Reducing Reliance on Public Funding: The Place Where Creativity and Practicality Converge

Abstract

This chapter comments on the economic and sociopolitical context that necessitates strategic and tactical responses by community colleges and leadership choices that can make a difference. Community colleges supply essential educational, workforce development, and community services to their regions. As such, public sector funding for operating and capital expenditures of a community college is warranted. Yet, the financial resources of the state and the local government are constrained. Funding for community college is increasingly unpredictable and insufficient to meet growing demands for their services. Systemic changes supportive of an improved financial model offer a way to sustain educational quality and maintain affordability and access for students. Although many community colleges already give practical application to certain suggestions made in this chapter, continuous and comprehensive improvement is now imperative. Byron McClenney, one of our nations’ most successful community college leaders, observed in an interview with The Chronicle of Higher Education that economic recessions and funding crisis call for community colleges to decide which programs and services are higher priority, and, implicitly, to make choices accordingly (Bushong 2009).