Community colleges exist in large part to provide education that leads to solid job prospects – family-sustaining jobs that place students solidly within or in reach of the middle class.
They are further known for offering education for “middle skills” jobs, generally defined as requiring more than a high school diploma but less than a baccalaureate. Demand for workers with these credentials has remained robust as the economy continues to expand.
But what exactly is the middle class? There is no simple answer. The Brookings Institution recently published a report that fleshes out some of the relevant issues. It proposes three categories of what makes an individual or family middle class: cash, credential and culture. Each category touches on major elements of the community college mission.
As for cash: facilitating “gainful employment,” i.e., a paying job, is a fundamental community college goal. And most of the public, as well as economists, define middle class in terms of income. Earnings are easy to document, and there are tight correlations between income and other aspects of social class.
But there is no consensus about the specific economic parameters of the middle class. The Brookings study cites four common income categories: the percentage of income as it relates to medium family income (for example, 75 percent to 125 percent of medium family income); certain income quintiles – usually either the third, middle quintile or perhaps the second through fourth quintiles; a given distance above the poverty line; and absolute purchasing power, i.e., the ability to purchase a given set of goods.
Accepting one or other of these definitions is a judgment call, but it has important implications for public policy. Wealth and accumulated assets can also factor into these economic definitions.
Credential cache
Community college officials focus not only on graduates’ earnings upon credential completion, but on their future, including lifetime financial prospects, which may involve earning more credentials to earn more.
The second general way to define “middle class” is in terms of credentials, including education credentials. As the Brookings study puts it, “Status is defined not just by cash, but by particular credentials, not just in terms of occupation and education … if social standing is primarily about how we are viewed in society, occupations are much more visible than income.”
This perspective gets to the ongoing challenge faced by community colleges over some of the lingering negative perceptions associated with career/technical education, irrespective of the economic returns to certain professions, such as HVAC technician. It also relates to the perception that a college education is seen as earning a bachelor’s degree, with a certificate and even an associate degree seen as subpar. Public perceptions of community college have clearly gradually improved, but the reality is that they still are not the first choice for many students and their families.
Home, health and more
Finally, the much less tangible notion of “culture” factors into defining middle class. A 2010 White House Task Force report on the middle class cited some of these aspirational features of what can be called middle class:
- desiring to have a home or being able to save for retirement
- having economic opportunities for their children, particularly a college education
- protecting their own and their children’s health
- being oriented toward planning for the future
Many of these priorities are also embodied in the broader community college mission and its supporting programs. The high percentage of community college students who are the first in their families to attend college gives the colleges a critical place in the broader culture, where 44 percent of all adults 25 and older have a college degree.
Community colleges are perhaps most easily appreciated, and understood, as engines of economic mobility. Knowing the target – putting their students into the economic mainstream of American society – can be useful for institutional leaders and other stakeholders.
