Article Links - Nebraska Community College Study (LB340)

New college council would be overkill - LJS 12/16/2009
Report urges more oversight of Nebraska community colleges - LJS 12/10/2009
Foley weighs in on colleges' spat - OWH 12/10/2009
State auditor: Nebraska Legislature should settle community college controversy - LJS 12/10/2009
Metro College files suit - OWH 11/21/2009
Omaha community college sues over state aid - NTV 11/20/2009
Senators need to end college feud - LJS 11/02/2009
Metro will sue other com. colleges - OWH 10/28/2009
Schools turn tables on Metro - OWH 09/22/2009
Metro tax hike blamed on new law - OWH 09/16/2009
Metro board to OK president - OWH 08/25/2009
Community colleges at odds over funding - G.I.Ind. 06/13/2009
Hearings set for community college study - McCook Daily 05/26/2009
Community College May Lose Millions Over Dispute - KETV 02/24/2009
Metro Comm. College Refuses To Pay Dues, Gets Expelled - KETV 02/23/2009

Funding Nebraska Community Colleges (LB340) - An idea

The best part of this model, however, is that the state's responsibility is also made clear.

The State of Nebraska need to provide its citizen a financial vision of the future and layout steps needed to get there including the projected needs for workforces and how these workforces can be developed by the state's educational systems.

As we think about legislation in general, a lot of laws are formed as reactions to issues that occurred. And a lot of them are, therefore, created in a form of responding to the events rather than a form that will address broader and more profound question.

Funding for community colleges in Nebraska is of no exceptions. As the community college evolved from vocational training school to adding academic training, the funding issue is to keep community colleges operational by allowing state aid and local property tax support. But the accountability part of the funding is never tied directly to each funding sources. And because of this, it is becoming difficult in deciding on how much fund should be coming from which funding source and what level of state fund is adequate and, in the center of the issue, who entitled how much of the state fund?

One idea I have is to have state provides the basic infrastructure and oversight, but let institutions run their own business. The principle behind this idea is that state of Nebraska does have interest in providing reasonable resources in educating its residents. However, this investment must be a calculated move - how the state plan to recover these investments? (This should quite the argument of providing education entitlement to citizens who insisted to live in a remote area.)

Based on the population by age data, state can allocate supports for a reasonable amount of classroom and office space and a reasonable number of staff and instructors. The fund can be adjusted based on the local price index. These funds will provide the basic supports for institutions to provide courses to their local communities. Institutions are then required to make sure these facilities are used in an efficient manners.

Institutions are then allowed to use local tax and private funds to extend their operation and should be held responsible to each fund source. For example, courses supported by the local tax need to address the general education needs of the local community. For a manufacture-heavy community, the community may decided to support general machinery courses with the tax fund while the specialized mechanic training may have to be supported by private funds from local companies in a co-operational manner.

In addition to these funding, state can provides strategic funding to encourage institutions to provide special courses that will benefit the state. For example, if a state is planed to attract motor companies and to become a heavy industry state, it makes sense for the state to provide extra fund for automobile related courses.

By tying a institution's operation to individual funding sources, the responsibility of an institution become clear and, therefore, the accountability. The best part of this model, however, is that the state's responsibility is also made clear.

The State of Nebraska need to provide its citizen a financial vision of the future and layout steps needed to get there including the projected needs for workforces and how these workforces can be developed by the state's educational systems.

White House Pushes Science and Math Education

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The basic of education is the down-to-the-earth sincere. The mind is in a solid pursue of knowledge but the glories.

I think all of these are good additions. But, let's face it. To achieve a science-respected society, it takes much more than that.

We all know that it take a very high level of efforts to learn math and science. The mind is spend in tedious, boring and low rewarding tasks. With a society that adores pop stars, I see difficulties in convincing our kids. The glories of the stars is not necessary their faults, but the media's attention of the superficial of success is a misleading attention.

The basic of education is the down-to-the-earth sincere. The mind is in a solid pursue of knowledge but the glories.

The innovation!

Original Article

Before we are carried away by the idea of innovation, let's work on building the basics.

It's a day at the work place. We were dealing with analyzing data. The feeling I had, at the time, is that most people seems to feel that statistics is such a mystery theory that common sense does not apply.

I am a slow thinker but I do think and it's been part of my training to to create something if it haven't been invented. If we apply our common sense to the statistics, we know that it is simply a way of looking into data. There are all kinds of formula in the fields of statistics. But to derive anyone of them, the first thing you have to have is a mathematics model of the data. To be precise, you should always verify your data against the mathematics model you are going to use. After you have verified the model, the general idea of statistics/probability can be derived to explain and check the data.

I would not go into the detail of what we were doing at the time. But this instance made me to think about the ability to innovation that a lot of educators tout about. My favorites is what Edison said about genius. The way I think about this is that if you have learned/stored enough things in your brain, these knowledge will interfered or be checked while you are searching for solution to problems. The better you understand things, the better you can avoid the unlikely solutions and more focused on the good possible solutions. The point I try to make is that before we are carried away by the idea of innovation, let's work on building the basics.

The Power of Race

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My opinion is that this issue should be addressed at K12 and the approach should be to provide access to study material for all kids.

Another article about race.


=== My post at InsideHigherEd.com ===

Personally, I know the discrimination exist because I am a victim of it.

Does my experience prevent me to success? Yes. But not to the point that I can't find any White that is gracious and understanding.

Look at the fact that Obama received a great portion of White vote, I have to say this is a great county and that White is, in general, quite open minded.

For Black, Hispanic and Native American to make the case, I think the Asian should be included in the theory.

In an ideal world where all K12 kids are given equal opportunities to access the study material, the Higher Education debate can be simplified.

For family with Internet access, the disadvantage claim can hardly stand.

Probe of Extra Help for Men

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Q: Is this what we really like to do? Adjust our standard and help any groups that seems to fall behind regardless of the causes even at the cost of sending the wrong message about the responsibility?

Do Professors Matter?

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Professors should engage in high productive activities that others is not capable of and qualify for it and it is administrators' job to provide quality instructors that matches students need at a reasonable price.

Well. I believe the comments to this article said a lot.

Personally, I am very sure that professors matter. However, we should also consider the students or the consumer side of the story. I understand that this article is more about the community colleges, but the general idea is the same for four year schools.

Of cause the professors or even the research professors know a lot than, say, most of the high school teachers. But can they really be a better teacher, defined as raising students knowledge level in average? As described in the comments, the answer may not be a firm 'yes'. Is this the problem with the professor? Probably not. It simply the mis-match of professors and students. But. Does it make sense to have professors teach high school courses? In general, no! Why? Think about it!

I have no doubt that professors know a lot and that they are great resources if students is ready for it. But if students are not, it is simply a waste of professors and students' time and resources. What this implies is that professors should engage in high productive activities that others is not capable of and qualify for it and it is administrators' job to provide quality instructors that matches students need at a reasonable price.

The New Untouchables

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We need get back to the basics. Build our future from the ground up.

I agreed that our K12 education need improvement. But I have to say that the way I look at education is quite different from the author.

The basic difference lay in the principle. Personally, I came to realize the the main point of education is to teach everyone to be responsible. The knowledge will come with it. The pure emphasis on knowledge is not going to achieve the revolution we need.

The indication of the fall of American is there for a long time. Let's just go back in time to when the immigration debate started. How many times you heard the arguments that immigrants steal the job from American? But do we ever questioning ourselves that for what reason, should we be paid more to do the same tasks? Back then, did anyone listen to the voice that we need to improve our education system so that we are producing workforces that can do others can't? Do you see what we are missing in our soul? Our arguments is all about them but not about us. Not about what the heavy lifting we need to do?

Even now, in the middle of a economic down turn, we are cried for more and more resources so we can improve our education. Aren't we follow the same path? Take a look at the world, which countries that spend more on education than we do. How much the best educated country spent on their education? Can you argue that we did not spend enough? Or maybe the real reason is that we do not know what the culprits are? We simply think that we have done nothing wrong. The reason we are not good is that Government did not provide us enough money.

Don't get me wrong, resource is helpful and it very likely will produce result. But does this guide us to the right direction? Sure! We can spend enough money so that there is a guardian for every student and most likely the test results will be better. But is this the right way to do it? Will our students ready to take the responsibility when guardians are gone? Are we sure this is the right way to do it if other countries can do it cheaper? Is this sustainable economically?

There are times I think we are looking at the wrong things. These days, politics are tauting more graduates and more higher education. But did anyone think about that maybe, just maybe, if we can improve our K12, we may not need send all the kids to higher education since they already posses the ability to meet the workforce requirement. It's the quality that counts. Not that piece of paper!

The other thing I like to point out is that from time to time, we, the American, are not very realistic. For example, in the higher ed, people are talking about critical thinking without being able to define it or measure it. Let along on how to teach it. There are also people that simply reject the standardized test without bothering to propose objective alternatives. There are also people that taut entrepreneurship, innovation and creativity while forgetting what Edison's idea of a genius.

Let me say this. We need get back to the basics. Build our future from the ground up.

Recovery.Gov website is up

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Cracks in the Future

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I agree that if the UC Berkeley is let down, it is a cracks in the future. But this is the result of a lot of our past activities.

We as a nation had slipped on our K12 education which lowered the education level of the whole nation. This results in the lower appreciation of education by the general public. We shouldn't consider this event a political event. Suppose all our citizen do appreciated the the contribution of our higher education, the government will have a hard time to lower its contribution to the higher education.

Personally, I don't think there is a quick fix to this problem. It is true that someone or the congress can weight in and backing the very best institution of the nation. But eventually, it's citizen's call where the money goes.

We need to improve the education of the general public first before things can turn around.

The root of our problem, to my opinion, is not the resource but the attitude or the atmosphere of our nation. To me, the most important thing in education is the responsibility.

College for $99 a Month

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I am so delight to read this article. It finally see the lights - the challenge to the accreditation system.

'If you don't do it, it will be done regardless of you.' After seeing the un-willingness of change of the traditional (regional accredited) institution.

For profits have fought this war via various means. University of Phoenix follows the regional accreditation requirement. Others join the National accreditation and fight through legislature to have their credit hours accepted by regional accredited institutions.

I would like to see how regional accreditation agencies reacted to this.

Aggressive Plan for State Data Systems

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I think people are crazy.

1. Do we really need track everything?
2. Do we really need these to do the accountability thing?
3. Do we track each employee in a company in order to shape up the industry?

You can measure everything. But do we have to? What is the reasonable use of resources to achieve what we want to achieve? - Do we really know what we want to achieve? The highest higher education population (percentage wise) ? Well. I am sorry, I don't think that's the most import measure! The QUALITY is not in this measure!

More school: Obama would curtail summer vacation

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Well. There are lots of differences between school systems. But, let's face it, these aren't necessary the most important thing in education. One thing I think we need to start with is asking ourselves what is the real purpose of the education. Once you can answer that, you can then have better directions to determine what is the best way to educate our kids.

Unions Criticize Obama's School Proposals as 'Bush III'

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I can see this is going to put a lot of pressure on educators and which maybe unfair. But responsibility is for all - including educators. The moves that had been taken are responded to the lack of progress in our education system. I understand that educators aren't responsible for all issues. But the lack of movement to address the problem is what caused all these requirements.

If educators had been cohesively move the education forward, public and, therefore, politics will listen to them more.

At this point in time, public and politics want to see results and do not trust educators can effectively move the nation forward. All these moves are try to force educators into action. In a way, it should help those good educators to voice and forward their idea. One thing I always believe it that things are relative. If you believe you are on good standing compare to others, you have nothing to worry about. We can't fire all educators, can we?

Trust yourself and do your best. Those rule have to be set to warn the incompetent. Remember! We can't fail all. The rule will change for the true educators.

Higher Education Institutions Are Pricing Themselves Into America’s Decline

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Yes. I believe the higher education landscape will change. But the change has been slow with a lot of resistance from vested interest groups. It is a shame that these highly endowed groups aren't thinking of the interest of the whole society. With high level of intelligence but lack of introspection.

Research tells schools to empower parents

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Veterans Start Over As Colleges Ignore Experience

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Personally, I am fully aware that for-profits could credit low quality students, however, it is the un-willingness of the accredited school to evaluate students that bothered me most.

Do you surprised? You probably should not!

With current accreditation system and the practice of schools, especially the regional accredited schools, you really should not be surprised. If you follow these issues and read the responses from regional accredited schools, you know they will not evaluate students on an individual cases. As long as your credits are not from a 'reputable' ( read regional accredited) schools, you are out of luck. The national accredited or the for-profit schools have argued this in vain.

I suppose military can setup agreements with these accreditation agency and get it to work. But this is missing the point! We all knew that not all students from the same school possess the same quality. Even students taking same courses from different instructors possess different quality. It's very possible that an A students from a non-reputable school could out preform a C student an accredited school. Why should we punish students just because they attended a non-reputable schools but work hard to learn.

Personally, I fully aware that for-profits could credit low quality students, however, it is the un-willingness of the accredited school to evaluate students that bothered me most.

American higher education is sliding lower and lower

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It is my believe that we need strengthen the K12 first for both moral and economic reason.

I have seen too many kids wasted their talent and time just to glide through the K12. Our system, then, expand the postsecondary education downward to give them a second chance. The message sent is that: play as you want, we will always try to save you!

I am sorry. The second chance should be for those unfortunates who are victims of uncontrollable events. It's not for everyone.

There was a saying in Chinese that God helps those who helped themselves. I think that is what is lacking in our K12 education. The first things in education is to teach the responsibility.

A word about t-test (statistics)

A real scholar is a one with solid understanding of the topic and can address the concept in various terms. Just like a good teacher can address concepts in students' terms.

The t-test by virtue of its definition is a measurement of the separation of means. By adding the statistical flavor, we then asked the question of under what situation should we consider the means are well separated or, in other word, that the means are really not equal. Or in the statistical sense that the separation are statistically significant.

Like a lot of tests in statistics, the probability of the separation is too complicate to provide intuitive understanding of the problem. As in most of these kind of cases, a tabulated approach is used. In this case, a t-value is used to map to the probability. The t-probability table, however, usually only listed for positive t values which correspond to cases when the mean is greater than the referenced mean. Depend on the hypothesis of interest, researcher may need to included the probability for the corresponding negative t-value.

A good understanding of the underlying question that the t-test trying to address enables people to communicate with various terminology. A real scholar is a one with solid understanding of the topic and can address the concept in various terms. People with shaky ground are those that hanging to the jargon. Accusing people of alien-tongue is just a sign of it.

IPEDS Higher Ed Residence and Migration - 2008 state level data released

CL Higher Education Center

Do you like to know where your high school graduates went to college? What percentage of your high school graduates went to out of state colleges? To what kind of colleges? Private or public? The recent data release from CL Higher Education Center can answer your questions.

The CL Higher Education Center just put out the early release of the state level summaries for the 2008 NCES IPEDS¹ residence and migration survey. Institutions reported the state of residence of their fall-term first time degree seeking students to the Residence and Migration section of the IPEDS fall enrollment survey. The CL Higher Education Center release aggregates the institutional level data into the state level summaries. Sector information is maintained through the aggregation process. What this mean is that, for a given state, user can tell how many of their students went to public(or private non-for profit) 4 year institutions outside of their state. Separate files are also published for people interested only in degree-granting institutions.

The data show that, on average, 16% of high school graduates who went to public 4 year institutions went to out of state institutions. On the other hand, only 3 percent of high school students who went to 2 year public institutions went to out of state institutions. Looking at private 4 year non-for profit institutions, it shows that 47% of high school graduates who attended private 4 year non-for profit institutions went to out of state institutions.

¹The Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System managed by the National Center for Education Statistics of US Education Department.

IPEDS Higher Ed Migration - 2006 state level released

Release note at CL Higher Education Center

Do you like to know where your high school graduates went to college? What percentage of your high school graduates went to out of state colleges? To what kind of colleges? Private or public? The recent data release from CL Higher Education Center can answer your questions.

The CL Higher Education Center just released the state level data for 2006 NCES IPEDS¹ migration data. The release aggregates the institutional level data collected by the IPEDS survey into the state level data. Sector information is maintained through the aggregation process. What this mean is that, for a given state, user can tell how many of their students went to public(or private non-for profit) 4 year institutions outside of their state. Separate files are also published for people interested only in degree-granting institutions.

The data show that, on average, 16% of high school graduates who went to public 4 year institutions went to out of state institutions. On the other hand, only 3 percent of high school students who went to 2 year public institutions went to out of state institutions. Looking at private 4 year non-for profit institutions, it shows that 47% of high school graduates who attended private 4 year non-for profit institutions went to out of state institutions.

¹ The Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System managed by the National Center for Education Statistics of US Education Department.

IPEDS higher ed retention rate - 2007 state level released

Release note at CL Higher Education Center

The CL Higher Education Center just released the 2007 state level retention rate data.

The CL Higher Education Center is releasing the 2007 state level retention rate data.

The data is compiled from the National Center for Education Statistics'(NCES) IPEDS(Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System) survey. The release detailed each State's student retention rate for each sector (e.g. Public 4 Year, Public 2 Year, Private non-for profit 4 year ...). The release also separated out rates just for degree-granting institutions.

The retention rate, in essence, measures the percent of students that still enrolled in the same institution after one year of their initial enrollment. For official definition, please check out the IPEDS survey site.

The dreaded “P” word

The Report
Measuring the Dreaded 'P' Word - article #2
What Does a Degree Cost? - article #1
Read comments !
Tom Abeles - my points a while ago: fee for the test!!
Ed Lyell - Coming from an acting prof. it carries extra weight!

Summary goes here!

By Partick Kelly - I will read
Cost/Award - no quality check!

No Size Fits All

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Just look how much the article fits my article back in the 2003 about the learning style and distance learning arguments. Also my post here about the sitting time in the classroom.

To me one thing that higher education lacks, to some degree, is an open mind to accept criticism. I can't remember how many times my idea been hammered on when I post my comments on higher education forums. Lots of times these are predictable lash out from professors and insiders.

U.S. Push for Free Online Courses

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Working on ...

I envy those people at a position that can carry out ideas and I am glad that they carry out those ideas.

I wonder if higher education people notice that tests are associated with these courses which more or less call for a 'comparable' score for all institutions - just like what Spellings' committee like to do. The difference is that it hides under the funding. One thing is clear is that the feeling of the necessity of accountability in the higher ed is universal. As the higher ed community continue to resist to changes.

A lot of these are moving toward my opinions expressed in the past:
The role of the instructor will change. Institutions will end up charging for just the services they provided. Evaluation will be measured consistently. Transfer of credit will based on evaluations instead of the reputation/creditation of the transferring institution.

I have to admit the wisdom of the Ombama administration in tackling this from the community college level - courses at this level are better defined than the higher level courses where the contents can vary greatly.

The success of this proposal will level the playground, lower the price of a degree and given chances to everyone - which restore the true equality - the equal CHANCE of sucess but not the equal fruit for all. The restore of the true equality could eventually restore the sense of responsibility to our citizen. It is, however, worth to promote the sense of responsibility at the same time. Since for these kind of offer to work, students have to be self-responsible and motivated. They will have to want to pursue knowledge and initiate the request of help from faculities.




Quite some ideas that match mine.

Studying the 'why' of brain drain in Nebraska

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Google Cache

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The problem is the action.
Denis Jone's identify the problem a long time ago. The problem is that the higher education do not want to admit the reality and initiate a major reform. The prefer to hold their current position to keep state funding for every students enrolled. They do not want to be responsible for anything after the student is graduated since that will inevitably point to the over producing of high level degrees. It is possible to build an industries that will absorb all these students, but it will be a lot of works.

U.S. May Need to Prune Number of Research Universities, Lobby Group Says

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Working on ...

Finally they are come to their senses! The high cost of the higher education is just an indicator. The problem lay deep in the system - a system that refuse to look at the reality. A system that lack of accountability and a system that regarding and regulated only to and by itself!

Adding to it is a government that is so political that do not have guts to regulate the higher education. The only rule making is compromise.

DON'T GET THAT COLLEGE DEGREE!

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An Experiment in Merit-Based Student Aid Is Likely to End

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Alternative Source(goucher.edu)

Working on ...!

What is the most important ingredient in success?
Do all our students are fired-up and do their best?
Do we have unlimited resources? What's the most efficient way of using public money?
Who deserved the public assistant/encouragement?

Now you see all the problem of incompatible grades. Go with ACT test then improved on it.

An entitlement is BAD! Just look at our system!

2009 Nebraska Community College Study - Funding Formula

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What funding formula have done in 2008-09:

In general, the formula did what it intended to do. Property rich institutions get most of their funding from property tax while property poor institutions receive more state aids.

The data also made senses in that the larger the institution, the less resources is needed per FTE.

* Note: FTEs are derived from IPEDS while the Revenue data is from the Rough worksheet of the 2008-09 calculation.

Random thoughts on community colleges

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At the state level, state policies should be focused on the benefits of the state as a whole. At local level, local policies should be focused on the benefits of local entities.

A community college is located at a community. But it can benefits both the state and the local community.

At the local level, community college can be viewed as a service provider to local residents and local employers.

For local employers, community colleges can provide economical education services for employers that is otherwise more expensive to achieve. For example, for basic academic training, it is more efficient for community college to provide a class that serves a group of students than for employer to train a couple of employees. Besides, employers may not have the adequate personnel to teach these courses.

For tech. or career trainings, community college can also provide efficient trainings. For example, employer may not want to stop or slow down the production line just for the training purposes. Besides, dedicated teachers at the community college can better follow up with new development in the industries.

For local residents, community college can provide courses for personal improvements. Even for non-students, the community colleges can serve as a consumer bargaining entity. For example, through the community college, residents can access subscription based online libraries or databases.

With these benefits, it is only reasonable, that the funding for community colleges to be derived from local residents and employers.

Of cause, not all residents is going to stay in the resident community. One of the reason of leaving the resident community is to pursue trainings that is not available to the local community. For the state as a whole, it is beneficial to promote students pursuing higher degree in the hope of upgrading the state's workforce profile and attracting high paying jobs to the state. With state's interest in the stake, it is of interest for state to invested in the community colleges, especially in academic transferring programs.

With all these being said, we need policies to provide incentives to facilitate these ideas.

2009 Nebraska Community College Study

Working on

Introduction
Prompted by the dispute over the state funding formula for Community Colleges, Nebraska State Legislature is asking Nebraska Coordinating Commission for Postsecondary Education to conduct a study (Law LB340) with the following 5 major objective:

1. The need for changes to the statutory role and mission of Nebraska community colleges;
2. Changes in the weighting of courses that may be necessary for reimbursable educational units to properly reflect the role and mission of Nebraska community colleges and the cost of providing such courses;
3. Powers, duties, and mission of the Nebraska Community College Association or its successor and whether membership in such an association should be required;
4. Consequences for failing to satisfy current community college association membership requirements contained in section 85-1502; and
5. State coordination of community colleges in the absence of a community college association or membership therein.

Basic information and tentative schedules are available on the CCPE Project Site. The first public event is the public hearing on June 18, 2009.

We understand that in order for public to provide sensible input, information about Nebraska Community Colleges are very important and we are here to provide assistant on this.

Background information
CCPE reports

• Factual Look - Enrollment, Completions and Faculty Salaries
• Progress Report - Retention Rates, Graduation Rates
  
• Budget Report - College Fundings
  

Nebraska Department of Labor

• Graduate Outcomes in Nebraska - Employment of College Graduates
  

Nebraska Community College Association Site

• History
• Funding Formula History

Weighting of courses (REU - Reimbursable educational units) for state reimbursement

• State Funding for Community Colleges - from Community College Policy web site
  
• Kansas Study - From Metro's web site
  

Mission of Community Colleges

• Hudson County (CA) Community College Mission Survey
  

Survey Form

National Center for Education Statistics - Higher Education

• Data Center
  

List of Higher Education Sites

• CCPE Research Links (Login as guest)
  

Every crises is an opportunity.

Do we have enough input from community? Do we serve the local need? Are we running things effectively? How should we build the dynamics into the system so the system will grow when the need changes. What is the role of the state and what is the role of the community?

In general, state should look at a state's fair and provides incentives. Local communities should look at their benefits and decides what is the best movement for them.

Similar Selectivity, Dissimilar Graduates

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I will have to look at the survey. I wonder if IPEDS data give enough info on school selectivity to begin with.

46 States, D.C. Plan to Draft Common Education Standards

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Well said Jack Jennings.

The changing nature of Higher Education

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The power-point presentation exams the believed role of University, the qualities desired by employer and the perceptions of students and questioning the direction of higher education.


A good reference. Where should our higher education head to?
There should have levels. The purpose of each level should
reasonably adapted to society/students' need. Are we doing that?
Did we study the need of our society?

Arne Duncan, Free Marketeer

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Still! A new accreditation system will help to level the play ground and ensure the free market spirit.

Transfer, Texas Style

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Ok. I am looking at this from a different angle. Doesn't this mean
that UTEP charges disproportionally for those prerequisite?
Isn't this what the problem of the high cost of higher education
these days? If institutions HAVE charged students based on
the true cost but not the price, we wouldn't have these drama
that UTEP did such a wonderful job after screw up in the first
place - how wonderful!

Just to make my point: The cause of high cost of higher ed is
there, we should address them directly. The solutions these
day is simply pushes the problem to community colleges.

Let me asked this, if community college can teach the prerequisite,
why should their instructors be paid less? With the growing
student body, shouldn't community colleges expand the student
services? Why should community college charge less while they
can provide the same services?