More than half of community colleges are too expensive for low-income students

[nitpicker]

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/more-than-half-of-community-colleges-are-too-expensive-for-low-income-students-2019-06-03?mod=mw_latestnews

More than half of community colleges are too expensive for low-income students

Published: June 3, 2019 5:55 a.m. ET

(snip)
More than half of the nation’s most affordable colleges are still unaffordable for low-income students. That’s one takeaway from a report released this month by the National College Access Network, a membership group for organizations committed to college access. Less than half, or 48%, of the nation’s community colleges are affordable for students who qualify for Pell grants, the money the federal government provides to low-income students to attend college.

At the public four-year level, the picture is even worse — just 27% of these schools are affordable for low-income students, NCAN found.

“These are not the engines of college accessibility that we need them to be for individual and national success,” said Brian DeBaun, the director of data and evaluation at the National College Access Network, and the author of the report. “We’ve signaled to students that they should be considering post-secondary education and we don’t make it affordable for them.”

NCAN’s report is the latest sign that a major contributor to our nation’s $1.5 trillion student-loan problem is a lack of affordable college options for students and families. That reality has pushed most of the major contenders for the Democratic nomination for president to propose a plan that would make at least two years of public college free.

And the situation is likely even bleaker than the report portrays. To determine whether a school is affordable, NCAN assumed students would have access to resources that aren’t always available to them.

The organization defines a college as affordable for low-income students if they can pay tuition, afford to live and have $300 available in case of emergencies through a combination of grants (including the Pell grant), loans, expected family contribution — the amount colleges ask families pay based on their finances — and funds from a work-study job and a summer job.
(snip)

In reality, it can be challenging for students to meet these requirements. For example, families don’t always have the funds to make their expected family contribution — in fact, it’s not uncommon for low-income students to support their families while in school — and work-study jobs aren’t widely available, especially at community colleges.
(snip)

[Sherman A1]

1. College should be free

Simple as that.

[Throck]

2. Take a hard look at college overhead.

Too many non teaching employees. Too many administrators, too many high paid administrators. Look at non academic programs that can be reduced or eliminated. Cut the fat, cut college cost.

Tuition for my community college back in the 80s was under $800 a semester. I lived on coffee and bagels, took the bus or walked.

[Delmette2.0]

3. Rec'd for exposure.

I was lucky enough that my son could move back home for two years while he attended Community College. He still paid just over $2,000 per semester.