Community Colleges

Michigan is launching a free community college program for recent high school graduates this fall, potentially covering the cost of earning an associate degree or skills certificate for more than 18,000 students.

Under the new Community College Guarantee initiative, high school graduates are eligible for up to $4,800 in tuition aid annually for three years. Pell Grant-eligible students will get an additional $1,000 a year to help cover living expenses.

Michigan is one of a handful of states pursuing free community college programs after similar proposals floundered at the federal level.

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer called for no-cost community college for high school graduates in her State of the State address earlier this year. With support from lawmakers, the program will now kick off this fall for the high school classes of both 2023 and 2024.

To be eligible, students must enroll at their local community college within 15 months of graduating from high school. Although they have to complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, the program carries no income restrictions.

Students must continue to enroll in college full time and submit the FAFSA annually to renew their scholarship for up to three years.

Gov. Whitmer has long made free college a policy goal. The Democratic governor's administration set a goal of 60% of working-age residents holding a postsecondary credential by 2030. As of 2022, the rate stood at 51.1%.

In 2021, Whitmer developed the Michigan Reconnect program, which offers tuition-free community college for adults 25 and older who have no postsecondary credentials. 

The state Legislature authorized that plan and, showing further support for her efforts, allocated $70 million in fiscal 2024 to temporarily lower Michigan Reconnect's age requirement to 21. That opened eligibility to 350,000 more residents. An additional $10.2 million from the state's Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity also went toward the expansion. 

As of February, Michigan Reconnect has received over 122,000 applicants, according to state Democratic senators.

Michigan isn't the only state to generate interest in higher education from nontraditional students.

Earlier this week, Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey touted the success of her state's free college program. In the 2023-24 academic year, Massachusetts’s community college system increased enrollment among those 25 and older without a degree by 45% year over year.

Healey attributed that growth to MassReconnect, a state program that covers community college costs for residents in that group. 

Undergraduate enrollment rose 2.5% year over year in spring 2024, the second semester in a row higher ed has seen such gains, according to a new report from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center.

The overall increase — representing about 359,000 additional students — came largely at community colleges, where regular and dual enrollment both rose, the report said.

But even with the gains, higher ed enrollment is still well below pre-COVID levels. Doug Shapiro, the research center’s executive director, called the pandemic's lingering effects "a continuing kind of hangover" in a call with reporters on May 21.

Colleges are slowly recovering from sharp pandemic-induced enrollment declines, as well as broader demographic challenges plaguing the sector. The clearinghouse found that enrollment among undergraduate students rose 1.2% year over year in fall 2023 — the first such increase in over a decade.

While undergraduate enrollment hasn't returned to pre-pandemic numbers, colleges have reason to be optimistic, Shapiro said.

"This is especially true for community colleges which, of course, were the hardest hit during the pandemic," he said.

Enrollment increased 4.7% year over year at these institutions this spring, an addition of about 200,000 students. That represents almost half of the higher education sector’s overall gains, despite community colleges making up just a quarter of postsecondary enrollment, the clearinghouse said.

Dual enrollment students — high schoolers who are also taking community college classes — also boosted headcounts, increasing for the third year in a row. An additional 101,000 of these students enrolled in college courses this semester compared to the year before, an increase of 10%. That accounted for 28.1% of all undergraduate enrollment growth.

Graduate enrollment was especially strong this spring, outpacing undergraduate gains, the report said. Enrollment at this level rose 3% — an increase of about 88,000 students — reversing the 2.4% year-over-year decline seen in spring 2023.

Shapiro also addressed how the bumpy debut of the new Free Application for Federal Student Aid could affect undergraduate enrollment.

The U.S. Department of Education released a simplified version of the federal aid form at the end of December, about three months later than usual.

Congress mandated the agency to make the notoriously difficult form easier for students and their families to fill out. But delays and persistent glitches in the new form left many students confused and unable to submit the form.

As of May 10, just 40.2% of high school seniors had completed the FAFSA, down from 49.6% at the same time last year, according to the National College Attainment Network.

Shapiro said FAFSA woes are likely to hurt fall numbers.

"We just don't know how much," he said. "This is potentially another blow that's just come out of left field for higher ed, much like the pandemic."

Challenges with the FAFSA are likely to impact some prospective students more than others, Shapiro said.

"I think students who really planned to go to college in the fall will get through the FAFSA," he said.

The glitchy rollout most likely will impact students who were on the fence about attending college, Shapiro said. "My guess is many of them have probably already made other plans," he said.

Eastern Gateway Community College will shutter Oct. 31 following financial and legal challenges in recent years, the institution's board of trustees voted in May.

In February, the 56-year-old public Ohio institution suspended enrollment for all students past the spring semester, and the board said Wednesday it had been on track to close June 30.

But Ohio state officials in March gave Eastern Gateway an advance on funding for fiscal year 2025. The money came on the condition the community college offered courses over the summer, the board said. 

Eastern Gateway's woes took root in 2022, when the U.S. Department of Education alleged the institution's free college initiative illegally charged students with Pell Grants more than those without. 

The last-dollar program — which covered tuition costs after other financial aid had been applied for students affiliated with labor unions — provided a huge boon to the college's enrollment.

Prior to the program's 2015 launch, Eastern Gateway had 3,182 students in fall 2014, according to federal data. Five years later, its student body had exploded to 25,648, and the community college hit 45,173 enrollees in fall 2021. 

But the following year, the Education Department began requiring Eastern Gateway to pay federal financial aid disbursements to students out of pocket before seeking reimbursement, under a process called Heightened Cash Monitoring 2. The agency also required the college to create a teach-out agreement for students allowing them to transfer elsewhere.

Eastern Gateway subsequently sued the Education Department in September 2022, alleging itthe agency hadn't given the college due process and had exceeded its legal authority.

In August 2023, Eastern Gateway ended the free college program as part of negotiations with the department. That fall, enrollment dropped to 15,300 students, according to The Business Journal. 

College officials also dropped their lawsuit under a tentative settlement. But the damage to the college's viability had already been done. 

During the May 15 vote to shutter the college, board members referenced the effects the Education Department dispute had on Eastern Gateway's finances.

The funding from the Ohio Department of Higher Education and the summer classes are intended to give students time to make a plan and allow those missing only a few credits the chance to graduate. The previously temporary hold on new enrollment is now permanent.

"We are trying to make sure we create a seamless transition for each and every student," Eastern Gateway Interim President John Crooks said.

Eastern Gateway has established teach-out agreements with a dozen local institutions, and more are pending approval, according to the board. The community college's last graduation ceremony will be held in August.

Eastern Gateway's trustees also approved a resolution to sell the college's Steubenville campus to the local school system. They did not discuss plans for Eastern Gateway's other campus, roughly 75 miles north in Youngstown.

Columbus State Community College in Ohio has cut 14 nonteaching staff positions as it works through the second year of a three-year recovery plan tied to pandemic disruptions. 

“As part of Columbus State’s ongoing focus on student success and the region’s workforce needs, the college is restructuring to further align personnel and operating resources to these highest-priority goals,” the institution said in an emailed statement on May 6. 

Columbus State is also making other moves to hold down costs, including launching a review process before filling open positions, it said. 

The college is grappling with a projected $6.8 million deficit for fiscal 2024 and didn’t receive an expected $3.3 million in state funding, local media reported. 

From 2017 to 2022, enrollment at the college fell 7.6% to 25,129 students, per federal data. 

Columbus State’s revenues decreased 1.7%  to $233.5 million in the fiscal year that ended June 2023, according to its latest financial report. State appropriations make up about a third of the community college’s total revenue. 

The college is hardly alone. Faced with falling enrollments and appropriations, community colleges in various states have come under heightened financial pressure. 

Total students in public two-year institutions fell from about 11 million at their peak in the 2009-10 academic year to 6.7 million in 2021-2022, according to federal data. 

However, the sector has seen some glimmers of hope. First-year enrollment rose 2.3% at community colleges in the fall 2023 term after growing the previous year as well, according to the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center. 

In Ohio, community colleges’ share of new public spending is projected to decline from 28% in fiscal 2025 to 10% in fiscal 2027, according to the Ohio Association of Community Colleges. 

Recently, Sinclair Community College, also in Ohio, closed two locations after enrollments there dwindled.

Howard County, Maryland, launched a pilot program March 5 that provides apartment rental subsidies of up to $800 per month to low-income community college students.

Students who are enrolled for six credits per semester during the fall and spring semesters at Howard Community College, have a household income that is less than 60% of the area’s median income, are in good academic standing and are eligible for student financial aid can qualify for the Student Rental Subsidy Program subsidies. 

Many students in the county are working full time and struggling financially, said Howard County Executive Calvin Ball. “No one should have to choose between buying groceries, pursuing an education and paying the rent,” he said. 

The rising cost of housing in many U.S. cities has made it difficult for low-income residents to find affordable apartments. Howard County, outside Baltimore, has seen a sharp increase in rental prices in recent years, leading tenants to advocate for rent stabilization. 

According to U.S. Census Bureau data, in 2019, 46% of renters in the county were considered rent burdened — defined as paying more than 30% of their household income on rent — and 26% paid more than half their income on housing. “As rents increase, those numbers continue to grow,” said Ball. 

The housing crisis particularly affects students enrolled in community colleges, more than a quarter of whom are parents and 59% of whom receive financial aid, according to think tank New America. Many community college students pay more for housing than for tuition, and those who are housing insecure face higher rates of “anxiety and depression, worse health outcomes, and lower GPAs than their housing secure peers,” a 2022 article from New America states. 

Howard Community College last year identified access to safe and affordable housing as a significant barrier for its students. A report from the college’s Commission on the Future stated that “Access to affordable housing would move HCC toward having a diverse student body and eliminating a major barrier for underrepresented students, first generation students and students from lower-income backgrounds.”

According to Ball, “We know that stable and affordable housing is a significant determinant of academic success and economic mobility, which is why I believe this program is so crucial for our students.”

Howard County is not alone in its pursuit of housing subsidies for students. The city of College Park, in neighboring Prince George’s County, Maryland, is also exploring a pilot program that would provide $1,500 rental subsidies to students at the University of Maryland, which has its flagship campus in the city. 

Howard County launched the new two-year, $1 million, student subsidy pilot program through its Housing Opportunities Meant for Everyone initiative, Ball said. Through the program, the county will provide as many as 50 students with subsidies of up to $800 per month, ideally reducing their monthly housing cost burden to 35% or less of their income, he said.

Leaders at Iowa's community colleges would be responsible for creating the state's funding distribution model for their institutions under a bill advanced by a House panel Wednesday.

Iowa's unusual method for distributing general funding to community colleges is codified into law, and any changes require legislative intervention. The proposed bill would allow the colleges' leaders to make updates annually.

If two-thirds of the 15 leaders could not reach a consensus in any given year, the Iowa Department of Education would take over the task of creating the funding model.

Dive Insight:

Iowa’s community college funding formula allocates funding based on several factors, including annual inflation, enrollment and how much state aid the colleges received last year. 

Under the new proposal, the chief executives of the state’s 15 community colleges approve a distribution formula by Oct. 31 for the following budget year. 

The change would give flexibility to the state's community colleges amid a shifting higher education landscape, said Emily Shields, executive director of Community College for Iowa, a membership organization that advocates for the institutions. 

"Our funding formula for community colleges is laid out in code in a very detailed way," Shields said Wednesday. 

As a result, funding hasn't kept pace with enrollment and there's a growing gap from college to college as to how much they receive per student.

"Everything is changing so much more quickly,” Shields said. “We have to keep up.”

Representatives from the Iowa Association of Community College Trustees also supported the bill.

The House Education Appropriations Subcommittee unanimously approved the bill Wednesday, sending it to a full committee vote. The legislation already passed Iowa's Senate earlier this month. 

If approved, it would take effect for the fiscal year beginning July 1, 2025.

Higher ed leaders and lawmakers elsewhere have also been debating the best ways to fund community colleges.

Last year, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signed a law tying a majority of state funding for community colleges to performance-based measures, including the number of credentials offered in high-demand fields and the wages graduates earn. The new model also came with an increase in funding for the state's 50 community colleges.

Ray Martinez, president and CEO of the Texas Association of Community Colleges, said the increased focus on workforce education has changed student goals.

The majority of community college students "come in thinking that they might want to transfer to a university," Martinez told the Texas Standard last week. But more and more, students are enrolling in the state's community colleges, wanting to "learn a skill … and get to work."

Meanwhile, recent research found that a hybrid distribution model — one based on enrollment, performance metrics and previous state allotments — is tied to increased community college enrollment among Black, White and Asian students.

Community college enrollment among Black, White and Asian students increases when state governments distribute higher education funding through a hybrid model based on both previous allocations and on enrollment and performance-based incentives, a recent study published in Educational Researcher suggested. 

Hybrid funding models did not affect the completion rate for associate degrees or certificates at community colleges. And researchers discovered no differences across state funding models in student enrollment or completion at four-year colleges and universities. The amount states allocate, however, is widely linked to student success metrics like completion and post-college earnings, the report stated. 

While community college enrollment increased through hybrid funding models, degree completions were not affected since students often transfer before earning a degree or leave after getting the skills needed to get a better job, said Robert Kelchen, a report co-author and professor at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. 

State governments devote nearly $100 billion in funding each year for public colleges and universities, according to the report. That investment is aimed at growing their economies, developing an educated labor force and improving the socioeconomic situation of students from historically underrepresented populations.

State higher ed funding is allocated through various methods: using enrollment metrics; tying funding to student outcomes with performance-based systems; adopting base-adjusted systems that increase or decrease funding to colleges across the board; a combination of those mechanisms — or no clear funding formula at all. 

Nearly half of all four-year colleges are still under traditional funding models fully based on how much they received the previous year — a method that, when used alone, often depresses the amount received by institutions predominantly serving students who are racial minorities, Kelchen said. States using that model continue long-standing inequities within public universities, he added. 

Meanwhile, less than 10% of community colleges are funded that way. Some 70% are funded through a mix tied to enrollment, performance and previous year amounts, said Kelchen. 

This report comes as higher ed funding is being scrutinized by lawmakers due to skepticism about the value of a college education and to competing state budget demands. 

In the wake of state funding cuts, public institutions have reduced spending and raised tuition — leading to lower enrollment and completion rates, especially among Black and Hispanic students, and to less research capacity. 

Texas recently went through an overhaul of its community college funding model, moving away from an outcomes-based approach to rewarding colleges for student completion of degrees, certificates and other credentials, said Kelchen. 

In the end, “the amount of state funding for public higher education plays a crucial role in improving student outcomes,” the report stated. How much an institution receives, according to Kelchen, ultimately matters more than the method by which states distribute the funds. 

Still, states have no interest in getting rid of performance-based funding models and doing so would likely result in funding cuts, regardless of who wields political power in a state, he said. 

Researchers still need to dive deeper into the funding models to find the real cost of providing a college education and determine how to best support institutions serving large numbers of students from historically underrepresented groups, said Kelchen.  

Nearly half of students who left community college without earning a degree or credential cited work as a major reason why they’re no longer enrolled, according to recent survey data from New America, a left-leaning think tank. 

Almost a third, 31%, said they could no longer afford their programs, while 27% said they had lost self-motivation or ambition. Other top reasons included child care responsibilities, the impact of inflation and personal health issues. 

Stopped-out community college students faced greater economic hardships in 2023 than they did the prior year, the survey suggests. Sixty percent said they had missed paying important bills, up from 49% in 2022. And 58% said they applied for public benefits in 2023, compared to 49% the year before. 

As the pool of traditional-aged college students shrinks, institutions have increasingly focused on bringing back those who left higher education without finishing their credentials. This population increased to some 40.4 million students in 2021, up from 39 million the prior year, according to an April 2023 report from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center. 

However, increased hardships faced by stopped-out community college students could translate to lower shares of these learners reenrolling. Just 36% of stop-outs said they were likely to reenroll in a two-year college, down from 42% who said the same in 2022, according to New America’s survey.

Moreover, many of those who intend to reenroll didn't plan to do so anytime soon. Almost one-third of respondents, 31%, said they expected to attend college again sometime after 2024. A little over a quarter, 26%, aimed to reenroll for the fall 2024 term. 

Community colleges have recently seen their enrollment increase, with fall 2023 headcounts up 2.6% year over year. Still, community colleges haven't recovered from sharp enrollment declines during the coronavirus pandemic, according to New America. 

Stopped-out students shared several policies that could encourage them to reenroll. More than half, 54%, indicated they may attend college again if their programs offered free tuition. A slightly lower share, 44%, said free textbooks and course material could nudge them to return to higher education. 

For community college students who remained enrolled, 27% cited self motivation as a reason. Thirteen percent named the desire for further education and 12% pointed to job opportunities. 

Lake Research Partners conducted the survey between Nov. 16 and Dec. 7. It included 1,242 respondents, composed of 644 active community college students and 598 who had left without completing their credentials.

Placing Head Start early learning programs on community college campuses has the potential to support both young children and their college-going parents, said the National Head Start Association and the Association of Community College Trustees, which have partnered on technical assistance efforts for expanded programing.

Called “Kids on Campus,” the five-year project launched in early February with a user guide to help community colleges and Head Start programs connect, negotiate and launch successful partnerships.

Locating Head Start programs on community college campuses could help overcome current barriers to affordable and quality early learning centers for children from low-income families, said NHSA and ACCT. However, they warned that financial and logistical issues will need to be addressed.

Insufficient child care and early learning opportunities present significant barriers for the 1.7 million parents attending community college, said Jay Nardini, chair of ACCT’s board of directors, in a statement. Nardini, who also chairs the board of Iowa's Hawkeye Community College, said single parents in college typically have children under age 5 and would be eligible for Head Start services.

Currently, 130 community colleges house an Early Head Start program for children under age 3 or Head Start programs for 3- to 5-year-olds, according to NHSA. Head Start programs operate out of a variety of locations, including elementary schools, community centers, family-based care centers and colleges. 

"Head Start and community colleges are two perfectly matched pieces of a complex puzzle, coming together to complete the picture of what comprehensive education can — and should — look like," said Yasmina Vinci, NHSA's executive director, in a statement.

Head Start programs operate out of a variety of locations, including elementary schools, community centers, family-based care centers and colleges. The federal Head Start and Early Head Start programs are available to children from birth through age 5 who are from low-income families. 

Nationally, the program has more than 1 million children and 275,000 staff, according to NHSA. 

NHSA and ACCT outlined possible benefits from the service partnerships, including:

• Free, high-quality child care and early education for qualifying community college parents.
• Expertise from Head Start to operate on-site child care.
• Head Start locations near target populations. On-campus sites could have free or drastically reduced rent, with the rent reduction used as an in-kind donation toward the program's required 20% match of federal funds.

The Kids on Campus user guide shares examples from existing partnerships. 

New Hampshire's Manchester Community College, for instance, partners with Head Start provider Southern New Hampshire Services to operate an on-campus child development program with 14 slots for Head Start participants who are 3-5 years old. The child development center offers another 20 slots for children 6 weeks through 5 years old.

Manchester Community College students who are studying early childhood, nursing, psychology and other courses can use the child development center for student observation and practical experience. The Head Start classroom, which exists within the school's child development center, operates part-day services on a school-year calendar. The non-Head Start classrooms, on the other hand, are open on a full-day, full-year schedule.

The challenges to partnerships, according to the user guide, include how to align college and Head Start schedules, as well as confusion from families over eligibility for services between the Head Start program compared to the child development center.

Just one-third of students who started at community colleges transferred to four-year institutions, and fewer than half of those students earned a bachelor’s degree in six years, new research from a trio of organizations found.

That translated to just 16% of these community college students getting a bachelor’s degree in that time frame, according to reports released Wednesday from the Community College Research Center, the Aspen Institute College Excellence Program and the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center. 

The joint research examines first-time students who enrolled in community colleges in fall 2015. 

The latest data shows little improvement over prior cohorts.

Community college entrants in 2007 had a bachelor’s degree attainment of 14% — meaning this level of degree completion has only climbed 2 percentage points for students who start at these institutions. 

Some groups of students had even lower outcomes than the overall demographic. 

For instance, just 11% of students from low-income neighborhoods transferred and got their bachelor’s diploma after starting at a community college. The same success is true for 9% of Black students and 13% of Hispanic students. Older students, defined as those ages 25 and over, showed only a 6% bachelor’s degree attainment rate. 

“We hope that states, systems, college leaders, and practitioners see in this report a reason to improve those outcomes, to help more students from all backgrounds succeed in transferring and attaining the bachelor's degrees that will advance their knowledge and career prospects — while helping employers address their talent needs,” Tatiana Velasco, lead author of the reports and research associate at the Community College Research Center, said in a statement. 

The reports make several recommendations aimed at bettering transfer practices and completion rates. They include expanding dual enrollment opportunities and encouraging students to earn their associate degrees before they go to four-year institutions.