Testimony of Dr. Richard Fonte

Testimony of Dr. Richard Fonte
President, Austin Community College and Member of the Board of Directors
American Association of Community Colleges

Hearing on "Expanding Access to College in America: How the Higher Education Act Can Put College Within Reach"

Subcommittee on 21^st Century Competitiveness
House Committee on Education and the Workforce

July 15, 2003

Chairman McKeon, Ranking Member Kildee, members of the subcommittee, Good morning. My name is Richard Fonte and I am President of Austin Community College in Austin, Texas. Austin Community College is a community college with 30,000 students, 6 campuses and located in six counties. We are simultaneously an urban, suburban and rural community college.

I am proud to serve as a member of the Board of Directors of the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC). I am pleased to be here this morning to speak on behalf of AACC on the topic of access to higher education. AACC counts approximately 1,100 of the nation’s community colleges as its members, and serves as their primary voice before Congress, the federal agencies, and the public.

Increasing access to affordable, high-quality higher education was the driving force behind the creation of AACC’s member institutions, and remains the cornerstone of their mission today. The potential effect on student access enters into nearly every key decision made on our campuses.

No discussion of access to higher education is complete without considering the role of community colleges. Nationwide, approximately 44% of all undergraduates are enrolled at our institutions. Community colleges are vital entry points into higher education for traditionally underserved populations, including minorities and economically disadvantaged students. Approximately five million more enroll in non-degree courses at our institutions, for anything from upgrading technical skills to adult basic education and English as a Second Language (ESL).

Community colleges are known as "open access" institutions of higher education. In its simplest sense, this term refers to policies maintained by community colleges that welcome all who seek to continue their education beyond high school. We believe, however, that "access" goes well beyond enrollment policies. It encompasses a wide array of activities that contribute to increased success for the largest number of students. We define success as the attainment of personal goals and the realization of individual potential. In turn, these successes benefit the broader society and economy. The initiatives undertaken on our campuses, in partnership with federal, state and local public entities, make access to higher education a reality.

From the community college perspective, access includes the following:

Providing students with the necessary financial resources. Community colleges pride themselves on offering high quality instruction at a low cost. Behind our low tuition lies our ability to deliver education for less than other types of institutions. Keeping costs low, and maintaining affordability, is a watchword of our institutions. Even so, needy students still need substantial assistance to attend community college. In that regard, there is no substitute for the Higher Education Act (HEA). The HEA’s student aid programs, particularly the Pell Grant program, continue to play a pivotal role in creating access to community college. Pell Grants are the building block of access for financially disadvantaged community college students. About 1.6 million community colleges students now receive a Pell Grant. This number has burgeoned in the last three years, and, significantly, the largest percentage increase has taken place in the category of "independent students with dependents"—that is, people who have families and are almost always going back to our colleges for job-related reasons. When economic times are bad, community colleges become more important than ever; postsecondary education is what economists call a "counter-cyclical industry."

The Pell Grant remains the most effective vehicle for helping needy students to access college, despite the fact that its purchasing power has eroded over time. We cheer Congress’s strong bi-partisan support for the program. However, the current maximum Pell Grant of $4,050 is still well short of the average annual cost of attendance of $9,081 for a full-time student at a public two-year college. Even with our low tuition, the unmet need for low-income students at public community colleges averages $3,200, according to the Advisory Committee on Student Financial Assistance’s report Access Denied: Restoring the Nation’s Commitment to Equal Education Opportunity. This gap can be especially daunting to a potential first year student from a family who has never had a family member attend college. Such a student, I might add, is highly unlikely to even consider a loan to finance their education.

Over the next decade college enrollment is expected to increase by 14%, of which 80% will be minorities, one-fifth of whom will live below the poverty line. For these students Pell Grants will be a critical factor in expanding access to higher education.

Congress should reaffirm its commitment to need-based financial aid by endorsing significantly higher Pell Grant and other student aid funding. This is especially important in light of federal tax education policies which, regrettably, do not generally target the neediest students, as well as states’ alarming movement away from need-based aid. The authorized maximum Pell Grant award should be doubled over the course of the next HEA reauthorization. Obviously, doubling the authorized maximum obviously will not guarantee greater funding. However, it would signal to appropriators that financially disadvantaged students need significantly more grant aid. AACC also recommends changing the Pell Grant award rules so that needy students attending the lowest-cost institutions still qualify for the maximum Pell Grant. These students’ total cost of attendance remains well above the maximum Pell Grant award.

Making postsecondary education available where and when students need it. Open access can never be achieved if postsecondary educational opportunities are not available to students when, where, and in the form they need it. The average community college student is 29 years old, and nearly two-thirds of our students are enrolled part-time. Approximately half of community college students work full-time. Many community college students are supporting families of their own, often by themselves. Yesterday’s non-traditional student is generally the norm at community colleges.

With over 1,100 institutions nationwide, a community college is often within easy reach, but that fact alone does not satisfy the demand for readily available postsecondary options. Community colleges are pioneers in offering flexible class schedules, including night and weekend classes and ongoing enrollments, where a new term starts every few weeks, rather than a few times a year. Classes are offered in various places beyond the confines of the campus, including local community locations, local high schools, and at job sites, frequently through on-the-job training specifically tailored to the needs of employers.

Furthermore, over one-third of community colleges are located in rural areas, where geographic distance from campus is often a major deterrent to pursuing postsecondary education. Developing innovative approaches to extending the reach of educational options is especially important in these areas.

Distance education has become an essential tool in making postsecondary education more widely available. The number of course offerings offered via "distance education," a catchall term encompassing a number of different technologies, is rapidly increasing at community colleges. For example, last fall Austin Community College offered more than 150 web-based courses, in addition to cable courses and interactive videoconferencing courses, serving 5,500 students.

The reauthorized HEA should reflect the increasing role of distance education. Specifically, AACC recommends modifying the "50% rule" that limits the amount of distance education courses that institutions may offer by giving the Secretary of Education waiver authority for institutions that have, or are about to, exceed this limit. While relatively few institutions are near this threshold today, that situation could change rapidly during the course of the next reauthorization. Many parties are calling for eliminating the 50% rule altogether. While we respect this perspective, we think that an ounce of caution up-front may well prevent a pound of scandal later. Congress may choose to delineate the criteria that the Secretary would use in reviewing requests to exceed the 50% threshold.

Outreach to and support of underrepresented populations. 80% of jobs in the 21^st century will require at least some postsecondary education, and meeting that percentage will require all of us to make a concerted effort to increase the number of students enrolling and persisting in higher education. In Texas, under the statewide "Closing the Gaps" higher education access initiative, we estimate that, by 2015, we need to increase participation in higher education by 500,000 students each year, including some 300,000 students who would not traditionally attend based upon past demographic trends.

In fact, Texas officials estimate that failure to achieve these greater levels of participation will have dire economic consequences. It is projected that average household income in Texas would decline by $4,000, if higher participation in college is not achieved. A less educated population makes less income and thus the waste of human resources has adverse, aggregate economic consequences.

Reaching out to first-generation college students is crucial, and here community colleges play an important role. More than half of all community college students come from families where neither parent attended a postsecondary educational institution, a higher percentage than any other sector of higher education. Again, in Texas, it is assumed by higher education officials that 70% of all the new students we need to close the gap in access will attend a community college.

Outreach to minority students is an especially critical facet of this overall effort. As our society becomes increasingly diverse, we must do better at enrolling greater percentages of "minority" populations. Community colleges pride themselves on being the "Ellis Island of higher education," enrolling 46% of all African-American undergraduate students and 55% of all Hispanic students. Unfortunately, currently these two groups attend and complete college at a lower rate than the Anglo population. This trend in participation and access must be changed if we are to have the intellectual capital to meet the economic challenges of the 21^st century. "Open access" must go beyond a passive open door policy to include active efforts to reach out to those who might not otherwise be inclined to enter that open door. For these reasons, AACC strongly supports programs like TRIO and GEAR UP that aim to increase and widen enrollments in postsecondary education. In reauthorizing the Higher Education Act, we must continue and strengthen these efforts.

Preparing students for postsecondary education success. Though community colleges maintain open enrollment policies, simply possessing a high school diploma or a G.E.D. is often insufficient preparation to enter a particular community college program with reasonable expectation of successfully meeting the student’s educational objective. Most community colleges require an initial assessment of some or all entering students to determine their readiness for particular programs, such as academic university transfer programs or nursing. Students who do not possess all the tools necessary for their chosen program are generally required to take developmental courses to prepare them for success at the college. Students who are reentering formal education after an extended absence especially need these second chances. While the numbers vary from institution to institution, most community colleges report that a substantial percentage of their students of all ages need some remedial coursework. Such developmental coursework is a critical component of increased access and success at community college. In the words of a recent AACC publication authored by Dr. Robert McCabe, former President of Miami-Dade Community College, there is "No One To Waste." Open access also means working with students who may not be educationally prepared at the level that we would like. However, Dr. McCabe has shown that investing in these students may be the most cost-effective one made in higher education.

Community colleges also work closely with secondary schools to help students make the transition to higher education. In more and more places, access to higher education is supported through dual enrollment programs that permit high school juniors and seniors to get a jump start on college. Community colleges are also on the front-line of joint curriculum consultation between college and high school faculty implementing new state education standards for high school students.

With the enactment of the No Child Left Behind legislation in the last Congress and its subsequent implementation, the quality of education at the elementary and secondary levels has commanded much attention. Of course, any increase in quality at those levels would help reduce the number of postsecondary students who need remediation. Improving teacher quality is at the center of these efforts, and community colleges play an expanding role in the preparation, certification, and professional development of elementary and secondary teachers. AACC recommends that the reauthorized HEA include a new national competitive grant program in Title II that focuses on the community college role in these areas. Such a program would help develop additional ways of dealing with the expected massive teacher shortfall. All avenues into the classroom for qualified professionals must be nurtured.

Additional Challenges To Access

I wish to conclude with a few words about the challenges that community colleges face in maintaining open access in the current economic and fiscal situation. Nearly across the board, community colleges are facing state budget cuts at the same time they are experiencing rising student enrollments. The average community college receives almost 60% of its revenues from state and local sources. As these public resources decrease or are greatly constrained, open access is threatened in two principal ways: increased tuitions and/or reduction of services.

Since community colleges raise tuitions as a last resort, many have been forced to decrease the number of seats available in particular programs, or eliminate them altogether. These reductions hit high-cost programs first, such as nursing or high technology programs, where there is often the greatest demand for skilled workers. Some areas have been considering enrollment caps and other measures that are anathema to the community college commitment to access.

The states’ fiscal conditions are not projected to significantly improve anytime soon. Through anecdotal reports from our members, tuition increases for the upcoming year may be greater than those last year. Again, these increases are a direct result of decreased resources coming to our institutions from state and local governments. If you do not think that these funding reductions lead to public college tuition increases, we respectfully ask you to think again: for the six academic years preceding last fall, community college tuitions increased by an average of just 2.2%. Last fall, in the midst of severe funding reductions in almost every state, tuitions jumped by 7.9%. The relationship could not be clearer. Given this situation, and similar stress affecting all of higher education, the federal commitment to programs that increase student access is needed now more than ever. I urge the committee to keep this in mind as it continues with the HEA reauthorization.

Thank you for the opportunity to present this testimony. I would be pleased to answer any questions that you may have.