There is no doubt that, along with college enrollments, the value of community college credits is on the rise. The greatest evidence of this can be seen in President Obama’s administration’s plan to invest $12 billion dollars into the nation’s community colleges with the intention of creating mass opportunities for students to get college degrees so that the U.S. can become the world leader in the number of college-degree holders by 2020.

Community college credits are key to the future of the President’s bold plan since it will be nontraditional students who will fill in the large gap of students necessary to achieve the graduation goal.

Some fear that some community colleges, in an effort to improve quality, will stray from their roots as highly affordable and accessible educational institutions and try to become more like 4-year, brick and mortar schools.

Characteristics of Community College

Generally, community colleges are two-year institutions, offering associate degrees in multiple subjects to all interested students at a lower cost than traditional 4-year schools. Community colleges have typically served non traditional students as well as low-income and minority students.

With community college credits, students can get a degree more quickly than from a 4-year school, getting them on the job sooner, making money in their field and gaining valuable experience. Community college credits can also be used to transfer to a higher degree program at another school. In fact, in today’s economy, many traditional students are getting community college credits for their first 2 years of school (saving money) and transferring to 4-year institutions to complete their bachelor’s degrees.

Losing the “Community” in Community College

In recent years, some community colleges have gone as far as dropping the “community” in their names and started offering 4-year degrees in addition to the usual associate’s degrees and certificates.

These new and improved schools argue that this evolution is a healthy one, providing community college students more options including sports teams, new buildings and housing opportunities. They also argue that the new bachelor’s degree programs are in up-and-coming fields not usually found at traditional, 4-year schools.

The question then becomes, how far should community colleges go when it comes to offering “more student options”? In order to maintain the changes, will these evolving community colleges become more expensive and more exclusive and, therefore, NOT resemble community colleges?

Let Community Colleges Be Community Colleges, Only Better

Kevin Carey, reporting for U.S. News & World Report, describes what he thinks is the ideal goal for community colleges of the future: “In an era of rising economic instability and unemployment, we need colleges that specialize in teaching adults with careers and families. We need flexible, low cost institutions with close ties to businesses - colleges that know how to get students into well-paying jobs. America has enough ivory towers. We don’t need to build anymore.”

The  Value of Community College Credits

Improving the quality of community colleges without losing what makes community colleges unique and, consequently, so useful, means that non traditional students all over the country can get an education that is highly valued and recognized. Community college credits should be considered as valuable as credits from a traditional, brick and mortar institution without changing the essence of a community college institution.