Given current resource constraints, adequate funding for community colleges is becoming more tenuous. As enrollment grows and tax bases shrink, policymakers are examining budgets with a fine-toothed comb and college leaders are struggling to do more with less. In many circles, there is concern that the growing burden of funding and teaching developmental education is distracting community colleges from their core mission. This fear is noted in a recent New York Times article about remediation programs in New York City, which we blogged about earlier this month.
One of our DEI priorities is to stimulate a positive public conversation about developmental education. We want to make sure that effective developmental education is recognized for the life-changing impact it has on students. Inspired by the great stories and opinion pieces some of our DEI colleges have written for local news outlets (like this one by Madeline Barillo, Norwalk Community College’s director of public relations), we’ve constructed a sample op-ed that can be adapted by any college for local use. You can download the op-ed from the Resources section of the DEI website; it’s under the “Communications” tab.
Plug in your data and send it off, or draw on it to inspire an original piece. Whether you use this template or not ,we’d love to know about any op-eds that your college submits to your local paper that address your college response to dev ed work. Have you already started this conversation in your community? Share the link in the comments section below.
Richard Hart is MDC's Communications Director.
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