Community Colleges Are Failing?

With the price of college rising at all public universities in California, accusations have been flying around on the lips of some that community colleges are failing students when it comes to offering quality education and opportunities.

The question is obviously whether this is true and beyond just the surface, is also the question of what students are doing to meet universities half way - and this question goes beyond just the community college level.

For those who do not know, California public universities are divided into a three-tier system. There are community colleges, cal state colleges (such as Cal State Long Beach) and universities (such as UCLA). For a long time now, the tuitions have been increasing at all three public college levels.

In general, there has been talk that at the community college level, these colleges are not doing enough to attract students and also retain students. Community colleges, after all, are supposed to be the colleges for anyone because of their low per class unit cost.

The problem is that while all of these accusations have been flying around, no one has really stopped to look at the work ethic of many students. Nowadays, it is common among employers to expect and ask that employees (even entry level) have at least a Bachelor's degree. This is why more students than ever, are enrolled in colleges today.

However, enrolling in college for the sake of learning has really taken a back seat to the basic necessity many students feel pressed about in getting a college degree. Many students view going to college as just a basic necessity if they want a good job rather than viewing it as a way to expand their minds.

As a result, the attitude of many students is less than perfect when coming to class. It is common for students to ditch class and then copy the lecture notes of someone else later on. It is common for some students to just drop off the face of the earth so that by the middle of the semester, half the seats that were filled on the first day of class are now empty.

For some, the inability to come to class may boil down to outside influences such as work, but when one factors in the fact that there are too many college students simply showing up as if they have to, it makes it a lot more difficult on the part of universities to retain these students.

Thus, is it really that the public universities are failing students, or are some students simply failing themselves?