Community Colleges Were Asked to Do More With Less Before and During COVID, They Should Be Prioritized in States’ Pandemic Recovery Efforts
By Rachael Conway
Because they serve the greatest proportion of low-income college students, community colleges can help get people back to work and increase economic mobility in the post-COVID-19 world. As states strategize for an economic recovery from the pandemic, they should center this vital sector in their plans.
Community colleges serve the nation’s largest portion of first-generation college students, low-income students, students of color, English language learners, adults, parents, and part-time learners. Yet, they have been deeply underfunded for decades, a discrepancy that has perpetuated substantial inequality in U.S. higher education.
A 2020 analysis by the Center for American Progress found that community colleges received $8,800 less in education revenue per student than their Bachelor’s-granting counterparts due to two primary factors: four-year colleges bring in more revenue from higher tuition and fees, and they tend to receive greater state appropriations than community colleges. In New England, the revenue gap is slightly higher than the national average, with community colleges receiving $9,467 less in revenue per student than the region’s four-year colleges. Substantial under-resourcing of community colleges was only exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Over the past two years, public two-year institutions were hit harder than any other sector, particularly in the areas of enrollment, basic needs insecurity, mental health, technology access, and inadequate federal emergency aid.
Already short on revenue, community college enrollment has declined more than any other type of institution since 2020. According to the most recent National Student Clearinghouse figures, public two-year colleges have seen a total enrollment decline of 13.2%, or roughly 700,000 students. By contrast, total postsecondary enrollment in the U.S. declined by 5.1% since the start of the pandemic. Reduced revenue streams from severe declines in enrollment have left community colleges, which were already subsisting on too little, with even fewer resources for vital services like advising, emergency aid and technology.
New England community colleges also lost students during COVID-19, especially students of color. Connecticut community colleges experienced the region’s sharpest drop-off in enrollment in 2020, a decline of 15.3%, closely followed by Massachusetts’ decline of 13.4%. Overall, the average community college in New England saw a decrease in their student body of 8.6% in fall 2020 over the previous year. A report by the College Board found that community colleges across the U.S., fall 2020 enrollment among Black, Hispanic, and Native American students declined at nearly double the rate of Asian and white students. Following national trends, the pandemic disproportionately and negatively impacted New England’s already vulnerable institutions and students compared to pre-pandemic years.
Basic needs insecurity (defined as food insecurity, housing insecurity, and/or homelessness) was particularly dire among community college students during the pandemic. The HOPE Center for College, Community, and Justice, a leading research organization on college student basic needs insecurity, published eye-opening 2021 research findings demonstrating the precariousness of community college students’ lives during this time. According to the report:
61% of community college students in the U.S. experienced at least one form of basic needs insecurity within the last year, compared to 53% of students at four-year colleges.
38% of community college students experienced food insecurity within the past 30 days.
52% of community college students experienced housing insecurity during the past year.
14% of students were homeless in the last year at both community colleges and four-year colleges.
Students often had difficulty accessing resources to alleviate these stressors. For instance, the study found that while 61% of community college students in the Northeast experienced basic needs insecurity, only a third of these students utilized any support on their college campuses to help address their needs. Students reported that their hesitations stemmed from administrative burden, lack of knowledge about available resources, stigma, and shame.
As students self-isolated and struggled to sustain themselves during the pandemic, student mental health quickly swelled to a national crisis point. According to the same study by the HOPE Center, just over one third of U.S. college students experienced moderate to severe anxiety and/or depression in the two weeks prior to the survey, slightly higher than the rates reported in 2019. A 2021 report by the Center for Community College Student Engagement, also found that almost one quarter of community college students reported that they were struggling to pay for college as a result of the pandemic. In line with the HOPE Center’s findings, the report observed that just under half of community college students surveyed did not know if their campus had support services to cope with the stress of the pandemic.
A root cause of the isolation students experienced was the overnight shift to online coursework, which exacerbated another challenge for community colleges—the digital divide. Community colleges were more likely than four-year colleges to shift to online classes and less likely to return to in-person classes. This meant that campus facilities like cafeterias and libraries were less accessible to community college students. Additionally, a fall 2020 Center for Community College Student Engagement report found that one quarter of community college students surveyed did not have access to a reliable internet connection at home, four percent had no access to the internet at home, and five percent of community college students completed all of their online coursework using a cell phone. The closure of public libraries and other locations where students could access a wifi connection worsened disparities in technology access.
Throughout these challenges, the federal government has played a significant role in easing the pandemic’s financial burden on colleges. Community colleges have spent federal CARES dollars to distribute emergency aid to students, develop innovative support programs, and generally keep both students and institutions afloat. Yet, an October 2021 report from the HOPE Center found that just 21% of community colleges felt they had sufficient financial resources in spring 2020, and only 15% of students experiencing basic needs insecurity applied for emergency aid. Furthermore, federal reporting requirements sometimes forced colleges to distribute aid in less-than-ideal ways. For instance, 60% of colleges used Pell Grant eligibility as a criteria for distributing aid, an often inaccurate marker of financial well-being, especially as Pell Grant eligibility was calculated using the student’s income at the beginning of the school year, before many students and families experienced significant job loss from COVID-19. Additionally, Title IV requirements within CARES funding meant that undocumented and DACA students were excluded from receiving emergency aid.
Furthermore, an analysis by the Center for American Progress from May 2020 found that because the CARES act used “full-time enrollment” as a criterion in its formula for fund allocation, community colleges’ needs were greatly underestimated, as 65% of community college students nationwide are enrolled part-time. Community colleges received just 21% of all federal CARES funding, despite educating roughly 40% percent of all undergraduate students in the U.S. and the largest proportion of nontraditional learners.
While federal funding has been well-utilized by community colleges around the country, the emergency nature of the funds means that colleges will not be able to count on these resources in the long term. Without state intervention, when federal funding expires, institutions will be left to grapple with many of the same challenges they faced pre-COVID. Rather than returning to old norms of basic needs insecurity, a digital divide, and inequitable funding levels, states aiming to spur economic recovery should prioritize and partner with community colleges to shape a new post-COVID-19 normal. These institutions support students who have much to gain from earning a high-quality credential, and as a result, the region has even more to gain by investing in them and their students. Now, states have a unique opportunity to allow the voices of community college leaders, especially students, to shape a better future for all New Englanders.
