WalletHub Study - 2020’s Best & Worst Community Colleges

Community Colleges have their advantages mainly financial. During the 2019 to 2020 academic year, tuition and fees for full-time, in-state enrollment at a public two-year college averaged $3,730 per year versus $10,440 at a public four-year institution. They offer more night classes than other universities and more schedule options. The workload is lighter than a state school or private university and attendance is not usually required.

With Americans struggling financially due to COVID-19 and a year of community college nearly three times less expensive than a year at a public four-year college, the personal-finance website WalletHub today released its report on 2020’s Best & Worst Community Colleges, coupled with its state-by-state ranking of the Best & Worst Community-College Systems.

To determine where students can receive the best education at the cheapest rates, they had compared more than 650 community colleges across 18 key indicators of cost and quality. The data set ranges from the cost of in-state tuition and fees to student-faculty ratio to graduation rate.

WalletHub Q & A

Do you think that making community college tuition-free will increase enrollment and graduation rates?

“Free tuition at community colleges probably will increase enrollment but its influence on graduation rates is unclear,” said John Thelin, PhD, University of Kentucky. “I use the example of California where junior colleges/community colleges for over a half-century charged no tuition. At times this meant high enrollments and high dropout rates. The big question today is whether the proposal implies that the federal government should provide subsidies to make tuition “free.” That is a very bad policy. It is a state and local responsibility on how much or how little a public and state institution ought to charge. No tuition makes little sense if offered to all prospective students and applicants. It is wasteful, often squandered on applicants who probably could afford to pay a reasonable tuition charge.”

“While making community college tuition-free will increase enrollment and graduation rates, it is not clear that this is the best policy choice to achieve those goals,” said Andrew Barr, PhD, Texas A&M University. “Furthermore, such a policy will do little to change the prices faced by low-income students who already face very low net prices.”

“Yes, based on evidence from existing tuition-free community college programs,” said Molly Ott, PhD, Arizona State University. “About a third of states currently offer different versions for their residents. Tennessee’s Promise was the first statewide program. After its launch in Fall 2015, Tennessee’s full-time community college enrollments grew by around 40%. Such enrollment increases associated with tuition-free programs come from a combination of two groups of students: 1) hose who would not have otherwise attended college at all. 2) Those who would have chosen a more expensive private college or public university but instead selected a public community college because it was tuition-free.”

What are the main challenges facing community college education during the current crisis? What are the best ways to overcome these challenges?

“It might increase enrollment, but graduation rates are another matter altogether,” said Deron Boyles, PhD, Georgia State University. “Imagine “free tuition” as a marketing tool to get more students in classrooms. The consequences to consider are whether institutions have capacity: both physical space/number of seats in rooms and enough qualified faculty to serve the increase. The nightmare scenario is meeting physical capacity but overloading faculty. Without enough direct, quality interaction between faculty and students, dropout rates will soar, regardless of free tuition.”

“Student health and welfare is the main challenge, “said Victor M. H. Borden, PhD, Indiana University. “Community colleges serve individuals who are among those most negatively impacted by the pandemic (essential workers and those who lost their employment). Community colleges are already challenged by serving students who maintain full lives that include jobs, childcare, parent care, etc. Although they are not replete with resources, Community colleges are in a position to help students access a range of needed resources, and this will be essential for at least the coming year. This comes at a time when they are already dealing with all the issues raised by the other questions in this series. Godspeed to them all!”

“They do not have ways to increase their funding like the 4-year sector does, so they have to do much more with less,” said Cecilia Rios-Aguilar, PhD, University of California, Los Angeles. “They also educate the most undergraduates and the most vulnerable ones (low-income, racial/ethnic minorities, undocumented students, LGBTQ+, student-parents, etc.). They should be given more funding so they can support students better. Challenges are that the pandemic has revealed the existing racial inequities that have plagued this sector and our country. Students in community colleges face significant more challenges and barriers (i.e., they have to work to support their families, they have to spend more of their income to be able to study), so what we need to do is think strategically how to use community colleges as vehicles for economic recovery, for fighting racial injustices, and for strengthening our democracy.”

To read the full reports, please visit:

• Individual Schools: https://wallethub.com/edu/best-worst-community-colleges/15076/
• School Systems: https://wallethub.com/edu/states-with-best-worst-community-college-systems/15073/

Courtesy: WalletHub