Community colleges continue major enrollment decline

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Higher Education

Community colleges continue major enrollment decline

Large numbers of students left school during the pandemic and never came back

By Nick Anderson
Today at 7:00 a.m. EST

At Northern Virginia Community College, a preliminary fall count of students showed enrollment slid 5 percent since just before the coronavirus pandemic began. At Prince George’s Community College, it fell 10 percent. At Montgomery College, it plunged 19 percent.

These schools, major gateways to higher education in the Washington suburbs, reflect a challenge that has emerged in sharp relief since fall 2019: The public health crisis and economic and social upheaval of the past two years have led to significant enrollment declines at community colleges around the country.

The trend, pronounced last year, deepened in many places in 2021. The National Student Clearinghouse Research Center found nearly 15 percent fewer students at the nation’s public two-year colleges in the fall compared with two years earlier. That has profound ramifications for the education and career prospects of people from low-to-moderate-income families because these are the nation’s least expensive colleges, dedicated to open access and social mobility.

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By Nick Anderson
Nick Anderson covers higher education and other education topics for The Washington Post. He has been a writer and editor at The Post since 2005. Twitter https://twitter.com/wpnick