Ask the students, ask the faculty, ask anyone, really, who knows the institution: City College of San Francisco is one of the best community college systems in the nation. Just don’t ask the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges, which last week chose to revoke the college’s accreditation for a host reasons having everything to do with politics and finance, and little to do with the actual quality of education offered.
Good community colleges make good communities. They serve as vital centers not only for students actively working towards degrees, but for a broad swatch of the population looking to uncover new talents and hobbies, improve professional capacities, stay sharp and engaged later in life, or simply learn for the joy of learning (and because, as studies show, learning about anything helps the brain grow better at everything.)
The loss of accreditation becomes effective next year, and
though the decision is being appealed, it is a tremendous and unfair blow to an
institution serving 85,000 students, which has been struggling to resolve
funding issues, as I've already written, in the face of California’s ever-evolving budget crisis.
In fact, finances have been at the root of the problem since even before City College was first put on sanction
by the commission back 2012, the same time at which President Obama’s Statue of
the union speech slashed at community education with a double-edged sword:
"States also need to do their part, by making higher education a higher priority in their budgets," Obama told the nation. "And colleges and universities have to do their part by working to keep costs down." The policy outcome of this practical-sounding sentiment is what’s known in education circles as the “completion agenda,” which emphasizes numbers-based evaluations and focuses on providing services to students seeking to complete a degree – to the detriment of broader learning and community-based initiatives.
The nitty-gritty of Obama’s education policy forced local accrediting agencies to comply with the new agenda – ironically using affordability as a measure by which to determine accreditation, which is necessary for colleges to receive state funding (in addition to dictating whether students can apply for federal loans, apply credits earned to other institutions, and graduate with a generally recognized degree). So institutions undergoing financial hardship, regardless of the quality of their services, were subject to losing their state funding, resulting in – that’s right – financial hardship.
The irony of the situation is that it is driven a close-minded focus on economic development — one that equips students with the bare minimum of skills they need to enter the workforce as quickly as possible. But this is only one model of economic development, and a flawed one at that. Developing whole, well-rounded individuals and fostering educational and cultural linkages among community members at all levels of education is the better, more far-reaching economic goal. And most importantly, the benefits can be reaped even before students hit the workforce. By treating the college as a community hub – attracting people for lectures, events, classes – and focusing on its impact on public space and community cross-pollination, economic gains become generative and enduring, like in this arts-focused re-imagining of an Oregon community college. It's an obvious next step from the 21st Century (21C) paradigm for k-12 education, an integrated education model developed at Yale University, already at play in 1300 schools across the country. Replacing the community-centered function of these institutions for a narrow economic agenda, as even well-meaning and progressive prescriptions tend to do further marginalizes and alienates already disadvantaged students, robbing them of the chance to mingle and collaborate with a wider swatch of of population who may use the institution, despite already having achieved a high level of academic success, for enrichment and continuing education. And in removing enrichment-type classes from the curriculum (dance, art, general interest and humanities classes), community colleges not only suffer the loss of students of diverse academic backgrounds, they further restrict marginalized students from the benefits of a rich and broadly integrated education.
The completion agenda goes hand-in-hand with other outcome-focused initiatives like Obama's controversial "Race to the Top" rally and the wider outcry to shore up performance in STEM subjects – a call to arms with similarly narrow economic underpinnings. Rather than focusing solely on predicting needs and frantically bolstering education for a changing job market, we can build strong, diverse educational communities (Sanford C. Shugart, president of Valencia College in Florida, calls this the "educational ecosystem") that emphasize creativity, non-linearity and strong analytical thought processes, which are adaptable to any shift in the job market. But not if we undercut our educational system, rather than taking advantage of all it has to offer.
It’s not a new story for City College. It’s just one more symptom of an education system – and a larger society – which shortsightedly emphasizes quantitative over qualitative analysis, discounting the benefits of an engaged and educated community, both economically and, more importantly, socially.
Get involved at: www.saveccsf.org