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Community college, the "minimum foundation" of higher education in Florida, is no longer guaranteed.
Across community college campuses in Florida, 35,000 students have been turned away this fall in what can only be described as a modern educational disgrace. More than a half-century after the state began to solidify these colleges as part of the "minimum foundation" for public education, this minimum is no longer guaranteed. Students shut out of overcrowded and increasingly elite universities are now told simply to wait in line.
The stories of lost opportunity are numbing by their repetition: the Miami-Dade College student who is working full-time while trying to earn a degree, only to discover that every course she needs is full; the Hillsborough Community College student who waited in line for six hours to get an anatomy course necessary for nursing, only to be shut out; the St. Petersburg College student who couldn't get any math or history courses.
"We're supposed to take everyone we can," Larry Keen, associate vice president at Sante Fe Community College, told the Times. "We're not fulfilling our mission as mandated by the state. We're turning people away. It's getting progressively worse."
"We are failing to provide instruction and training," Dennis Gallon, president of Palm Beach Community College, added. "Students are not able to go into the world of work and be competitive. That is what makes this devastating for Florida's economy."
Community colleges are by Florida law supposed to be the safety net of higher education, the place where students with high school diplomas can turn even when universities have closed the door. Under the historic expansion promoted by Gov. LeRoy Collins in 1955, there was to be (and now is) a community college within commuting distance of every Floridian. Yet Gov. Jeb Bush and the Legislature have treated the colleges with the same neglect they have shown our public universities. Though lawmakers try to blame this crisis on the economy and the class size amendment, the budgetary trend is longer-lived. The amount the state spends on each community college student is less today than it was five years ago, and the community college portion of the state budget has grown by just 1.8 percent in the past three years while enrollment has jumped 27.5 percent. In May, lawmakers cut $11-million even as they were told to expect 57,000 new students.
The financial indifference to community colleges is made all the more confounding by the governor's stated fondness for their role. Bush's Board of Education has pushed vigorously for lower-cost alternatives to full-service research universities, and no one disputes the successful track record of community colleges. Two-thirds of all nursing degrees are awarded by community colleges, and half of all teachers and a third of all engineers begin their education there. So is Florida now too cheap even for the cheaper alternatives?
While students are being turned away at community colleges, Florida is sitting on a $948-million windfall from the federal government. But Bush, who in August asked for $66-million extra for prisons and in May threatened to veto the entire budget if he didn't get $120-million for his FCAT testing plan, finds no urgency in the destitution of community colleges. The minimum foundation is cracking, and Florida just looks the other way.