To make up for the loss of more than $2 million in state funding, the Dallas Community Colleges District will increase tuition from $33 per credit hour to $83 for any student who takes a class three or more times.  According to Dr. Jim Jacobs, associate director of community college operations at TC's Community College Research Center, this is only the most recent attempt to deal with the high rate of failure among two-year college students.  "The idea that all two-year schools have open access, that you can walk in on the last day of registration and become a student has always been one of the things that people find most attractive about the community-college experience," Jacobs said.  "But that is also one of its greatest weaknesses because you end up with someone who may not have even gotten out of high school who is now sitting in a calculus class, or a 30-year-old who hasn't been in a classroom for a dozen years sitting next to someone who is 18 and just out of high school."

Jacobs further added, "To think that all of these different students can perform at the same level or that colleges can make them perform at the same level within one class is quite an ambitious and ultimately unfair undertaking."
 
The article, entitled "Dallas County Community Colleges to Hike Fees for Slow Course Completion," appeared in the July 5 edition of Community College Week.

Published Wednesday, Jul. 6, 2005