Picture of student demonstration at SMC on May Day 2012
In 2010 the situation regarding lack of classes at what were once called ‘community colleges’, but are now named junior colleges, became dire. Lack of classes, “class crashing” (not enough seats and over-enrollment) plagued the college along with a lack of needed class offerings. Many students at community colleges found they needed to go to the for-profit subprime colleges like Corinthian, EDMC, Kaplan or the other predatory “outfits” that pose as educational institutions when in fact they are capital extraction syndicates plagued with problems and corruption. The cost, for example, of a radiology degree at a community college can be as low as $4,000 while at Kaplan it can run $25,000 or more.
Years of starving public education with the malicious intent of destroying the public commons in tandem with many other ‘cost cutting measures’ have left the 112 community colleges hovering on the precipice of bankruptcy and experiencing an inability to service students. The situation is much more dire now since 2010
