Obama Invests $12 Billion in Community Colleges

This past year, at the nation's 1,200 community colleges, students have literally been feeling the squeeze. In the recession, the Associated Press reports, more students and laid-off workers have been flocking to community colleges for job training at a bargain, and the schools have been forced to accomodate them in various ways: Bunker Hill Community College in Massachusetts holds graveyard shift classes that end at 2:30 a.m. while the Community College of Baltimore County in Maryland has made classrooms out of student lounges and locker rooms.

"All community colleges are not prepared to take on those potentially large numbers of students," said Debra Bragg, a professor and director of the Forum on the Future of Public Education at the University of Illinois.

President Barack Obama wants to invest $12 billion in community colleges in an effort to have 5 million more students graduate by 2020. The plan is to use money from the 10-year initiative to rebuild worn facilities and implement online classes to help colleges handle the flood of students. But, according to the report, the money may not be enough.

Most of the money to fund community colleges comes from local and state funding sources. But the economic downturn has dried up some of those streams. In California, for example, community colleges are looking at $840 million in budget cuts, and enrollment is expected to rise. American Association of Community Colleges estimates enrollment spikes of at least 10 percent over 2008. Some schools have reported increases of 25 to 30 percent.

For now, administrators can only wait and see if Obama's 10-year plan will provide enough of a financial boost to support student growth and help community colleges sustain their programs.

"They will be constrained by funding," says Bragg. "It could be potentially extremely challenging if there's not increased funding at the federal, state and local level to make that happen."

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