Privatization Without Angst - Scott Jaschik, Inside Higher Ed

"My own college behaves much more like a private college these days than a public." Stephen M. Curtis, president of the Community College of Philadelphia, told fellow community college leaders here Sunday that this statement was true of his institution and many others. And he's not ashamed. When talking to elected officials, potential donors and others, "that's a line I use all the time," he said, in a session at the annual meeting of the American Association of Community Colleges. The steady erosion of state and local support for community colleges is often bemoaned at AACC sessions. Sunday's session, however, was different. Curtis -- and his fellow panelist, Rufus Glasper, chancellor of the Maricopa Community Colleges -- made clear that they wished that trends had unfolded in different ways. But they said it was time to get over it, and to recognize that community colleges must embrace ideas associated with privatization if they are to succeed in their various missions.