As students regardless of ethnicity know, even with financial aid, the cost of college can be insurmountable.
According to Carreon, the Dallas County Community College District is always looking for creative ways to ease the financial burden for students, but when the district isn’t getting more money, there’s only so much that can be done to help.
“We’ll probably be flat again for this year’s budget, which really means a cut because of increasing costs,” Carreon says.
But as anyone in the field knows, community colleges are masters of innovation. So when the district realized that many students were having difficulty physically getting to school, they worked with local public transit to give free passes to students. But the bus system is a business like any other, and they’re considering cutting a route that goes through one of the campuses because of lack of ridership. Sometimes, it’s a case of one step forward, two steps back.
As always, the clarion call is more money to help more students. And Carreon worries about the future if the government doesn’t start addressing these problems — soon.
“I think that demographic changes our nation is experiencing right now also are causing this country to go through a metamorphosis. In Texas, we have a window of about 15 to 20 years to make changes in how we educate our students,” Carreon says. “Unless we educate all students in grades K-16, we will face more than an issue of economic reality. It’s much bigger. It’s about creating wealth, as well as building and sustaining communities, not only in Texas but also across the entire country.”
© Copyright 2005 by DiverseEducation.com
