Community colleges are a ‘game-changer’
Lower-income families greatly benefit from them
After Tamika Powell lost her job during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, her uncertainty was replaced with hope when she decided to enroll at Chicago’s Harold Washington College to complete an associate arts degree.
But Powell, 39, and the mother of a 13-year-old daughter, feared an unpaid $1,500 balance on her City Colleges of Chicago account would prevent her from pursuing her dream of becoming an early childhood educator.
“I had a debt, and I wouldn’t have been able to go back to City Colleges without the Fresh Start program,” said Powell, a resident of Chicago’s Pullman neighborhood.
Her unpaid tuition bill was wiped clean through the recently launched City Colleges program, which is aimed at reducing barriers to education for low-income residents.
“As a single mom, $1,500 is a lot of money when I’m raising my child on my own and trying to pay my rent, so Fresh Start has been really amazing for me,” said Powell, who is back to working full time at an early child care center while completing her coursework at Harold Washington.
“Community college has been a game-changer, not only for me but for my child.”
The passage of the federal Build Back Better Act by the House on Friday was bittersweet for officials at City Colleges of Chicago, who learned last month a proposal that would have made community colleges across the U.S. tuition free was cut from the roughly $2 trillion social safety net and climate bill.
As championed by President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden — a longtime community college professor — the move to make community colleges across the U.S. tuition-free is viewed by supporters as imperative for students from middle- and lower-income families, many of whom are finding it increasingly difficult to pay for a higher education degree without incurring enormous debt.
When City Colleges of Chicago Chancellor Juan Salgado heard last month the tuition-free community college proposal had been cut, he said he was “not just surprised, but I was deeply disappointed.”
While City Colleges offersseveral tuition-free programs for qualifying students, including high-achieving recent Chicago Public School graduates, not all students benefit, Salgado said.
“Community colleges are in every community — rural, urban and suburban, all across the United States of America, in all of its nooks and crannies,” Salgado said. “There is momentum afloat that did not exist before, and the stake is in the ground.
“And it’s going to stay there.”
U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky also expressed disappointment Biden’s proposed two years of free community college was removed from the legislation.
“As U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said ‘Community colleges are the backbone of this country’s growth and the future economic prosperity of our country,’ ” Schakowsky said in a statement. “They offer students a path to a four-year university if they choose and higher wages in many fields.
“While the community college component wasn’t included in this final package, it is not the end of our
push to make higher education more accessible and more affordable for all Americans.”
A spokesperson for U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush said he is a strong supporter of making the nation’s community colleges tuition-free for students.
Albeit painful, the cuts are necessary to ensure the
social safety net and climate package is ultimately signed into law, Rush spokesperson Naomi Savin said.
The package still includes a $550 increase for students eligible for federal Pell grants, as well as increased funding to support first-generation and low-income college students, and students enrolled at historically black colleges and universities, Savin said.
Funding for child care, the new child tax credit and affordable housing will also benefit community college students who are juggling their studies with jobs and family responsibilities, Savin added.
Overall, the legislation invests more than $20 billion to strengthen higher education, she said.
Harper College President Avis Proctor said despite the recent setback she is encouraged by the surging number of scholarship and financial-aid opportunities for students, including Harper’s new Igniting Paths to Success Scholarship that awards full tuition and funding for fees and books.
College Promise programs, which offer free tuition to high school graduates meeting academic and other criteria, are offered at community colleges nationwide, including Harper.
“We know that having tuition-free community colleges is near and dear to President Biden and Dr. Jill Biden’s hearts, but his administration is in its first year, so we’re still hopeful because this is not going to disappear tomorrow,” Proctor said.
Representing the third-largest community college system in the nation, Illinois’ 48 community colleges enroll more than 600,000 Illinois residents each year in credit and noncredit courses, serving both traditional and nontraditional students, according to the Illinois Community College Board.
In addition to providing affordable higher education opportunities to earn degrees and certificates, a recent study found the economic impact of Illinois community colleges on the statewide economy in fiscal year 2020 is estimated at $3.5 billion and includes 43,316 jobs.
Nevertheless, enrollment at community colleges across the U.S. has declined around 9% during the pandemic, which American Association of Community Colleges President and CEO Walter Bumphus attributes to the fact that many students who attend community colleges are also employed and lost their jobs in the wake of the virus.