Yes, I have nothing against a well-run community college. Academics all seem to think that community colleges are a step down for them, so their faculties long to convert them into universities to increase their own dignity. But they fill a useful purpose as they are. And it’s important to keep them affordable, for taxpayers and students alike.
Agreed. Delusions of grandeur and bureaucratic empire building aside, the wrinkle in DC was that, prior to the current tuition assistance arrangement, there was no academically respectable in-state public university option for DC high school grads. Through the 60’s and 70’s, DC suffered from middle class flight for all the same reasons as did other cities. The ‘68 riots were a major push. In addition to crime, taxes, and Marion Barry, the collapse of the k-12 public school system drove out most young families when the kids came along. When the kids grew up, the hardy souls who had stayed and paid the private school tax were then consigned either to private universities or out-of-state tuition — absurd when Maryland/College Park and George Mason are both fine, close-in DC suburban campuses. Just one more nail in the coffin of a declining city with a disappearing middle class; DC kept the wealthy, for whom hefty tuitions were not a concern, and the poor, who had no escape. I can understand the desire to have an affordable public university option. The current arrangement is a much better way to do it.