Community college as the last bastion of the humanities? That’s probably going too far, but there’s interesting new evidence that community colleges are bucking higher education’s general trend away from the humanities. Whatever the case, President Obama sees enough in a community college education to have proposed in his most recent State of the Union address making tuition to these institutions free.
So on the one hand, we have community college (perhaps) as a model and encouragement to those who lament the decline of the humanities. Read the recent report on the matter at the Chronicle of Higher Education.
On the other hand, we have the president suggesting that free tuition at these two-year institutions will boost the US college graduation rate and carry more people into the ranks of the middle class. Writing for CNN, LZ Granderson thinks the proposal makes sense. Michael B. Horn, also writing for CNN, has his doubts.