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 Our nation’s efforts in revamping our education system have finally settled its focus on the community colleges. Today, these colleges are definitely at the center of attention. In order to strengthen the community colleges across the nation, a number of major initiatives have been launched by private foundations. For example, the Gates Foundation announced recently a $35 million grant program.

Strategically involving partnerships between community colleges and industries in all American States, President Obama, earlier this month announced a program for development of work force. Focusing exclusively on the pivotal role of community colleges in bringing out more number of college graduates, the first summit on community colleges was held in the White House. This summit aimed at enhancing higher education through empowering community colleges and improving our economic situation in the world.

In California, at least 2.75 million students are served by 112 community colleges and this fact shows what a great economic opportunity is presented by the national initiatives. By the year 2020, our President has set a 5 million community college degree goal.

While all this sounds rosy enough, the fact remains that we are certainly not on the right track. According to an Institute for Higher Education Leadership & Policy study report; at least 70 percent of students who seek degrees in the community colleges in California are unable to complete a degree. They are also unable to transfer to a four or six year university course.

California will face severe problems in the long term if this kind of attrition continues. Taxpayers will also face huge losses due to this situation. By the year 2025, the state will face a shortage of 1 million degrees if the situation does not improve on a war footing.

The situation is worse for minority students. Community colleges are sought after for degrees by most of the minority college students and the fact that 80% of Latino students and 75% of black students do not complete a degree or certificate or transfer makes their endeavor extremely difficult.

The reasons for the very low completion rates in California are complex and include the low levels of skills of students who opt for the education in the first place. At least 75% of the students require remediation in English and a whopping 90% need help in Math. Before entering college, these students must necessarily take remedial classes before they can get into the mainstream and be on their way to obtaining a college degree.

There is severe lack of coordination between colleges and high schools which makes the problem of remediation worse. These institutions also do not believe in proper communication with students. The mistake made by many students in California is that they think they are ready to start their community college education if they have cleared their exit exam and graduated from high school.

They do not realize that they have to go through a whole new level of assessments when they enter college. The worst aspect is that the process is definitely not user friendly. This is evident with the fact that students do not even realize how important these tests are and are hugely disappointed to find the number of years they require remedial work to get into the mainstream.