A Degree of Security

Young, poor people of color who signed up with the U.S. military to get college money ended up fighting in Iraq. Meanwhile, their peers back home who take the community college route to higher education may also end up fighting the "war on terror."

Money problems for community colleges, as well as their students, are forcing both to buy into what can only be called "homeland security education." The federal government is offering colleges a way to survive and the students a way to get educated: money specifically earmarked for the war on terror.

This year's federal budget includes more than $4 billion for homeland security research and development. The Department of Homeland Security is offering $64 million directly to colleges and universities that will develop anti-terrorism programs.

In a Squeeze for Money

Community colleges depend primarily on states for their funding, but states get part of their funds from the federal government. At the end of April, the U.S. House and Senate voted to cut the total education budget by $5.5 billion, as recommended in President Bush's budget proposal for 2006. Only five percent of community colleges' financial support comes through federal grants. But now, even that is in jeopardy. For community colleges, the "Strengthening Institutions Program"--Title III-A of the Higher Education Act--provides funds to institutions that have few resources and serve high proportions of low-income students and "historically underrepresented" populations. Grants from this program help community colleges improve their educational programs and related services.

But institutions must compete for money from the program, which currently totals $81.3 million. Proposed legislation in Congress would allow for-profit schools to compete with nonprofit community colleges for these and other dollars, including those coming through the federal Pell Grant and student loan programs. As a result, community colleges are scrambling for a way to stay afloat.

Money has increasingly become an issue for students themselves. Four-year public universities cost an average of $5,132 a year, according to statistics from the College Board. Last year, the Department of Education reduced the federal Pell Grant program by requiring families to show a higher degree of need. Affirmative action programs, and the financial aid that often comes with them, are disappearing. Consequently, the two-year, community college option, with an average annual cost of $2,076, is becoming the predominant one for poor students of color. According to the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC), of all college students nationally, 56 percent of Latinos, 48 percent of Asian/Pacific Islanders, 57 percent of Native Americans and 47 percent of Blacks are attending community colleges.

Recruiting Schools and Students

Community colleges have responded to the Department of Homeland Security offer by repositioning themselves as the training ground for "first responders"--the police officers, firefighters, emergency workers and health professionals expected to arrive first on the scene after a terrorist attack. "We use the term 'homeland security' rather broadly," admits Laurie Quarles, Legislative Associate for the AACC. "Some of our community colleges have successfully gotten money to develop their programs."

The AACC insists that community colleges are responding not to a changing funding environment but to the need for trained professionals to assist in preventing and recovering from terrorist attacks. "Our role is that we have to anticipate the current and projected needs of the community, whether or not there is new funding coming," Quarles says.

Democrats, too, are jumping on this trend. In March 2004, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton endorsed the role of community colleges in training students for homeland security-related jobs. At Monroe Community College in New York, Clinton toured the school's Public Safety Training Center.