They have dropped the ball. After 16 yrs of education myself. I find todays education to expensive and not rewarding as some may think.. An associates degree in a trade will be the best choice for future $ rewards.. Unless you have a direction of choice.

I have worked in community colleges for twenty years, plus another 7 at four year institutions, and yes, you are correct to an extent. I have a lot of respect for the daunting tasks that our community colleges face for it is there that they remedy the failings of the public school system.

Community colleges in general have extensive remedial and developmental programs to bring students up to college level. But they also have intensive programs in the health fields, biotechnology, nanotechnology, and global logistics, just to name a few, keeping in touch with the emerging shifting of the workface. And its that shift that demand flexibility and responsiveness in academia and particularly within community colleges.

So, bottom line, I'd both agree and disagree with your statements. While colleges are forced to pick up the ball that has been dropped by our school systems, they also are a lot more than just an expensive high school!

As to why the public schools aren't doing better? Teachers being forced to meet state requirements like end of grade testing, more diverse student populations represented by increased immigration and fewer tax dollars play their part.

Good observations from the frontline flashman. I attended a community college for a year before entry into a 4 yr. university. I think that the professors, and the students too for the most part, were more motivated at that community college than they are at the 4 yr. institution I currently attend. I speculated that the students were more vested in their educational process at the community college because (a) they were from a largely impoverished area and educational dollars were hard to come by; and (b) there was a larger population of non-traditional aged students, such as myself, who seemed to have more seriousness of purpose.

My experience at that level was one I am grateful for having been exposed to.

I've got a 4 year degree from a high-priced private college in the Northeast, as well as an MBA from an Ivy League school. That is after graduating from a fancy prep school.

After I got early-retired by Citigroup, I decided to go back to the local community college to see what I could do about getting going with a new career, and to see if I was really still the slacker who did not really apply himself in college.

My conclusion is that the community colleges (or at least the one I picked) today are far harder, far more demanding, far fairer than either of my fancy private universities of 40 years ago.

Case in point: this semester I took a course in human biology. No question about it; it was the most difficult course I have ever taken. I worked my butt off, and I got an A- for the semester. And that's an entry level course. Most of the other students are younger than me, but not necessarily a whole lot. Many had taken the remedial science course beforehand -- but better that they have remedial courses than dumb down the regular curriculum.

Anyway, Northwestern Connecticut Community College has made me a believer in community colleges, and has convinced me that people who bitch about how feeble colleges are today are full of hot air -- or else they are taking the gut courses.

It's a given that there are most likely institutional variations. I'm glad there are people out there who feel like they are getting their money's worth out of their educational investment.

College is pretty much like it always has been: you get out of it what you put into it.

I just completed an AA in LA after a 30 year hiatus. My GPA the first time around was a 2.5. This time I pulled a 3.971 ( one lousy A- in a math survey course).

At the same time, many of my classmates were dropping courses, failing courses, not caring about courses, etc.

It wasn't surprising that I saw very few of them at graduation a few weeks back. The ones I did see were the ones who, like me, studied, did the assignments, and refrained from texting during class.

Of course, this was a community college, and it has an Open Enrollment policy, so there are going to be lots of folks taking remedial courses at any given time.

The returning student's best friend? CLEP