Two-year college programs, often focused on vocational goals, have grown rapidly since the Second World War to encompass more than 10 million students (about half part-time) in 1,100 institutions—about 44 percent of American undergraduates. Community colleges grant nearly half-a-million degrees annually, plus thousands of certificates.

Programs are either terminal (AA/AS—Associate of Arts or Sciences) or preparatory for attendance at a four-year college. From Philadelphia Community College or East Los Angeles Community College to Native American institutions like Oglala Lakota College in South Dakota or New Mexico’s Navajo-based Dine College, community colleges have created unique opportunities to democratize college and incorporate diverse students into its academic life.

While private junior colleges had emerged to fulfill these roles in the early twentieth century, “community” colleges were established after the Second World War as part of educational restructuring on the part of state universities to reach lesseducated students, while not diluting their central campuses as research and teaching universities. They were intended to be located within commuting distance for high-school graduates as well, thus decentralizing state education, and to offer flexible schedules and cheaper classes (sometimes at the expense of professors). In the 1960s, these colleges became central to the planning of systems in California, Kentucky and Midwestern states and later expanding into the Sunbelt. Often envisioned for rural areas and small towns, they were also incorporated into urban education, including the CUNY system in New York. They have also taken on responsibilities in professional retraining, adult education and welfare-to-work programs.

In 1996 California had more than 1.8 million students enrolled in 106 public community colleges; it was followed by Illinois, Texas and Florida. Of this total, roughly 137 colleges are private; technical institutes and private schools owned by families or corporations constitute a rather gray area in this educational branch. Some of these junior colleges, for example, specialize in women’s education or the arts; Kilgore College in Texas has become known nationwide for its precision drill team, the Rangerettes.

While community colleges have proven immensely popular, they have also been easy targets for attack because of the non-academic nature of their vocational classes: the most popular programs tend to be in health services (registered nurse, dental hygiene, physical therapist), business, telecommunications and mechanical fields. The need for remedial programs in language and math that face many of the colleges also denigrates students and institutions as inferior rather than serviceoriented (a frequent charge in New York City reforms). Community colleges are also involved in education and class, drawing poorer, minority immigrant and working students rather than the pool of elite liberal arts students or other four-year course students–55 percent are Hispanic and Native American students. Their continuing success, on both an individual and a collective level, underscores both the opportunities and demands of American education in the early twenty-first century.