California’s community colleges face a difficult path forward.
Across the state, from San Diego to counties on the northern border, enrollments at many community colleges have plummeted during the coronavirus pandemic.
Systemwide, more than 260,000 fewer students enrolled in fall 2020 compared to fall 2019, potentially threatening the long-term existence of some colleges unless they can dramatically turn things around, the system’s Board of Governors learned recently.
The largest college system in the nation, California’s community colleges enroll about 2 million full- and part-time students. The head count for those students, already flat for most of the past decade leading up to the pandemic, dropped 16.8% since last fall. Many students chose not to enroll in the fall because they couldn’t take classes online or didn’t like doing so along with other family and financial reasons.