Community colleges on a roll with soaring enrollment

Colorado’s community colleges could have some banner years ahead of them.

Enrollment in the state’s community colleges is exploding as hard times and unemployment send workers and students scrambling for a low-priced education.

And a provision in the new health care law includes $2 billion for community colleges throughout the nation.

Colorado should get $2.5 million, or more, of that money, said Nancy McCallin, president of the Colorado Community College System. The money will be doled out through a competitive grant process over four years beginning in fiscal year 2011.

“We will have to share it with all the community colleges in the state, not just those in our system, and there could be a lot of strings attached to those grants,” McCallin said.

Colorado has 13 CCCS schools, plus Aims Community College and Colorado Mountain College. The money must be used for programs to train workers, or the unemployed, who need new or upgraded skills to compete in a changing job market, McCallin said.

Low-income students, many of whom attend community colleges, will also get some additional help from the bill, which will pour more than $40 billion into Pell grants.

Colorado students will receive an additional $372 million in Pell grants by academic year 2020-21, according to a fact sheet put out by the White House. Money for the education-related provisions of the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act will be paid with funds that now go to financial institutions that make guaranteed federal student loans. The government will no longer make those payments to the lenders after July 1.

The colleges that make up the CCCS have seen a 28 percent increase in enrollment in the past two years, attributed to the bad economy and their less-expensive tuition.

“Typically in a recession we see strong growth, but we have not seen a 28 percent increase over a two-year period in the time we have been keeping records,” McCallin said.

The system began keeping records in 1986.

On Monday, CSU’s Board of Regents approved tuition increases at all four of its campuses for the fourth time in as many years.

The community college system also has raised tuition over the past four years but continues to be cheaper than most four-year institutions.

The base annual tuition this year is $6,446 at CU-Boulder and $5,712 at CU-Denver. At Colorado State University-Fort Collins, it is $4,822 and at CSU-Pueblo, $3,732. Annual tuition at Colorado Community College System schools is $2,649. Metropolitan State College of Denver, where annual tuition is $2,850, and Adams State, $2,712, are the four-year schools closest in price to the community colleges.

To keep up with the escalating head count, community colleges have added 392 full-time positions since last year, most in the teaching ranks.

The growth comes as state funding for higher education has forced cuts at four-year schools.

CU eliminated 200 positions last year and is expected to announce further cuts.

Colorado State University shed about 91 jobs, said CSU Chancellor Joe Blake.

Tom McGhee: 303-954-1671 or tmcghee@denverpost.com