BY HANK REICHMAN

No sooner had I posted my COVID-19 and Higher Education annotated reading list, than two pieces appeared that also deserve attention.

The first is by Sara Goldrick-Rab, Professor of sociology and medicine at Temple University.  Her book, Paying the Price: College Costs, Financial Aid, and the Betrayal of the American Dream, is one of the most important books on higher education to appear in recent years and I have posted previously about her work with the Faculty and Students Together (FAST) Fund, which helps students dealing with hunger and homelessness.  On Friday The Atlantic published her latest piece, “Community Colleges Aren’t Prepared for This Crisis,” (since retitled but the link still works) which is very much worth reading.  Here are some excerpts:

Right now, across the country, millions of high-school graduates and their families are facing an undeniable fact: The pandemic has thrown their plans for the future into complete disarray. Some of these families were hoping to send their kids to out-of-state institutions that are now barely operational. Others were hoping their kids would find jobs right out of high school, and those jobs are almost certainly gone now.

Many of these families—plus millions of students already midway through a college degree—are going to turn to an institution often overlooked in the national discourse about higher education: community college. And why shouldn’t they?

Compared with many alternatives, community colleges are relatively affordable. They are located in nearly every county in the country, allowing students to live at home and help their families survive this tough economic time. Many offer flexible scheduling with both traditional academic programs and vocational training. That’s why when the Great Recession hit, community colleges absorbed half of all growth in college enrollment. Despite the stereotypes of low graduation rates, many students succeed in completing credentials in community college, and transferring to four-year institutions.

But community colleges can only offer a high-quality and affordable education when the government does its part in providing a reliable stream of financial support—and it needs to do so now. Consider that in 2001, state and local appropriations contributed 61 percent of community colleges’ average revenue, helping keep tuition low at an average $2,240 a year. But over the next 15 years, state and local governments cut back their support, causing average tuition to swell by 65 percent. These days, community college is rarely free.

To make matters worse, despite the clear evidence that community-college students need relatively more support to succeed (many of them are the first in their family to attend college), states invest more in institutional resources and financial aid for students attending four-year institutions. In turn, those students—who come to college with distinct advantages in terms of family wealth and fewer academic-support needs—reap the benefits.. . .

These crucial institutions now face a national emergency and are needed more than ever to help preserve educational opportunity in a country that still promotes the American Dream. But community colleges aren’t equipped to deal with the sudden influx of students. As the neglected stepchildren of higher education, they have long been overlooked, asked to do more with less every day, yet heavily relied on during times of crisis.

Their stepchild status was illustrated most recently in the $2.2 trillion CARES Act. Even though community colleges educate about 40 percent of students nationwide, and more than half of all low-income students, they were allocated just 27 percent of CARES Act funds. That amounts to a nearly $2 billion shortfall. . . .

About 50 percent of the CARES dollars for higher education are direct emergency grants to help students facing financial crises pay for food, housing, child care, and more. Living expenses constitute the majority of the cost of attending community college. While tuition and fees averaged $3,730 for the 2019–20 school year, the average cost of attendance was closer to $17,000 when food, books and supplies, transportation, housing, and other expenses were factored in. Even accounting for financial aid, 18 percent of students attending community colleges face a price higher than their family’s total income.. . .   [N]early one in two community-college students experienced food or housing insecurity, and about 17 percent experienced homelessness in the past year. Without having their basic needs met, students can’t be expected to do well in school and complete degrees.

At the California Community Colleges, one of the world’s largest systems of higher education, an estimated 70 percent of its nearly 2.2 million students were facing basic-needs insecurity before the pandemic. . . .

Community colleges are explicitly designed to offer a second chance to millions of Americans, especially those facing challenges such as unemployment and economic hardship. These second-chance institutions are an undeniably crucial part of our nation’s recovery from the pandemic. If community colleges are going to lift up and support the 7 million students they serve, the federal government must step up to ensure their survival.

There’s more; you should read it.

Then there’s a blog post by Nancy Bailey, a former special education teacher with a PhD in educational leadership, who writes regularly about K-12 schools.  “Hire, Don’t Fire, Teachers! They’re the Educational Superheroes to Help Students Through this Crisis!” she writes:

Once upon a time, this country waited for Superman to save its schools. Teachers are today’s Superheroes. They face this crisis with strength and determination. The elite can write their blueprints. It’s the teachers who get the job done. The country should be hiring, not firing, its teachers.

The Learning Policy Institute reports grim statistics about teacher firings. A 15 percent reduction in state education funding means more than 300,000 teaching positions would be lost, while a 30 percent loss means approximately 697,675 teachers could lose their jobs.

Meanwhile, lawmakers are accusing Education Secretary Betsy DeVos of handing public funding meant for public schools, over to private and parochial schools. We know that DeVos is not on the side of teachers. She has also been using money to fund charter schools, which are often unaccountable to the public. DeVos is failing to support the schools and the teachers who are serving students at this serious time. The states and the local school districts depend on financial support from the federal government to survive. If these schools go under, if teachers across the country lose their jobs, we will, in part, have DeVos to blame. . . .

How can teachers lose their jobs at a time when their service is critical for the country, for students and families who rely on them for instruction and moral support?

Bailey goes on to elaborate on moves that schools and politicians should make to support teachers and meet the challenges to education posed by the COVID-19 pandemic and the economic crisis it sparked.  It’s another piece worth reading.