The StraighterLine Guide: The California Community College Crisis and What You Can Do About It

Transcription

1 The StraighterLine Guide: The California Community College Crisis and What You Can Do About It By Barry Lenson, Beth Dumbauld and Jeffrey Simons 2013 StraighterLine. All Rights Reserved.

2 Table of Contents Introduction 472,300 Community College Students Waitlisted in California Part One The State of the Crisis Part Two Why Should I Care about the California Community College System? Part Three The Role the California Community College System Plays in Education Part Four Don't Let the California Community College System Delay Your Educational and Career Goals Part Five How You Can Still Take the Required Classes You Need if You've Been Waitlisted or Turned Away by a California Community College A. If you want to earn an associate degree in 2 years B. If you want to enter a professional career path Healthcare and Nursing Criminal Justice, Homeland security, Firefighter and EMT STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, or Math) C. If you are looking to transfer to a 4-year college to earn your bachelors degree D. If you need continuing education credits for your job E. If you are a homeschooling high school student About StraighterLine Notes

3 Introduction: 472,300 Community College Students Waitlisted in California Over 472,300 community college students in California have been shut out of classes this fall. 1 Classes they need for their Associate Degree. Classes they need to move on to a 4-year college or university. Classes they need to get on with their lives. If you're reading this, chances are you're one of them. There has never been an educational crisis of the magnitude of this one. To put it into stark perspective, nearly 1 out of 4 community college students in the United States are students at community colleges in California. 2 And 79.5% of those community colleges predict their students will be waitlisted for the courses they need, for the most part as a result of the $809 million slashed from their budgets over the last three years. 3 It's time to do something, and at StraighterLine, we think we can help. We're not alone in our efforts to support community college students in California. Together with many of our partner schools, we've helped hundreds of students from California continue their education and get their college degrees from the comfort of their own home, perhaps even more conveniently (and certainly more affordably) than if they'd taken those same classes at their local community college. We may not be able to help the state solve their budget crisis, but we can help the students themselves. We can offer them more than hope: we can offer them real solutions that will get them closer to their college degrees. This guide is filled with strategies and tips that can help students in California get their educational careers back on track. In fact, many of the 472,300 students affected can get the courses they need, online, right now, for just $99 a month plus as little as a $49 per course registration fee. Because if we don't all join together to resolve this crisis, those students will be left in limbo in California, waiting for classes that may never open, waiting for a future that continues to move further and further away with each passing day. 3

4 Part One The State of the Crisis This is not a crisis that sprang up overnight. Along with others in higher education, we've been watching the crisis build for the past three years. To provide historical context to the crisis, we are reprinting a collection of blog posts in which we reported on the growing crisis, leading up to our most recent posts that outline the current state of affairs in California. The impending crisis moves from rumors to the press California Budget Woes Put Students in a Crunch Posted on August 23, 2010 by Barry Lenson Last year, a friend of mine who lives in Los Angeles said something to me that I had never heard before. "My son Matt was accepted at Cal State in Long Beach, but now we are waiting to see whether his acceptance gets revoked, due to California woes. It happened to a few of Matt's friends." It was the first time I ever heard a story like that. Usually when you get accepted to a college, you can assume you are really going there. But according to the new rules of budget crunches, that honorable tradition was apparently going away. That was last year. This is this year, and my jaw dropped when I read an article in Sunday's Los Angeles Times. 4 That article, in the August 22 edition, reported that things are even iffier this year for students who would like to enroll at any of Cal State's 23 universities for the spring 2011 session. Here are the dimensions of the problem... From August 1 through 31, students are welcome to apply for admission to any of the 23 Cal State schools. The Cal State schools expect to accept about 30,000 new students during that period - many of them transfer students. However, if the state's $365 million educational budget does not get approved, the students who were admitted will then receive letters informing them that they cannot be admitted for the spring 2011 term. They will then have the option of getting their application fees returned, or deferring enrollment until fall There are no fingers of blame to point in this situation. A budget crisis is a crisis, right? Yet the fact remains that the situation is forcing tens of thousands of students to live in a state of limbo about their educational future. The Los Angeles Times article quotes Cheryl Armstrong, transfer center director at Los Angeles City College: "For students, it's a constant state of flux. We understand there's a budget crisis but when you think about the goal of the academic process, it's really an unfortunate situation." Unfortunate, to say the least. And once again, students are in the crunch. 4

5 In the spring of 2011, the numbers got real and unbelievable California Community Colleges May Cut 400,000 Students Posted on April 5, 2011 by Barry Lenson From New Jersey to California, state governments are slashing educational expenditures to balance their budgets. It's a bad situation that just got a lot worse. The Los Angeles Times 5 and other publications are reporting that California is about to put its community college system through the budgetary wringer, with the result that 400,000 fewer students will be able to enroll. (Three million students are currently in the system.) This is very bad news for California and its students, for more reasons than first meet the eye... California's community colleges offer career training in fields that actually promise employment. Therefore, the cuts will both negatively impact the lives of students and create more unemployment in the state. California's community colleges have helped tens of thousands of students gain entry into California's state university system. Now that pathway to a degree-granting institution will be largely cut off. So, what are California's students to do? It would be tempting to say that they can just take jobs for a few years and then start college, but jobs are scarce. Online learning can offer a solution to these students. Even if community colleges have fallen on hard times, distance learners can still start college economically, then move on to degreegranting programs later on. So even though the shakeout in American higher education just got even more badly shaken, attractive options still exist for students who are resourceful enough to continue their educations online. 5

6 Across the country, the community college system tries to fend off disaster by raising tuitions The Cost of Community College Is Surging Posted on July 4, 2011 by Barry Lenson "Costlier Community Colleges," a post by Derek Quizon on the Inside Higher Ed 6 blog, delivers some bad news for American students who are hoping to reduce college costs by attending community colleges. Citing figures from the National Center for Education Statistics, Quizon reports that the costs of community college education are rising dramatically - and that the increases are outpacing the growth in average family income. The ability or states to increase the number of students graduating college, Quizon writes, "will be increasingly unlikely... if tuition at public two-year institutions continues to rise sharply as it has since 1999, far outpacing the rise in median family income in every state except Maine... The gap was most dramatic in South Carolina, where median family income fell by about 5 percent over that time, while tuition rose more than 100 percent. Median family income saw only modest gains in California and Virginia, while tuition increases hovered around 80 percent." It will be difficult for those states, and others as well, to improve the situation, given budget deficits and already-growing cuts in educational funding. As a result, students will suffer - not just any students, but those who are already turning to community colleges to help defray the high costs of obtaining a college degree. Funding, of course, is the solution. But where will it come from? At the moment, that is a question that appears to have no answer. 6

7 Cracks in the California system began showing up in the strangest of ways... California Imposes Seven Years of College Down the Drain Rule (Sort Of, Anyhow) Posted on July 15, 2011 by Barry Lenson The quote in the title of today's post comes from the immortal film "Animal House." It's delivered by John Blutarsky (played by John Belushi) after he and all the members of his fraternity are expelled from college by Dean Vernon Wormer. The quote seems to relate to a news report 7 that we just discovered. To quote from the story as it appeared on The Ticker (Chronicle of Higher Education) "California's community-college students will no longer be able to take the same course more than three times under a policy approved on Monday by the system's Board of Governors. An analysis by the system found that the same English and mathematics courses had been taken on at least four occasions more than 225,000 times since Less than half of the students repeating those courses received a C or better. "We just don't feel it's right to have somebody repeat a course four, five, six times, and then individuals who are seeking it for the first time can't get in," the system's chancellor, Jack Scott, told California Watch." At the StraighterLine blog, we usually take the students' side when college courses and opportunities are cut. But in this case, who can argue with a decision to limit the number of times that students can take the same course? Not even John Blutarsky, we don't believe, took the same college course four times. So maybe this is one time when cutting courses to rein in spending really makes sense. Senator Blutarsky, where are you? Please let us know what you think. 7

8 It wasn t just the California Community College system that was having problems with waitlists. Even state universities were showing the strains Hard Times for Students at San Francisco State University Posted on August 28, 2011 by Barry Lenson When is an educational bargain not a bargain? We don't know the answer to that question, but we do know that the students at San Francisco State University aren't getting a lot of bang for their tuition bucks. You can read the story in "SFSU students compete for open class spots," a recent article in the San Francisco Chronicle. 8 Although students pay only $6,442 a year in tuition at SFSU, their struggles must be similar to what students endured at the University of Moscow in the months before the fall of communism. (Actually, those Muscovite students might have had it better.) At SFSU, students have to enter lotteries to claim the few remaining open seats for classes that they need for graduation. If they don't "win" an open seat, what are they supposed to do? And even if they do snag an open seat, they can expect to sit on the floor in the aisles of overcrowded lecture halls. Things are bad. Fifteen percent fewer instructors are teaching at the school, compared to 15 years ago. Three hundred courses have been eliminated. The heating systems barely work in some buildings, forcing students to bundle up and wear coats and gloves to class on some days. (Frisco can get cold.) It all makes you think that curling up with a nice warm laptop in the comfort of your own home is looking better and better these days. More students who take their college courses online are discovering just that. 8

9 By 2012, community colleges are turning away more students than ever, with California among the most affected Is Your Community College in Crisis? Why Not Turn to Online Learning Instead? Posted on February 29, 2012 by Barry Lenson American community colleges - those respected institutions that opened their doors to give all students a route to college - are in crisis. Over the last year, cuts in state budgets have forced them to cancel classes, turn away more students, and raise costs. And the worst part of the problem could be that the states that have cut back most severely - including New York, California, Michigan, and Illinois - are the most populous states with the largest number of students who need community colleges. "Community College Estimated Growth: Fall 2010," 9 a report issued in 2011 by the American Association of Community Colleges, contains a mixed message about how budget cuts are affecting American community colleges... Although community colleges are admitting more students overall, they are also turning away larger numbers of applicants. To visualize that, I find it helpful to think of a large crowd of students standing outside the gates of a community college, trying to get in to enroll for classes. Even though more of them are able to get in and sign up this year than did last year, a larger number of them are left standing outside when the doors close. Why do community colleges turn students away? According to the report, the leading causes are... Insufficient funding. Limited physical facilities. Insufficient number of qualified staff. What If You Are Left Outside the Gates, Looking In? A favorite college professor of mine once offered me some advice on how to achieve success in the world. "If they throw you out the door," he said, "come back in through the window." I think that advice can be applied if you are denied access to the courses you want and need at community colleges. If you are shut out or told to wait, you can keep moving your education ahead anyway, by taking online college courses. Incidentally... Jill Biden and Hilda Solis, the U.S. Secretary of Labor, have been visiting community colleges over the last month. Biden, the wife of Vice President Joe Biden, used to teach at a community college, and she has been out there talking about a proposed $8 billion funding bill that could help community colleges retrain workers to perform jobs that are in demand. Sounds good. But if you are standing out in the cold at the moment and unable to wait until that funding gets approved (or disapproved), why not start taking the courses you need online right now? In other words, come back in through the window. When the going gets tough, the tough get... educated. 9

10 Rather than allow students to use student aid at for-profit and online schools, California built trenches around their failing system California Cuts Off State-Funded Student Aid to 154 For-Profit Colleges and Schools Posted on August 8, 2012 by Barry Lenson For several years now, it has been an open secret that some for-profit schools have been claiming more than their due share of Federal student loan funding. They've been recruiting students by offering them Federal loans to pay nearly all their educational costs, then pocketing the money. Some of those schools have been accused of graduating very few of the students they enroll. And as you may know, the U.S. Congress has been cracking down on such unscrupulous practices. Now it turns out that California, under the vigilant cost-cutting eye of Governor Jerry Brown, has taken steps to assure that for-profit colleges and universities meet certain stringent criteria before California will offer them funding for student scholarships. To quote from a recent article in the Sacramento Bee "The new standards eliminate 154 schools that participated in the program during the last academic year and are expected to impact the plans of more than 14,500 students who attend those schools with Cal Grants. The students can continue to receive their grants if they transfer to eligible institutions." Note that California community colleges, California state universities, and many other schools will not be affected by these limitations. Is this just the first shoe dropping? Will for-profit schools soon be subjected to closer scrutiny from the Federal government as well? In this era of cost-cutting, anything could happen. For-profit schools that enroll lots of students, graduate few, and claim large sums of Federal aid should sit up and take notice. A new age of closer scrutiny and monitoring is at hand. 10

11 No longer a question... the crisis was here! California Community Colleges in Deep Trouble, New Statistics Show Posted on August 31, 2012 by Barry Lenson A study released last week by Jack Scott, the Chancellor of California's community college system, contains some shocking data. Here are some of the statistics that The Chronicle of Higher Education 10 recently excerpted from the report. They tell us a lot about the troubling state of affairs for community college students and their schools in the state: More than 472,000 of the 2.4 million students in the California Community Colleges system have been put on waiting lists for classes the want to take this term. Of the 78 colleges that took part in the study (there are 116 community colleges in the state), 70.5% reported that their enrollments had dropped since the academic year; in contrast, only 20% reported enrollment increases. 79.5% of the colleges reported that their students are faced with waiting lists for the classes that they want to take during the coming semester. 87.2% cut their staffs between the and academic years. 75% of adjunct faculty members were cut in that same period. 68% of schools have reduced or eliminated student services for the coming year. Maybe those statistics shouldn't surprise us because $809 million has been cut from California's community college budget over the last three years alone. But if current trends continue, Scott foresees a future in which, "we don't have the educated work force that we desperately need for economic vitality in California." 11

12 California seemed willing to try any solution except online education... California Community Colleges Borrow Against Tomorrow Posted on September 13, 2012 by Barry Lenson It's no secret that California budget shortfalls have caused havoc in that state's once-robust university system. Classes have been cancelled, faculties cut, building programs scrapped - and worse. Those problems have not been limited to the big California state schools. They have also affected community colleges. And for students who lack the time or funds to go to a regular state school, that spells big problems. To keep their doors open, a number of California community colleges have been selling bonds. Now, selling bonds has always been an effective way to finance activities that benefit the public - projects like bridges and roads. But according to a recent article 11 in California Watch, "Several California community college districts have sold bonds that allow them to put off payments for up to 40 years, causing the total repayment to cost taxpayers from five to nine times the principal." Here are some examples from the California Watch article... Chabot-Las Positas Community College District will pay $850 million by 2046 on $169 million in bonds. That's five times the principal. San Bernardino Community College District will pay $493 million by 2048 on $56 million in bonds. Again, that's five times the principal. Victor Valley Community College District will pay $271 million by 2049 on $34 million in bonds. That's eight times the principal. And there's still more news from California's cash-strapped colleges. According to another article, 12 this on in The Chronicle of Higher Education, Las Positas College in La Jolla is trying to convince local businesses to sponsor individual college courses. That's actually a pretty brilliant idea. A local business would contribute $5,000 to sponsor a course and be listed as the sponsor. The concept is similar to sponsoring a park cleanup, a stretch of highway, or a little league team. Well, why not? Maybe it is an idea whose time has come. 12

13 Like we said earlier, this isn t a crisis that just sprang out of nowhere... We Spend More on Prisons than on Education? Posted on October 20, 2012 by Barry Lenson "Winners and Losers: Corrections and Higher Education in California," 13 an article you can read on the California Common Sense website, reports that since 1980, California's spending on higher education has dropped 13%, while spending on the state's prisons has increased 436%. It's not unusual. In fact, our national policy seems to be that locking up people is better than educating them so they can learn skills, get jobs - and hopefully, not commit crimes. It's a choice that comes down to whether we think that people are fundamentally good or fundamentally evil. I'll leave it to you to pursue that question, since it's miles too big to tackle on this blog. According to one authoritative source, the California Legislative Analyst's Office, 14 it costs California $47,000 a year to incarcerate a prisoner for one year. For just a little more money than that, California could send a student to Princeton, Harvard, or Brown. Why are we making this choice? One reason is that politicians don't want to be accused of being "soft on crime." That could explain why the big-party presidential candidates haven't said a word about prison reform during their campaigns. I haven't heard other candidates mention it either. Prisons aren't the only place where our government could find money to educate people. We could order fewer fighter planes or tanks every year. We could spend a little less on NASA. We could refuse to start any new wars for the next five years or so. Any of those steps could provide money to educate college students and make America more competitive in the years ahead. Cut NASA? Cut military spending? Lots of people would dismiss those suggestions as radical. Perhaps they would be right. But here's another radical idea. How about educating people and then seeing whether we still need to lock them up? 13

14 Which brings us to the present day Community Colleges in Crisis: Did You Know there s a Crisis in California? Posted on January 14, 2013 by Barry Lenson The City College of San Francisco, the largest college in California, is only the latest community college in California to shift into full crisis mode. Here are the outlines of the crisis, as reported in "City College Of San Francisco Asks For Extension To Prevent Shutdown," an article 15 by Aaron Sankin that was published on Huffington Post on January 9th. Last November voters in San Francisco voted to increase funding for City College. However, the college was only given until March 15, 2013, to implement 14 improvements to get its finances organized. One problem? The school has been spending a 92% of its operating budget on payroll and benefits and has to correct that. It has become clear that City College will not be able to meet those demands. The result will be that the college will lose its accreditation. According to Sankin's article, a loss of accreditation "would almost inevitably result in its closure." A special trustee appointed by the college intends to ask accreditors to either: 1) Extend the deadline so the school has more time to meet the demands, or; 2) Place the school on probation. Faculty members are jumping ship and applying for jobs elsewhere. Other California community colleges have their own accreditation crises too. They include College of the Redwoods and Cuesta Community College in San Luis Obispo. Okay, that's terrible. Everybody hates to see a college get in trouble. But for us, the real tragedy centers on what will happen to 90,000 students who now attend classes at about a dozen of the college's campuses. What will happen to them? As City College's faculty members look for opportunities elsewhere, we have a suggestion for students at the college. Look elsewhere too. If your school closes its doors and shutters its classrooms, you could be able to take the courses you need online here at StraighterLine, earn the credits you need, and keep your educational progress on track. Check out our course selection and find the courses you need to complete your degree. 14

15 And what are California s community colleges doing to solve the crisis? Some are finally turning to online education, the very solution they avoided earlier... California Begins to Look Online to Solve Their Problems Posted on January 18, 2013 by Jeffrey Simons I was checking out a new page on Facebook dedicated to what's going on in California, called, appropriately, California's Community College Crisis Center. And I came across two articles about how some California schools are finally turning to online education to help address their problems. The first, "CA Community College Experiments with Online Degree Partnerships" 16 is a blog post on the website, CollegeInsurrection.com. It talks about how "California's Coastline Community College is set to create low-cost, online bachelor's degree pathways where students can enroll simultaneously at one of three public universities, none of which are in California." Their goal is to cut their waitlist in half and enroll 10,000 more students. According to Paul Feist, a spokesman in the 112-college California community college system's chancellor's office, "The California Community Colleges are working with colleges and other government agencies to develop a strategy to respond to current innovations in online course delivery, including MOOCs." Coastline will be partnering with the University of Massachusetts Online, Penn State University's World Campus and the University of Illinois-Springfield. The program is scheduled to launch next spring. According to the article, "The project's leaders hope it will serve as a model for expanding capacity at California's community colleges, which have been forced to turn away hundreds of thousands of students because of budget cuts." A single college preparing to forge partnerships with 3 online, out-of-state schools may seem like baby steps, but keep in mind this is the same state where back in August of last year, they cut off state funded student scholarships to students at 154 for-profit colleges and universities (including some online schools). The second article is called "California State University launches online degree program" 17 from Southern California Public radio. It reported that on Monday, January 14th, the Cal State University system became the largest public university to offer online degree programs. According to John Welty, the chair of Cal State's online advisory board, the university is looking to help students who already have some Cal State or community college classes under their belt. "We know there are large numbers of students wanting to complete degrees," he said, "particularly in areas like business and applied studies so this is an effort to provide additional access to the citizens of California." continues 15

16 While the university system may be the largest, the online degree program is modest, at best. It only offers degrees in business administration, applied studies, public administration, and management information technology, at both the bachelor and masters level. Again, baby steps. All of which got me thinking: why doesn't California get their act together and reach out to the world of online colleges and universities in a bigger way? When you just look at StraighterLine partner schools (many of whom are already helping hundreds of students in California), we have, among others, North America's largest for-profit university, University of Phoenix, and the largest public university in the U.S., University of Maryland University College. We have one of the most highly acclaimed online universities, Western Governors University. We have the second largest community college in the US, Northern Virginia Community College. And the list continues... Excelsior College... Thomas Edison State College... SUNY Empire State College... and many more. We even have a partner in California: Concordia University Irvine. Clearly, our partner schools stand ready and able to help California in their moment of need. And then there's StraighterLine. With over 50 introductory college courses and dozens of creditby-exams, we offer waitlisted community college students in California options that can keep their educational careers moving forwards. And because our courses are guaranteed to transfer to our partner colleges and universities, as well as being ACE reviewed and recommended, that means that students can take courses with us and then move on to hundreds, if not thousands, of other schools to get their degrees. Baby steps are good. But it's time for California to stop acting like a toddler. They've got grown-up problems, and they've got to face them like a grown up would. 16

17 Part Two Why Should I Care about the California Community College System? Even if you don't live in California, the educational system is California is often a barometer of the educational health of the community college system in the United States as a whole. After all, 24% of all students in the United States who are enrolled in a community college attend that community college in California. 18 There's a good chance, as you pursue your college course access options, that you'll run into similar issues with the community college in your area. Community colleges are the workhorses of the educational system. A high-functioning community college acts as the educational onramp for a diverse set of students whose goals are as varied as the students themselves. As wide-ranging as community college student backgrounds are, what they do have in common is an urgent need for increased community college system accessibility. College accessibility is a broad concept. It can mean different things to different students. For many, accessibility means financial affordability. For others, accessibility means flexible enrollment options. For others, accessibility is about the ease of the admissions process. For others still, accessibility means just-in-time access to the college classes you need, when you need them - and that taking those college classes isn't contingent on a number of complicated (or expensive) logistical barriers. If you are considering a community college in California - what does college accessibility mean to you? The community college system plays an important role in higher education in the United States, and in California in particular, because it is often perceived as the most accessible point of entry into a college system. The unfortunate truth about the California community college system is that perception is no longer reality. Perception: "I can always take a class at my local community college." Reality: The California Community College system is in crisis. The truth is, the demand for accessible education has never been higher, but the resources available to meet that demand has never fallen so short. The Result: Community college students are getting shut out of classes and access to the educational programs they need. There's a huge cost to all of this waiting - every missed hour, missed class, or missed semester is a missed opportunity. 17

18 Part Three The Role the California Community College System Plays in Education In California, the vast majority of enrolled undergraduate students are enrolled in a community college. In fact, the number of students enrolled at a California community college is over 7 times 19 as many as any of the other college systems in the state. Number of Undergraduates Enrolled in the California College System* 20 Community College of California (CCC): ,606,356 California State University (CSU): ,660 University of California (UC): ,581 Private: (Members of the Association of Independent California Colleges and Universities)* ,000 *Statistics are for School Year As big a presence and role the community college system has in California, when it fails, it fails big. Due to underfunding, and explosive student need, the community college system is unable to meet the educational needs of all current and potential students. In fact, during the school year, 139,000 students 21 were turned away from the California community college system due to a lack of adequate funding. Currently, hundreds of thousands of enrolled students, are being forced onto waitlists and being turned away from oversubscribed classes. Hundreds of thousands of students' futures are at risk - are you one of them? 18

19 Part Four Don t Let a Lack of Funding in the California Community College System Delay Your Educational and Career Goals Each and every student who enters a California community college brings to the school a unique set of dreams, career goals and educational needs. The diversity at a California community college is unparalleled: 5.4% are less than 17 years old; 48.5% are 18-24, 21.4% are ages 25-34, and 24.7% are 35 and older. 22 Where do you fit in? What are you looking to take away from an education? Given that budget cuts and shrinking resources are limiting access to the California community college system - where does that leave you? What does (or would) a delay in your ability to enroll in a community college have on your career and educational goals? If you are already enrolled - what kind of impact does being waitlisted for required courses have on your educational roadmap? Waitlists take a toll on a student's future. At the end of the day, becoming frustrated with the community college crisis leaves you with little more than a headache and a huge hassle - don't let issues within the California community college system delay your educational and career goals. You have options. It's time to move away from a community college system in crisis to something a whole lot better: credit-bearing online college courses. In fact, many students at community colleges are already opting for online courses that are offered by institutions that are not their community colleges. According to a study of 1,205 community college students conducted by Harris Interactive for the Pearson Foundation in August and September of 2011: 23 57% of the community college student studied reported that they had taken college courses online. 46% of the students reported that they were taking at least one online course during the fall 2011 semester. 74% of the students said they were "satisfied" with the online courses they had taken. 39% of the students said they would like to take all their courses online. 19

20 Part Five How You Can Still Take the Required Classes You Need if You ve Been Waitlisted or Turned Away by a California Community College If you are one of the thousands of students turned away by a community college due to a lack of space or availability of programs, what can you do? Actually, quite a bit. Let's take a look at the typical student "wants" in attending a community college. Take a minute to see where you fit in, and then learn how to quickly move around the roadblocks standing in between you and your educational goals. A. If you want to earn an associate degree in 2 years: Deciding to earn your degree is a big step. One of the main advantages in earning an associate degree is that you can quickly earn the credentials you need to advance your career. However, any delay in earning your associate degree eats away at any time advantage that going for a 2-year degree offers. A community college program that promises to deliver a 2-year degree should not take a student 3 years to complete because of a lack of course availability. It's expensive and a waste of time, and acts as a brake on your future. Are you stalled out in an associate degree program at a California community college? Step out, or bypass the system all together, and take the introductory and prerequisite college classes you need by enrolling in online college courses at StraighterLine. StraighterLine offers credit-bearing college courses in science, math, business, English, humanities, and language. Need to take calculus? How about English Composition I? What about accounting? You can sign-up online at StraighterLine and begin taking classes today. You can take StraighterLine online college courses anywhere, anytime. You have the choice of taking self-directed classes or learning with a professor. It's up to you. All StraighterLine courses earn ACE CREDIT, making them eligible to transfer for comparable credit at over 2,000 colleges, and are currently guaranteed to transfer to more than 40 accredited partner colleges - all of whom offer associate degrees. StraighterLine offers unlimited college courses starting at a cost of $99/month plus a one-time per course fee of $49. Signing up for college courses at StraighterLine allows you to save money, save time, and eliminate the uncertainty surrounding the California community college crisis. 20