The New York Times has published an excellent report (gift link) on how federal budget cuts to higher education, framed in the press as attacks on elite institutions, are inflicting devastating costs for community colleges across the country.
From cuts to support programs for students from groups long-excluded from higher-education, to reductions in Pell Grants and workforce training grants for part-time students, to cuts to campus' ability to partner with local employers to recruit broadly for training programs for open jobs, the losses are deep.
These are overwhelming cuts to resources to low-income and first-generation students, on campuses where food pantries feed hundreds of students a month and single parents bring their children to classes.
And until this piece, the cuts to educational opportunity for these students have been largely off the radar.
The authors provide deep context with the history of the development of the community college model. They interview with students and administrators on campuses across the country. The describe the specific equipment (mannequins that give birth to little mannequins after simulated labor complications!) paid for with federal job training dollars and document the reach of free English language and citizenships courses that these campuses have offered to their communities.
This would be an excellent article to read in courses where students otherwise have little understanding of the stratified system of higher education. It would be an excellent article to read in courses considering how student engagement in the politics of equity can matter.
The print edition will appear on August 17.
