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NEW from me: Last summer, I visited one of the newest community colleges in America, looking for insight on how to improve rural college attainment. I found a parable for the pandemic age: what happens when higher education is starved for funding. 1/ https://www.americanprogress.org/?p=486335
I am also thrilled to share my thoughts in @GlobeIdeas. The answer to an upheaval like coronavirus is not to strip higher ed to the bone, but to think bigger, like the New Deal or the GI Bill. 2/ http://bostonglobe.com/2020/07/23/opinion/best-route-moving-up-is-danger-being-blocked/
Leaders in rural Central Louisiana had a dream for lifting people out of poverty. That dream grew into @goCLTCC, which has changed lives, like Olivia, who dropped out of high school amidst family toxicity and addiction. She became an "A" college student before earning her GED. 3/
Then La. cut 40 percent of its higher ed funding. Second worst in the country, but don’t feel smug that your state is better. Only seven states have recovered from cuts made during and after the Great Recession. 4/ https://shef.sheeo.org/
We have seen how rising tuition feeds the student debt crisis. But rarely do we see the other ways disinvestment hurts colleges. Here we have a college that didn’t have the funding — for years on end — to seek accreditation to offer most associate degrees. 5/
That means it can train licensed practical nurses for $14-an-hour jobs, but not registered nurses for $23-a-hour jobs. Its rural campuses can’t get students halfway to a BA, so more locals have to drive an hour or more to a university. Many can't. 6/
In other places, the invisible cost of disinvestment may be the advising office that didn’t get expanded, the professors who couldn’t be recruited, the mold that was allowed to grow in classrooms or dorms. 7/
In the face of coronavirus, the University of North Carolina is look at cuts of 25 to 50 percent. The University of Texas and U Michigan are laying off faculty. This is not a drill. We need Congress to support public higher education. 8/ https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/education-postsecondary/reports/2020/06/11/485963/mounting-peril-public-higher-education-coronavirus-pandemic/
At @goCLTCC , there's still good news. More students are earning credentials. A new campus improves access, especially for Black residents. La. also benefits from smart local leaders and state leaders like @KimHunterReed who care about today’s students and racial equity. 9/
Olivia, the student I profiled, is well on her way to a credential that sets her up well for good job in forestry. But her instructor is worried the program can’t survive tuition increases or funding cuts. “If we have to cut funding, it’s just going to be disastrous.” 10/10
