In high school I looked down on community colleges as not "real" schools. Then I took a summer math course at the local CC before entering college. It was extremely good. The content of that one course was equivalent to three of the watered-down courses offered by the R1 flagship university I later attended. Of course, they had to be all snobby about the CC and wouldn't accept transfer credit for more than one of those three.

Money for community colleges is all well and good, but where is the money coming from? The feds are $11+ trillion in debt.

Should we really be spending more money we don't have?

I'ma get my learn on!

HenryFnord: Can we call them what they are - vocational schools?the best financial move you can manke

Load up on the cheap credits and transfer to a four year school. Save you a freaking mint.

Ok, so now not only do I get to pay for other people's health care, I also get to pay for other people to go to college?

Can't I just adopt a poor ghetto child and call it a day?

Theaetetus: First, your joke attempt is stupid - voc schools and community colleges train people for manufacturing and service industries. Ditch digging needs no training.

Let me guess: Community College graduate?

Or maybe you just didn't understand the deep complexities and social commentary of Caddyshack.

I neber gradumicated from da commmunsity colledge dat I goed two. And i'd turnned outs jest guud. I donst no y dey kneed anyting.

I am for this, although what needs to be done even more is to fix secondary education in the US. If community college can serve as a place where students get some education that brings them to where they really should have been after graduating with a decent GPA at a decent high school (without grade inflation etc.) then I am for it. Many of the students I encounter (I'm a meteorology professor at a state school) are so absolutely unprepared for college that it blows my mind. When you think of how much money they are spending to slog through in 5 or 6 years with a sub 2.5 GPA you want to cry. And yet, the push in the US is to send every bloody student through college like it's going to solve all of our problems.

Many "good" colleges/universities are MORE than happy to keep these kids in school knowing full well that they degree they end up with may be nearly worthless. Attrition is considered a bad thing when I consider it to be a good thing because college is not the special olympics where "everyone wins." Standards can't continue to be lowered (grades continue to be inflated) in order to accommodate the product of a failed primary/secondary education system. But that's what happens.

I can see many 4 year schools crapping their pants over this because it will indeed pull revenue from them. Such is life, I suppose. I just want you bastards to think critically and actually put some effort into learning beyond cramming for four hours before a test....

August11: and hard-working students who know they are up against the C students at Yale.

I don't know if they have Presidential abitions...

I love you recycled Cold Warriors who still see RED everywhere.
Godless Commies are everywhere aren't they? Watching you folks
pine for the days when you could trot off to Vietnam to kill
a few is just terrible. Going off to the sandbox just isn't fun
enough so NeoCons & Rush Limbaugh prefer staying home. Plenty
of Cheetos here and it's so comfy to blog about pretend Communists are keeping you down. If it weren't for the secret Communist conspiracy America would be paradise!

Came for the ignorant, derisive comments from Farkers who spent too much money on 4 year "real universities" for an education you coulda got for $1.50 in late charges at the public library.

Leaving very satisfied.

Good.

Lets start retraining people who got paid all these ridicules benefits for jobs that could have been automated by machines 50 years ago. There's a reason Japan's auto industry moves so well... much better automation, lower error rates, less employees, no insane union benefits.

Start retraining for new jobs. Can't live on government cheese forever.

Education should be a mandatory part of getting unemployment benefits. Should require X hrs of training or education per week to qualify. That would help the many who spend months of "I can't find anyone who will hire me with my skills". And get them off of Uncle Sam's wallet quicker.

AMBITIONS.

Dammit...I need coffee. And preview.

Rockdrummer: I teach a community college class. My first peer review said "Ease up on the requirements, after all this is a community college, not a university." Is it the mindset that community college is a dumbed down college education? Things like my experience don't help the reputation.

I took astronomy as a science requirement in both a community college and a major university.

Community college: learn the name of the planets, go to the planetarium and look at the pretty stars. Watch a few 'NOVA' episodes'.

University Level College: Learn Kepler's law and calculate the orbits of various planets. Learn Newtonian physics and calculate various things. Exams were almost all math.

HUGE difference.

TFA: propel the United States toward his goal of having the highest proportion of college graduates in the world by 2020

Undergrad degrees are so 1990s. Masters is the new undergrad.

Communisty colleges? What is this? Farx news?

More resources for underachievers!

Just got my A.A. from one of the best CC's in the country. Every teacher there has at least a masters, but most of my professors were "Dr.s".

My last English professor previously taught at Columbia U, U of Delaware, and U of Michigan, came to my school temporarily and ended up staying permanently because he loves it.

CC's rock. Same education at a fraction of the price.

Theaetetus: Ditch digging needs no training.

No training, my ass, college boy. As a fully-trained and licensed ditch digger, I resent your dismissive attitude of my highly skilled profession. I could dig your name into the front lawn of your house...in calligraphy.

It's a good idea, now we need somewhere for them to work after they learn a trade.

I did CC for two years. Got my AA and transferred to USF as a junior.

I saved $20/credit hour by going that route. That's $1200 saved on tuition plus the thousands I saved by living at home for those 2 years.

brnt00: Masters is the new undergrad.

For reals. It's why I'm getting an MBA despite having no real interest in the material.

My CC classes were harder than the equivalent university classes. At the CC, half the class failed every class, so at the end of the class, the professor had no motivation to curve grades because expectations are so low. At the university, every lower division class had an army or students begging the professor to curve, and they almost always did.

Also, calc2 was way harder at the CC, and covered more material.

BlorfMaster: University Level College: Learn Kepler's law and calculate the orbits of various planets. Learn Newtonian physics and calculate various things. Exams were almost all math.

Weird. I took Astronomy 2 at a CC, plenty of math, pulsars and sush.. Astronomy 1, pretty lights.

Confessions of a Community College Dean is a good blog to follow if you're interested in a CC's perspective on the role of CC's in higher education.

Arklop: No training, my ass, college boy. As a fully-trained and licensed ditch digger, I resent your dismissive attitude of my highly skilled profession. I could dig your name into the front lawn of your house...in calligraphy.

Can you run a Zaug?

brimstoner: Communisty colleges? What is this? Farx news?

It does seem a bit anti-education for the Main page..

IXI Jim IXI: BlorfMaster: University Level College: Learn Kepler's law and calculate the orbits of various planets. Learn Newtonian physics and calculate various things. Exams were almost all math.

Weird. I took Astronomy 2 at a CC, plenty of math, pulsars and sush.. Astronomy 1, pretty lights.

Astro 1 was all math depending on what semester you took it at my CC. The other semester was lab

Cajonian: That was my experience too (see post above). It might depend on the prof or school, though.

BlorfMaster: Rockdrummer: I teach a community college class. My first peer review said "Ease up on the requirements, after all this is a community college, not a university." Is it the mindset that community college is a dumbed down college education? Things like my experience don't help the reputation.

I took astronomy as a science requirement in both a community college and a major university.

Community college: learn the name of the planets, go to the planetarium and look at the pretty stars. Watch a few 'NOVA' episodes'.

University Level College: Learn Kepler's law and calculate the orbits of various planets. Learn Newtonian physics and calculate various things. Exams were almost all math.

HUGE difference.

But, if you didn't know what the CC taught you, then you CERTAINLY would not know what to do once you got the university level exam. It did exactly what it was supposed to do...prepare you. Oh, and let me know the next time you make a single dollar for knowing Newtonian physics, outside of a classroom.

The_Sponge: - Chris Rock

A real beacon of intellectual thought that one.

Bored Horde: Well Donald_McRonald has one of the most egotistical profiles I've ever seen on Fark

Seriously, the guys got a book in there. Dude really, its the Farkin internet. Noone gives a shiat.

Bad headline, subby!

KOLLEJE IS KOMMUNIST!

AAAIIIEEEGGHH MUST SMASH UHLEETIST SMART PEEPUL!!!

Yep.

Let's denigrate it just a little more with a
lame-arse joke a six-year-old kid could make.

All of you putting down 2-year, public colleges really need to re-assess your belief that everyone who could, should go to a traditional 4-year institution. Community colleges and for-profit colleges (ITT / U of Phoenix) are the ones training your nurses, lab techs, mechanic, HVAC repairman, plumber, electrician, paralegals, etc. I could go on and on; the list of jobs they train for is mindnumbing. The fact of the matter is that over 50% of the jobs in the world do not need a 4-year college education.

These schools have tremendous job placement rates. Don't believe me? For-profit ed providers (ITT / UofP / Lincoln) are mandated to provide this data to the govt (including starting salaries) or they can't participate in Federal lending programs to the students. Show me any 4-year college that will publish that hard data. Fact of the matter is they won't.

Community colleges provide a necessary service at a cheap cost, and it represents a sector that has been shunned and ridiculed for decades while the economy has boomed. Now that the market is turning around and traditional 4-year students are having difficulty finding jobs, we are beginning to realize that we've been overeducating below average individuals who would have been better served with a 2-year degree and less student debt.

Some base facts (I teach and admin at at CC in TX.):
--80% of our students come in needing remediation in one or more core subject areas. (50% of Texans are dropping out. How's that workforce gonna help?)

--90% of the students at my CC are defined at "high risk" (1st generation college students, Pell grant or minority students)
--My institution grants more degrees and certificates to this population than any school in Texas, whether it be Univeristy or CC.

--CCs are the only educational institutions with the ability to react to the demands of the workplace and community quickly and efficiently. For instance, when Katrina knocked some 40,000 students offline at Delgado CC in New Orleans, the college was able to institute distance learning classes within 2 weeks, and retain 75% of those students. The others were taken on by Houston CC and other CCs in Texas.

--CCs ask faculty to concentrate on teaching first, and research second. We give the best individual attention to our students. This summer, for instance, one of my students told me that my class was the first class below 250 she'd ever attended in college. She had never even been talked to by a professor.

While many Americans sell us short, I'm glad the President isn't willing to do so.

tweekster: Astro 1 was all math depending on what semester you took it at my CC. The other semester was lab

It must've been the way they divided ours up. I was the solar system, II was galaxies and such. We did a little math in I...orbits and such. II was working with wavelengths and crap like that.

Beat cutting up frogs.

Truth is if you are motivated and you work hard it's almost irrelevant whether you do CC first. It is indeed what you make of it. If you are shrewd you can save a lot of money doing the CC for a lot of the courses outside of your major.

However (complete speculation) I would presume Obama is doing this to provide access to higher education to more students who wouldn't otherwise have it. One may assume that these students will probably struggle if they go straight into a 4 year school, or would not be accepted. If they get their shiat together at CC then they will likely be much more likely to succeed at a 4 year school, and everybody wins.

President Barack Obama will unveil a $12 billion initiative on Tuesday to boost community colleges and propel the United States toward his goal of having the highest proportion of college graduates in the world by 2020, administration officials said.


If Obama attended our public schools instead of a private, he would understand that this is not possible.

Best school I went to was a CC. University was just looking for a new fee to prop up their semi-professional sports team. Then there's private college, which I experienced as the worst of CC and State University combined.

fireclown: HenryFnord: Can we call them what they are - vocational schools?the best financial move you can manke

Load up on the cheap credits and transfer to a four year school. Save you a freaking mint.

THISTHISTHIS

I did that; the CC near my hometown had an engineering transfer program with the state's best engineering university, where the CC provided the first two years of engineering courses and they transferred directly to the university. It cost me a fraction of the money to get through those first two years compared to going to a 4 year university, and I had just as good a preparation for my junior and senior years as those who went the full 4 years.

My wife got her associates degree in computer aided drafting and technology (basically a civil engineering technician's degree) and was immediately snapped up by a local engineering firm. Those graduates got a tailor-made education in what the PEF's and DOT needed for technicians, and it's a very popular curriculum.

Anyone who says a CC is nothing more than extended high school has never attended one, and is sadly ignorant about how much value they provide to the local job market. Nursing, CAD training, education and surveying are all taught at CC's.

Unshavenhelga: --80% of our students come in needing remediation in one or more core subject areas. (50% of Texans are dropping out. How's that workforce gonna help?)

When they reach that first question, "How old is the universe?", that probably weeds out a few right there.

Yea, keep on spending. It's not like this country is running the largest deficit in the history of the world. I think Obama needs to go to one of these colleges. It probably wouldn't hurt if freshened up on basic economics first. You know, the basics you learn in middle school.

snakedriver: community college is like a disco with books
gonna get my learn on!!

You know why they call it community college? Because anyone in the community can go. Crack head, Prostitute.

AS from Community College
BS from 4-year university.

One year at the Univ. cost me more than my entire AS at CC.

I'm pro CommCollege. The people who make fun of them are the people who think they're doing fine on their high school diploma. It's easy to mock something you know nothing about.

Bendal: Anyone who says a CC is nothing more than extended high school has never attended one, and is sadly ignorant about how much value they provide to the local job market. Nursing, CAD training, education and surveying are all taught at CC's.

Just be careful how your credits transfer to the school you're looking at. I was pissed as all hell when I slogged through civil war history just to watch it transfer as an elective.

Fatslave: What doesn't Obama want to pump billions into?

Your mom, but she already had billions pumped into her.

/giggity

Arnold T Pants: It's not like this country is running the largest deficit in the history of the world.

Well, it's not.

Arnold T Pants: Yea, keep on spending. It's not like this country is running the largest deficit in the history of the world. I think Obama needs to go to one of these colleges. It probably wouldn't hurt if freshened up on basic economics first. You know, the basics you learn in middle school.

Like how an educated workforce will pay more in taxes?

IXI Jim IXI

It must've been the way they divided ours up. I was the solar system


Geez, look at the ego on this guy.


:-)