Dive Summary:
- A new Century Foundation report released Thursday warns that community colleges may become "separate and unequal institutions in the higher education landscape," calling on two-year colleges to make major changes to their financing and operations in order to counter "the increasing economic and racial isolation" of their students.
- The report recommends that states and the federal government provide more funding to community colleges serving students with the greatest amount of need, that advocates in states where constitutional guarantees might extend to higher education file lawsuits to require "adequate funding."
- In order to shift the patterns of four-year colleges enrolling a disproportionate number of wealth and white students while two-year colleges enroll more needy and minority students, the report recommends creating more financial incentives for four-year schools enrolling community college transfers with financial need, and the creation of more two-year-college honors programs.
From the article:
... To "bring greater clarity to all types of public support for higher education," the report also asks the U.S. Departments of Education and of the Treasury to jointly study how tax exemptions for donations to colleges and for institutions' endowment earnings indirectly subsidize colleges—an effort that would highlight how such policies disproportionately benefit wealthier four-year institutions. ...