PHI THETA KAPPA International Honor Society of the Two Year College

“The community-college movement in the United States has been one of the most creative, productive and generally successful education initiatives anywhere on the planet,” proclaimed Stephen Joel Trachtenberg, president emeritus and university professor at the George Washington University. 

He recently posted an article called “The 2-Year College Experience” for the Chronicle of Higher Education’s Brainstorm blog.

The following are excerpts:

“Looking at the Web site of the American Association of Community Colleges is illuminating. There are almost 1,200 community colleges across the country, which leads me to believe that there must be one within commuting distance of almost every person in the nation. And they serve in excess of 11 million students (full- and part-time). I have always believed that community colleges were the most authentically American form of higher education. They are to post-secondary education what jazz is to music.

“It is not surprising, therefore, that at least two of the presidential candidates have proposed a tuition-tax credit for the first several thousand dollars spent by a family on college tuition: Barack Obama is offering a $4,000 tuition tax credit; and Hillary Clinton is proposing a $3,500 credit plus an increase in Pell Grants. These very similar plans would effectively make community colleges available to Americans no matter how modest their means.

“The community-college movement in the United States has been one of the most creative, productive and generally successful education initiatives anywhere on the planet. They have succeeded in providing the types of academic and vocational experiences urgently needed by our economy. Concurrently, they have opened the doors of higher education to countless Americans, who less than 50 years ago would have regarded college attendance as hopelessly beyond them.

“Despite the successes of community colleges, legislators and governors have not fully acknowledged the service and the opportunity they present. Senator Obama’s and Senator Clinton’s proposals are therefore particularly welcome. Two-year institutions have the capacity to inform the head, the heart, and the hand. They provide students with careers, but they can also serve as a bridge into the junior year of baccalaureate programs through articulation agreements and transfer programs as well as institutional partnerships with upper-division programs.

“Graduates of two-year institutions generally have successful academic transitions to 4-year institutions. Indeed, many do better than their peers who arrived on campus as freshmen, directly out of secondary school. As our nation wrestles with our competitors in the global economy, as we struggle to define a more sharply articulated national economic politic, as we anticipate a presidential election and a new administration, more robust support for our community colleges makes good sense. They are among our lesser-appreciated and most important academic resources. We need to celebrate them and accord them the status they have earned.”