Recession Harmful to Nation's Community Colleges

State and local governments are in serious financial trouble, and not just in California. The current recession is also having a disastrous effect upon the nation's community colleges, according to a recent article in the Washington Post (registration).

It is axiomatic that, if unemployment rises, so does enrollment in two-year colleges, as workers retrain and people opt for schools closer to home in order to save money. Apparently, this is still the case, but with one important twist: Funding is declining for community colleges nationwide. In fact some schools are capping enrollments, cutting programs, and laying off personnel. The Obama Administration has promised help, but it's not clear if it will be anywhere near enough to mitigate the damage, according to the article. Obviously, robust community colleges are indispensable to economic recovery.

Based on this piece and other media reports, it's hard to escape the impression that things are better in Texas than in most other states, in terms of funding for education. It's worth keeping in mind, of course, that the recent Regular Session produced a budget that was aided considerably by an infusion of federal stimulus funds.

Here are a couple of key passages from the Washington Post article by Valerie Struass:

At Prince George's Community College, where enrollment has increased by at least 4 percent each of the past two years to more than 37,000 students, officials are holding staff vacancies open longer than usual, freezing some positions and delaying hires -- all of which is aimed at saving about $500,000, said school spokesman Deidra Hill.

At the 57,000-student Anne Arundel Community College, officials are trying to deal with enrollment increases while working with a 2009-10 budget that has the same funding as two years ago, said Linda Schulte, director of public relations and marketing. Still, she said, circumstances would have been worse if the state had not directed $1 million in federal stimulus money to the school. About 15 staff positions have been frozen, she said.

And:

The largest community college in the country, Miami Dade College, announced that it is effectively capping enrollment at the current 167,000 students for the first time because of deep budget cuts by the Florida legislature. Because no class sections can be added, officials there say they expect more than 5,000 students to be unable to enroll in any classes this fall and at least 30,000 more to miss out on classes necessary for graduation.