California community college enrollment plummets amid pandemic, putting some campuses at risk

Los Angeles Times 

April 12, 2021
Michael Burke and Daniel J. Willis
Across the state, from San Diego to the northern border, enrollment at many community colleges has plummeted during the pandemic, threatening the future of some campuses, the system’s Board of Governors has learned.
Systemwide, more than 260,000 fewer students enrolled in fall 2020 compared with fall 2019, a 16.8% drop. Enrollment in California’s community college system, the largest in the nation with about 2 million full- and part-time students, has largely been flat for the past decade.
Colleges that experienced significant drops could be at risk if they “don’t stabilize or build back enrollment” over the next several years, said Paul Feist, a spokesman for the California Community Colleges chancellor’s office, reiterating a warning that was delivered in a memo to the systemwide Board of Governors last month.

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