- Photo illustration by SCOTT CARMINE/THE FREE LANCE-STAR

Giving students another option for higher education--the benefits of a community college

Date published: 5/21/2006

S STUDENTS ENTER their senior year of high school, they are frequently asked about their plans after high school. For those who choose to go to college, the college application process becomes the focus of their senior year.

There are aptitude tests to take, applications to fill out, interviews to attend, and essays to write. This period can be daunting and stressful for students as well as parents--whose anxieties about sending their children off to college often extend well beyond financial concerns. The horror stories of binge drinking, hazing, and weekend-long parties are enough to make a parent's hair turn gray.

One of the most often neglected collegiate options, the community college, is hidden in plain sight. I am a strong advocate of the community college system for many reasons: Community colleges cost considerably less than four-year colleges, parents have the opportunity to keep their children at home for a couple more years, and students can maintain relationships with close friends who don't go to college or who take a year off before matriculating.

It can be argued that high school students are under much more pressure now than they were 30 years ago. Poor student performance has been a problem in recent years, and is usually blamed on the mediocre quality in many of our public schools.

The social pressure endured by students is much more intense as well--and is a potentially debilitating factor in a student's ability to compete academically; the Department of Justice reports that over 70 percent of high school seniors have used alcohol within the past twelve months.

This statistic presents a serious obstacle to success in school.

Four years of balancing friends, schoolwork, athletics, and a part-time job with serenity can cause an 18-year-old to hallucinate by the time he graduates high school. It can be not only dangerous, but also foolish to send a hard-working but burned-out child into an environment in which he has to make new friends, complete an accelerated academic load, and endure (or succumb to) the exponentially increased access to drugs and alcohol.

It is not fair to make students risk their academic success while enduring all of the new pressures of college.

Date published: 5/21/2006