or were drop-ins. Maybe supplementing other education. And are they looking at factors like local population size? We are closing K-12 schools because enrollment is so much lower than it was 30 years ago.... and even lower than 50 years ago. And do their community colleges offer trade school options?

I would LOVE it if they made community college free. Although I also worry about how that would affect taxes. I know a lot of people who don't have a degree mainly due to cost. An Associate's degree could help.

[Pats20]

We have a very robust community college here with several campuses.   At my son's high school, some teachers are dual employed.  Meaning, they are HS teachers, but also college professors who teach the CCP classes right at the high school.  My husband is a Police Captain and they do their ongoing training at the local campus where they also have a Police Academy.  I might be considered a "drop out" only because I took one class there just because I wanted to learn the topic.  Since my son has ADHD, his grades aren't the greatest.  When he considers going to college, one thing we talk about is going to the community college first and see if he can do better at that stage in life, then transfer.  But at the community college, they have other job training options in addition to traditional Associate degrees.

As for that article, I think the title/premise is misleading.  They didn't "vanish".  (Maybe I am too literal).  They just dropped out.  Or were drop-ins.  Maybe supplementing other education.  And are they looking at factors like local population size?  We are closing K-12 schools because enrollment is so much lower than it was 30 years ago.... and even lower than 50 years ago.  And do their community colleges offer trade school options?

I would LOVE it if they made community college free.  Although I also worry about how that would affect taxes.  I know a lot of people who don't have a degree mainly due to cost.  An Associate's degree could help.

“We are closing K-12 schools because enrollment is so much lower than it was 30 years ago.... and even lower than 50 years ago”


Where is this, and where are they going ? I understand that many districts have consolidated and built bigger schools to accommodate , but where is the decline in enrollment and why ?

[Vle045]

We have a very robust community college here with several campuses.   At my son's high school, some teachers are dual employed.  Meaning, they are HS teachers, but also college professors who teach the CCP classes right at the high school.  My husband is a Police Captain and they do their ongoing training at the local campus where they also have a Police Academy.  I might be considered a "drop out" only because I took one class there just because I wanted to learn the topic.  Since my son has ADHD, his grades aren't the greatest.  When he considers going to college, one thing we talk about is going to the community college first and see if he can do better at that stage in life, then transfer.  But at the community college, they have other job training options in addition to traditional Associate degrees.

As for that article, I think the title/premise is misleading.  They didn't "vanish".  (Maybe I am too literal).  They just dropped out.  Or were drop-ins.  Maybe supplementing other education.  And are they looking at factors like local population size?  We are closing K-12 schools because enrollment is so much lower than it was 30 years ago.... and even lower than 50 years ago.  And do their community colleges offer trade school options?

I would LOVE it if they made community college free.  Although I also worry about how that would affect taxes.  I know a lot of people who don't have a degree mainly due to cost.  An Associate's degree could help.

“We are closing K-12 schools because enrollment is so much lower than it was 30 years ago.... and even lower than 50 years ago”


Where is this, and where are they going ? I understand that many districts have consolidated and built bigger schools to accommodate , but where is the decline in enrollment and why ?

That is not a simple answer.  In general, the Boomer generation still had the most births, although millennials came pretty close.   Currently, they are neck-and-neck.  Gen Z is smaller than Millenials were.  Most of the public schools were built to accommodate the Baby Boom.  Since then, there have been newer communities, private schools, charter schools, online schools, and homeschooling.  So we have a slightly smaller generation being spread out further.   In the communities around here, that shiny new school is nice and all, but it's just a small incentive to get taxpayers to vote for a bond to consolidate.  

Most of the nearby cities have gotten with the program.  My city has not.  The taxpayers have been holding firm to keeping three high schools.  The district said, ok, fine.  We are still closing a high school and those kids will get split up in the other two old buildings.  Now, we need you to vote for the bond and we will build you a shiny new school when we tear down the closed school.  It still probably won't pass.    These three buildings were built in the Boomer era to hold about 1500 kids each.  We only have maybe 2,000 high school kids total.  So the new school would be "bigger", but also smaller.

Some of that would impact community colleges, but there would be other factors too. We do have more alternate credit options that may pull some away from community colleges.  We have employee benefits offering free and cheap online college courses/degrees that we didn't have before.  I don't know a lot about how community colleges are funded, but maybe they should partner with local businesses to offer free/further reduced tuition to employees.   I'd be curious how Pierpont benefits from those free BOG degrees.   If they get funding for that, maybe more should follow their lead.

[ss20ts]

“We are closing K-12 schools because enrollment is so much lower than it was 30 years ago.... and even lower than 50 years ago”


Where is this, and where are they going ? I understand that many districts have consolidated and built bigger schools to accommodate , but where is the decline in enrollment and why ?

I live in an area where school districts are consolidating or researching consolidation. Our population has decreased. There are far fewer children here than decades ago. People are having fewer kids today than 50+ years ago when the schools here were built. Here, every town has it's own school district which isn't cost effective today.

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Why pay for community college when one can watch some YouTube videos and learn the same thing? This doesn't apply to every subject, but there's a ton of info available online today from places such as YouTube, Coursera, edX, certifications, bootcamps, etc.

[Pats20]

Okay. I can see certain areas decreasing. But overall the US population is growing and is much higher than it was 50 years ago. I understand consolidation and geographical areas gaining and losing populations, but it blows my mind to think less kids are in school today than 50 years ago. I’m not saying that it’s not the case because I haven't done the research to confirm or dispute. It just baffles me if it is. That is why I asked the question.

[allvia]

Okay. I can see certain areas decreasing. But overall the US population is growing and is much higher than it was 50 years ago. I understand consolidation and geographical areas gaining and losing populations, but it blows my mind to think less kids are in school today than 50 years ago. I’m not saying that it’s not the case because I haven't done the research to confirm or dispute. It just baffles me if it is. That is why I asked the question.

Part of the reason for the increased population numbers is people live longer than they used to, and with such a large numbers generation (boomers) now at the higher end of age spectrum it is really showing their power reflected in the numbers. Less 'new' people but still many already counted 'old' people in the mix. Add to that many people are having children later in life, and fewer children per household when they do have them - it keeps the 'new' people numbers lower than previous generations. https://www.marketplace.org/2021/05/19/h...h-problem/

[ss20ts]

Okay. I can see certain areas decreasing. But overall the US population is growing and is much higher than it was 50 years ago. I understand consolidation and geographical areas gaining and losing populations, but it blows my mind to think less kids are in school today than 50 years ago. I’m not saying that it’s not the case because I haven't done the research to confirm or dispute. It just baffles me if it is. That is why I asked the question.

Part of the reason for the increased population numbers is people live longer than they used to, and with such a large numbers generation (boomers) now at the higher end of age spectrum it is really showing their power reflected in the numbers. Less 'new' people but still many already counted 'old' people in the mix. Add to that many people are having children later in life, and fewer children per household when they do have them - it keeps the 'new' people numbers lower than previous generations. https://www.marketplace.org/2021/05/19/h...h-problem/

My grandmother 5 childen
My mother 3 children
Me 0 children
My 2 siblings both have 0 children

My great grandmother 6 children
My grandmother 4 children
My father 1 child
Me 0 children and no siblings

That's how population is changing. Lots of people aren't having kids today or are having fewer than the previous generations. Immigration is how the US population is increasing. It's not increasing from our own breeding. Back in the day, you needed a lot of kids to run the farm, take care of the kids, etc. You had to grow all of your own food and then some to sell or barter so you could buy the things you couldn't grow like material to make your own clothing. Life was drastically different not that long ago.

[dfrecore]

Okay. I can see certain areas decreasing. But overall the US population is growing and is much higher than it was 50 years ago. I understand consolidation and geographical areas gaining and losing populations, but it blows my mind to think less kids are in school today than 50 years ago. I’m not saying that it’s not the case because I haven't done the research to confirm or dispute. It just baffles me if it is. That is why I asked the question.

Part of the reason for the increased population numbers is people live longer than they used to, and with such a large numbers generation (boomers) now at the higher end of age spectrum it is really showing their power reflected in the numbers. Less 'new' people but still many already counted 'old' people in the mix. Add to that many people are having children later in life, and fewer children per household when they do have them - it keeps the 'new' people numbers lower than previous generations. https://www.marketplace.org/2021/05/19/h...h-problem/

My elementary school had to go year-round in the late 70's/early 80's because there were too many kids and not enough space; then it was closed years ago, due to declining population, and an old school.  The school district now runs an adult education facility there.  This kind of thing happens all the time - there are more people, but not more children in the US now.  I live in an area where there's growth, but that certainly isn't the case everywhere in the US.