Community colleges are on the front lines of battling inequality

Supporting these students requires adequate resources. However, our community colleges are not only underfunded but also overcrowded. As the Century Foundation, a New York–based think tank, recently reported, two-year colleges are being asked to educate, with the least funding, students with the greatest needs. This shows that our higher-education system, like our larger society, is becoming increasingly unequal.

Even in the face of these challenges, Miami Dade College has developed programs specifically designed to bring higher education within the reach of low-income students. In an effort to assist students in completing college, for example, MDC's Single Stop program has connected students to a crucial range of existing public and community resources, such as tax credits, food stamps and financial and legal services. Since its inception in 2010, MDC's Single Stop program has screened more than 13,000 families and directed them to more than $17 million in benefits, tax refunds and services. Programs like Single Stop help bridge the wealth gap that plagues our nation, but a problem this large requires a larger-scale solution.

Bridging the opportunity gap between privileged and underprivileged students will take the commitment of the entire nation, but most immediately, it requires partnership among institutions at all levels of the U.S. education system. MDC is committed to further opening the door of opportunity through partnerships with the K–12 school system and our nation's most competitive colleges and universities. This will not only expose students early to a range of available educational opportunities but also provide them with the necessary support to complete their studies. With increased awareness, access and support, it is my hope that students, regardless of their socioeconomic status, will lead more rewarding and prosperous lives.

The United States' higher-education system, contrary to its proclaimed goals, is failing to equalize opportunities among low- and high-income students. When measured in terms of income and wealth, our nation's current process of admission, enrollment and graduation contributes to glaring economic inequality. At four-year institutions, students from high socioeconomic backgrounds outnumber their low counterparts 14 to 1, according to a Century Foundation report. At community colleges, by contrast, students from low socioeconomic backgrounds outnumber their high counterparts nearly 2 to 1. Our education system is, in essence, reinforcing the growing disparity between the rich and poor.

Although college attendance rates are rising across the board, graduation rates, especially among low-income students, are not growing commensurately. This trend is mirrored across other overcrowded and underfunded open-access institutions. If we do not make a concerted effort to reverse this trend, our higher-education system will continue to contribute to our country's growing economic inequality, and this inequality will only magnify for future generations.

Given the irrefutable connection between educational achievement and economic prosperity, we must make college a reality for all students. If we do not invest resources in reversing the inequality of our higher-education system, we will see the continuation of a generation unnecessarily relegated to poverty. A college degree has become the degree of division between those who prosper and those who struggle for a better life in America. As our nation's great equalizers, community colleges play a pivotal role in bridging this gap.