Building More On-Ramps to the Middle Class and Beyond: Best Practices in Community College Career Education

Good morning Chairman Aderholt, Ranking Member DeLauro and esteemed members of the Committee. It is an honor to be with you this morning—thank you for the opportunity.

I lead the Center on Education and Labor at New America. We are committed to expanding access to the middle class and family-sustaining careers. We have a large body of work on community colleges, apprenticeships, youth pathways, and career-technical education. This topic is dear to my heart. I have been working to build more pathways to the middle class for well over a decade, first as a member of the career service at the Department of Labor, then at the Department of Education, and now at New America.

Over that time frame, I have learned three big lessons on the opportunities—and challenges—to expanding access to the middle class:

1. The first is that the desire to expand access to good jobs and family-sustaining careers and to strengthen our middle class is broadly-shared. The understanding that community colleges and high quality career-technical education will be essential for making that happen is also widely understood and shared. It is one of the best things about working in this space—you can pretty much go anywhere—red states, blue states, cities or rural areas—and you will find that most people want to see more opportunities for young people that aren’t just traditional college.

   I imagine the majority of everyone’s constituents in this room would like to see more pathways into the middle class … In a time of such intense polarization, it is a comfort to know that there are important things we still agree on…

2. The second is that in all my time working in this space, I have never heard anyone complain that our community colleges are getting too much money. I’ve never visited a college that had a surplus of resources or that could provide all the support services that they know their students need. I have certainly heard complaints about community colleges—in particular that their completion rates are too low—but these have often come from the college leaders themselves, eager to find ways to improve those outcomes, curious about the latest research.
3. And the third lesson is that when community colleges do have additional funding – whether it's targeted grants like the Strengthening Community College Career Training grants or the HEERF funds, they put them to good use. Colleges use these resources to develop programs in new and emerging sectors—in fields like Artificial Intelligence or electric vehicles, they build new industry partnerships and work-based learning opportunities, create and staff the advising and career services that their students need, and build high quality data systems that help them understand who their students are and how they are doing every step of the way.

So as we enter the budgeting season, I’m finding myself more than a bit bewildered – and alarmed—by the attacks on education taking place right now.

1. First is the decision to halt educational research supported through the Institute for Educational Sciences (ÍES). In my written testimony, I provide examples of evidence-based practices for helping students complete high quality career preparation programs at community colleges. We know these strategies are successful because they have been extensively studied, subject to rigorous research and evaluation, much of it funded by IES. These studies have been a critical source of learning for education leaders for decades. It is essential that the research continue.
2. Second, is the insistence that we cut education spending. In my written testimony, I note that current funding for CTE is less than it was in 2001 – and I call for substantial increases to investments in community colleges, including tripling the investment in Perkins (CTE) to $4 billion per year. Even at this level, we would still be far behind what other advanced economies invest in their vocational education systems – and well within our means. Most importantly, it is critical to meeting the desire of the majority of Americans for building more pathways to the middle class that do not pass through traditional higher education.

   Instead of increasing funding for something that most Americans support, we are hearing that we cannot afford to invest more in CTE and community colleges (or in Head Start or job training or Pell grants) because we need to extend tax cuts to billionaires. Literally – putting the financial demands of billionaires and multimillionaires – over young people who need high quality career education, over middle class families that need affordable pathways to good jobs.

3. Third are the reckless threats to dismantle the Department of Education – an extreme position that is well outside mainstream opinion. I’m not a constitutional lawyer, so I won’t get into the legality of these actions, but I can say with confidence that dismantling the Department of Education and relocating its various programs to other agencies will not be good for students.

   In the case of CTE and community colleges, the tremendous improvements in both over the last two decades have come primarily through strengthening their connections to our K-12 and higher education systems, making it easier for students to move from high school to community college to higher education or career without losing credit or momentum. Moving the Office of Career Technical and Adult Education out of the Department of Education would be a step backward—toward the time when vocational education was disconnected from other systems and a dead-end for many students.

As a last request, I implore Congress to exercise its responsibilities under Article I of the Constitution and rein in these destructive and, frankly, anti-American attacks on the middle class by the Executive Branch since January 20.

Thank you for the opportunity to be with you today and for your kind consideration of these recommendations.

The Community’s College

Our country’s national network of over 1,000 community and technical colleges serve more than 12 million students each year, over 40 percent of all undergraduates. They operate in small towns and large cities across the country, providing local residents a wide range of affordable postsecondary educational offerings while also supporting the economic and workforce development needs of their communities.

Community colleges are the most diverse institutions of higher education, mirroring the growing diversity of the communities they serve. They serve the largest share of first-generation college-goers as well as a large share (47 percent) of low-income students. Millions of students begin their journey to a bachelor’s degree at their local community college, and millions more complete occupationally-focused certificate and associate degree programs that allow them to start their career without having to earn a bachelor’s.

Read Mary Alice McCarthy's full testimony here.