Today, higher education is extremely important since it opens large job opportunities for students. In such a situation, the quality of college becomes crucial along with the accessibility of higher education to students. In this respect, it should be said that the higher education is an essential step toward a successful professional career. Even though the higher education does not necessarily guarantee a professional success of an individual, it definitely provides him or her with larger job opportunities. At the same time, today, many students face the problem of the high costs of the higher education. As a result, higher education becomes unavailable to the large part of students, especially from the low-income families. In such a situation, the state support is essential to maintain public colleges and universities to provide a larger number of students with better education opportunities. In such a context, the community college is an essential step toward continuing the higher education at the state University. Both institutions are public and get the financial support from the part of the state.
At the same time, there is still a considerable gap between community colleges and state universities since students graduating from community colleges do not always have an opportunity to enter a state university. In this respect, it is worth mentioning the fact that many states have only one state university, while the demand for the higher education in the state university constantly increases. In fact, students cannot afford tuition and prefer state universities instead of private universities. As a result, the competition between students willing to enter state universities is constantly growing that naturally cuts a large number of students graduating from community colleges off the further education in state universities.
In such a context, numerous questions arise. Firstly, there is a question concerning closing the gap between the growing demand for university education and the limited opportunities of state universities to accept all students. Secondly, it is unclear where students graduating community colleges can continue their education if state universities are not available to them. Hence, another question arises – whether the amount of state universities and their capacity meets the existing number of community colleges and their capacity. Finally, there is another question ”“ how is it possible to integrate community colleges to state universities to exclude the risk of wasting education opportunities for students whose academic successes could have allowed them continuing their education at universities.
At the same time, it is important to distinguish community colleges and state universities. In this respect, it is important to clearly define both terms. In fact, community colleges are public institutions that were known as junior colleges. After graduating from a community college students transfer to a four-year liberal arts college or university for two to three years to complete a bachelor’s degree. In such a way, community colleges actually prepare students to the education at universities. As for state universities, they represent a group of public universities supported by an individual US state or similar entity such as the District of Columbia. Unlike community colleges, state universities may consist of several institutions, each with its own identity as a university.
In such a context, it is obvious that the community colleges and state universities are essential, especially for students from low-income families who cannot afford higher education without the state support. At the same time, the interaction between community colleges and state universities is relatively low and they do not always cooperate effectively since many students cannot overcome entering barriers to state universities. In this respect, it is also worth mentioning the fact that the amount of state universities is insufficient since they cannot meet the existing demand. On the other hand, it is necessary to take into consideration another important issue ”“ the lack of financial resources in state budgets to fund state universities since it state budget that carry the burden of funding state universities.
Consequently, it is important to conduct an in-depth research of the current situation in the public education and define possible ways of solution of existing problems. In fact, it is necessary to provide all students with equal opportunities to get higher education and higher education should be truly accessible to all students. Otherwise, the educational inequality will enhance social and economic disparity of the US society.
In this respect, it is possible to suggest focusing the researching of alternative sources of funding of both state universities and community colleges. To put it more precisely, it is possible to optimize funding with the help of the local communities which can support community colleges or state university. It is possible to introduce larger tax credits to decrease the financial problems preventing students from entering universities. In addition, it is necessary to improve the quality of college education and university education since community colleges and state universities often are unable to compete with private colleges and universities, which establish very high standards public institutions should meet.