Career College Association Responds to Barron's

The following is a response from CCA to Barron's regarding their article "Leveraging Up to Learn":

"In our world, consumers, not taxpayers, pay for higher education. Because it’s their money, the students pay more attention, work harder to earn their degrees, are more serious about gaining the skills they need to succeed in the workplace and graduate at higher rates. At a time of shrinking government budgets for higher education and long lines for admission to the most popular programs, that world would seem like a pretty good place to be. Apparently Barron’s disagrees. Instead, reporter Bill Alpert uses a highly charged pair of anecdotes, selective data, and a variety of loaded words to misrepresent the education our students receive and the motives of the institutions making that education available to them (“Leveraging Up to Learn,” November 9, 2009).

Here’s the real picture of career education:

· Our sector educates 2.5 million students and is growing at an annual average rate of 11 percent because our students see value for which they are willing to pay. Attainment rates for career colleges (certificate, two-year and four-year programs) are 60 percent, not 34 percent. Unlike public universities, four-year career colleges often offer certificate and two-year degrees, in addition to four-year degrees. Comparing four-year career colleges to traditional institutions offering just four-year degrees or just two-year degrees is misleading at best;

· Students and institutions share an interest in course completion. For the student, postsecondary completion is tied to jobs, careers and upward mobility; for the nationally accredited institution which must produce certain outcomes to stay accredited, completion rates can spell the difference between institutional success and failure. Accreditation is one leg of an oversight triad, with significant additional oversight of institutions provided by state higher education commissions and the federal government;

· Career college students pay higher tuitions than their public school counterparts because taxpayers pay $7,200 to subsidize the community college student but just $1,200 to support the career college student. Even with the higher borrowed amounts, the overwhelming majority of career college students repay their federal student loans, returning a profit on the taxpayer’s investment;

· Career college students do default on student loans at higher rates than others, but that’s because career college students tend to be poorer, more apt to be independent, more likely to be the first in the family to attend college. There is no mystery here: community colleges and minority serving institutions also serve less affluent populations and experience higher default rates. We don’t “blame” our students for being poor any more than we “blame” affluent students for attending the most selective traditional colleges and universities (and defaulting at lower rates). Income disparities exist in America, but that does not mean that poor students should be kept from higher education opportunities.

· Barron’s computes a year on year drop out rate of 37 percent for career colleges, the same level at public colleges and above the rate for nonprofit private colleges. The newspaper comes up with its own definition of “drop out.” That’s because the U.S. Department of Education itself does not track such numbers. While persistence is critical to student success (and nationally accredited schools are measured on it as well), many reasons explain a break in enrollment from one year to the next, especially for non-traditional students. Such reasons include school transfers, family matters and work obligations.

· Career colleges are described as making loans to students in order to “duck” the Department of Education’s 90-10 regulation, requiring at least 10 percent of tuition to be paid from non-federal government sources. The article fails to mention the fact that the private student lending market cratered in the wake of the credit market collapse, leaving many students out in the cold. Institution-supplied financing is a temporary step designed to help such students avoid a break in their studies. Schools are schools, and have no interest in becoming bankers or lenders.

Reporter Alpert says the “evidence” does not show whether the career education sector is serving its student population or preying on it. Come to our schools. Talk to our students or to employers who hire our graduates. See the career education world as it is, not as how a few short sellers and plaintiffs’ attorneys would like it to be."

Community Colleges Take on New Burden: Honor Students

The Washington Post has the story:

Over two arduous weeks last spring, Cassels sat with her parents and weighed the costs and benefits of each program until the list was narrowed to one: an honors track at the local community college.

Cassels, 18, is one of an increasing number of high school graduates who pass over top-drawer public and private universities to become honor students at community colleges. Recession-wary students are flocking to selective two-year programs, which allow students to complete half of their college education for about $8,000, then transfer to a more prestigious four-year institution.

While giving students more options to finance their education is never a bad thing, there is a fair question to be asked looking at these enrollment numbers:

Honors enrollment at Howard Community College, a 9,000-student campus in Columbia, has risen from 123 to 185 in the past two years. Cassels enrolled in the signature program, Rouse Scholars, which takes 45 high school graduates each year and offers a proven pipeline to four-year schools. The average Rouse scholar has a 3.7 grade-point average and a combined SAT score of 1596 out of a possible 2400 points.

Over the past two decades, community college honors programs have found a niche among students who were turned down by increasingly selective state universities and didn't want to pay private-college tuition. Enrollment grew steadily until the recession. Then, it exploded.

Montgomery College in Maryland had a record 275 applications this fall for 25 seats in its Montgomery Scholars program, up from 215 last year. Honors enrollment at Prince George's Community College rose 28 percent this year to 292 students. A new honors program at Anne Arundel Community College grew from 22 students last year to 33 this year. On the Loudoun County campus of Northern Virginia Community College, enrollment in honors English is up by 50 percent.

Even with community colleges being a national priority, can they reasonably perform the responsibilities asked of them with the ever-changing and increased demands being placed on them?

Photo courtesy The Washington Post.

Why Traditional Higher Education Isn't for Everyone

A senior at a four-year institution who initially toyed with the idea of going to a trade school in her late 20s now reflects on her future prospects:

Now I am a senior at a four-year public university and I feel more like I am in a one-size-fits-all outfit instead of a custom-fitted suit. I will leave with a degree in journalism and be lucky to make $10 an hour at a desk job in a newsroom, with the added benefit of being $20,000 in debt with student loans. The budget cuts that have increased tuition have also downsized my class options.

I have yet to work in a newspaper setting because a series of required journalism writing classes must be taken first. Next semester when I finally make it to the newsroom, I will get four months of experience before I try and make it in the real news world. I feel like I am taking baby steps only to be forced to grow up in order to graduate on time.

In order to receive my degree in four years I have had to generalize my field and drop my intended emphasis in public relations. It’s not as though I have to graduate this year, and while another year would allow me to hone my skills, it would increase my debt and delay my getting a job.

Los Angeles Trade Tech offers programs in journalism and public relations. By now, I could have studied what I actually wanted to do and finished more than a year ago. Instead, I will graduate with an expensive accessory that may already be out of season.

 There's no denying traditional higher education works. That's not the issue. The most pressing and relevant question is if it works for everyone. On that account, the answer is not so obvious.

Fareed Zakaria Talks America's Skills-Absent Workforce

From his latest Newsweek column:

Part of the slippage is due to the fact that other countries—from Singapore and South Korea to Canada and Sweden—are actively changing their laws and systems to make themselves more competitive. The United States didn't raise its corporate tax rate; others lowered theirs. But the United States is falling far behind in one key resource: human capital. Whether measured by the percentage of kids with high-school diplomas or performance on standardized tests, America is not producing the kinds of workers needed in a knowledge-based economy. Let's be clear. Even properly measured, the United States does well. But the halo is fading. The wide gap between the United States and the rest of the world is closing.