Argumentative Essay On Community College

Community colleges are important because they provide an affordable alternative to postsecondary education. They offer open admission, flexible schedules, and convenient locations. Community colleges make up a large part of the higher education system, enrolling more than six million students and growing rapidly. They help students become prepared to enter the workforce or transition into a four-year school. But even with all the steps taken to make community colleges accessible to all, there are still thousands of students who cannot afford to attend.
With the increasingly competitive economy that we live in today, jobs requiring at least an associate degree have been predicted to grow twice as fast as those that require no college education at all (“Building American Skills”). Community

Tennessee, for example, launched its program, Tennessee Promise, for the fall semester of last year. Tennessee Promise is both a scholarship and mentoring program that pays the remaining tuition costs not covered by any federal grant for all students attending a community college. The money used to cover these costs comes from the state’s lottery fund. While there are a few similar programs across the country, this is the first one offer statewide and with less restriction than the others. This program was proposed to increase the state’s number of students attending college. It removes the financial burden from students and guides them through the admissions process. In order for students to be eligible for this program, they must complete eight hours of community service hours per semester and maintain a GPA of 2.0 (“About Tennessee Promise”). This is a program that thousands of students are taking advantage of. Many of those are students who did not previously intend to pursue any type of postsecondary education. More than 80% of the Tennessee Promise students returned for a second semester