Completion Conundrum - Paul Fain, Inside Higher Ed

The state funding outlook for community colleges is too bleak for the completion agenda to succeed, according to a national survey of statewide leaders of two-year institutions. For example, respondents from just four states said a “long-term plan exists to finance the operating budgets needed to increase the number of adults with college degrees and certificates.” Facilities budgets are even worse, with only three respondents calling state capital funding adequate. Optimism is hard to spot in the survey results released Wednesday by the University of Alabama’s Education Policy Center. The research is part of the center’s annual survey of state community college directors, who manage and coordinate two-year colleges in their states.