Study Finds ‘Free’ Community College Doesn’t Increase Degree Attainment
“a large body of research suggests that, among bachelor’s intending students, enrolling directly in a community college dramatically lowers one’s chances of earning a bachelor’s degree”
Supposedly ‘free’ college is one of those things that sounds great to the people who will benefit from it.
Campus Reform reports:
Support for initiatives to make community college free has grown in recent years, but new analysis suggests that such reforms may fail to achieve their intended goals.
A new study from the Annenberg Institute at Brown University found that so-called “last-dollar tuition guarantee programs” for two-year community colleges do not meaningfully increase the number of enrolled students.
Study authors David B. Monaghan and Elizabeth A. Hawke investigated the impact of two Pennsylvania programs that fully cover the cost of community college, the Community College of Philadelphia’s 50th Anniversary Scholars program (CCPAS) and the Morgan Success Scholarship (MSS).
Monaghan and Hawke stated in the study’s abstract that they found little to no evidence that CCPAS “has any impact on college-going behavior.”
Conversely, they found that MSS increased community college enrollment, but much of this increase was because the program temporarily “diverts students away from four-year colleges.”
According to the study, pre-existing research indicates that this trend may decrease overall educational attainment. Monaghan and Hawke noted that “a large body of research suggests that, among bachelor’s intending students, enrolling directly in a community college dramatically lowers one’s chances of earning a bachelor’s degree.”
The study comes in the wake of several Democrats’ proposals to make community college free on a wider scale. In the proposed budget for FY 2025, President Biden set aside $82 billion for the Education Department, which included funding for several new partnerships with states and Native American tribes to fully subsidize the cost of community college for select students.
“I also want to make community college tuition-free so you don’t need loans at all,” he stated, according to CNBC.
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Comments
“free” is part of the welfare state
they are not afraid of the/any consequences to taking out “loans” or getting grants etc
its money that they will use as they please
they know how to game the system
they know how many days they need to show up to be eligible to continue to rake in the moooneyyyy
I wonder how much of that decreased application to bachelor’s degree programs results from the students realizing that further college would be a waste of their time? Could there be great good coming from that realization? Maybe.
I think you’re absolutely spot on.
They’ll never admit it, unfortunately.
To test this hypothesis, it would be so simple and inexpensive:
Just take maybe at most one week … and a few volunteers … with just a few written-out questions … to simply call up the participants in the original data set. And just ask them.
Just. Ask. Them.
“Why dint you complete your Bachelor’s? “
(a) wasn’t worth the $$
(b) wasn’t worth the time
(c) both (a) and (b)
(d) I read “College Is A Scam”
(e) all of the above.
(f) I realized that if I ever needed to obtain a degree in the future, I could obtain a degree. In the future. You know, rather like a tennis racquet. If you do not need a tennis racquet, then it probably isn’t a great idea to go out and purchase $$$ for a tennis racquet.
My personal experience is that I value little things that are free and value greatly things that I have a stake in. When I was given a watch, I would misplace it within weeks but when I bought my first watch I made sure not to forget it.
Likewise with education, some if they have no stake in it they will treat it frivolously as I did in High School. However later in life enrolled in the university I made sure to get as much out of college courses as possible – it was my money.
This seems counter intuitive but I think that there is a psychological truth that should inform public policy.
My grandfather advised my father never to give away anything free.
“Even if you have a litter of puppies you need to get rid of, charge the new owner at least a nickel, so the animal won’t get abused. People don’t value what they don’t have to pay for.”
I made sure this pearl of wisdom made it at least five generations down.
First off, “free” means publicly funded. Period.
I’ve been teaching at community colleges for around 25 years. While some students face financial barriers, that number is fairly small given state and federal grants that already exist for the poor. The real problem is that we keep getting students who are woefully underprepared by K-12. They fail basic English and they fail pre-Algebra and then drop out.
You won’t get better CC results until you fix K-12.
“Free” often means publicly-funded, but not always.
“Free” means no additional charge to you at this time. It’s the “at this time” that people are always tripping over, little realizing that, oh yes, the bill will eventually come due, and likely not in the manner expected.
My first few semesters at Community college (back when tuition was $27/ credit hour), my Dad paid for my tuition and books. I always bought New Books, and thought nothing of dropping a class too late to get a tuition refund. Fast forward a few years when I was paying for my own books, I bought used whenever possible, and always made certain to drop any classes I needed to in time to get the tuition refunded.
Personal financial investment makes a HUGE difference – especially when you are young and have not developed a true understanding of the value of a dollar.
They hope to turn community college into yet another high school to further their indoctrination into progressive nonsense and continue to turn out subjects who, as John M states so eloquently above, are woefully underprepared. Crash the system, Alinsky style.
The Gods of Copybook Headings: “You get what you pay for.”