Amid a foundering economy, many community colleges are experiencing enrollment increases that are “off the charts.”

Though community colleges specialize in “second chances” – be it a second chance to train for a career, a second chance to graduate from high school, or a second chance to get into the university of one’s dreams via a transfer – Dallas County (Texas) Community College District Chancellor Wright Lassiter remembers Schenectady County Community College (N.Y.) being derisively referred to as a “Second Chance Community College” when he arrived as president nearly 30 years ago.

Now, during a bruising recession in which millions of U.S. jobs have been lost, Lassiter and numerous other community college leaders report that their enrollments have been skyrocketing as out-of-work students seek training for a new career and veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan take advantage of the GI Bill to go to college. Also, community colleges are attracting another type of student, one who traditionally would go straight to a university but now is having second thoughts as one parent or two is jobless and as taking out tens of thousands of dollars in student loans amid shaky job prospects seems like a bad idea.

When asked to pay university tuitions, “parents are saying, ‘We just can’t afford it.’ So we’re saying to our faculty that they’ve got to take on some of the [attributes] of the four-year institutions, where you are doing all you can to broaden their experience, not just in a course,” Lassiter says.