

New boom for community colleges? - edw519
http://www.newsweek.com/id/215469/output/print

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callmeed
I did 2 years of general ed and CS courses a community college before
transferring back to a 4-year state university.

Our CS courses were at night, taught by a professor who worked full-time _as a
software engineer_. I'm not knocking PhDs who go directly from
student->professor (I had some great professors after transferring), but
there's something to be said for learning from someone who has real-world
experience.

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JCThoughtscream
I almost suspect that my school district's former chancellor had her hand in
this. It seems very much something that Martha Kanter would propose - and
rightfully so, as California's community colleges are especially feeling the
budget crunches.

What's worse is the whole timing of the thing. The trend is generally that the
less money there is available to the school district, the more students state-
funded community colleges get, which in turn hikes up their operational costs.
It's hard to get a more vicious cycle than that.

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Retric
I don't see why community colleges can't become cheep colleges. The only
problem is when people forget it is fine for a college to focus on something
other than becoming "highly selective." A network of collages that let people
take night classes for 10 years to get a degree could be useful for many
people.

PS: Counting the _six-year graduation rate_ is a broken metric for such
institutions.

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dugmartin
Big state research institutions are dead - they are just way too expensive to
run. Four year community colleges with faculty that teach full time are going
to become the norm.

