ABSTRACT
The community college is a structurally limited opportunity that has been used to blame the victims of Americas lingering class-based and race-based society for failure. Community college students are offered what appears to be a chance to succeed, but when they fail to obtain success, it appears to be their own fault because of a lack of academic skills or effort. The community college in America has offered a limited opportunity to countless numbers of American citizens and immigrants who would have otherwise had no chance at gaining a higher education. While many current community college policy makers focus on important issues, ask important questions, and suggest important policy prescriptions, there is a marked tendency toward shortsightedness and faddist ideas that mirror larger debates over public education in the United States over the course of the last 40 years.
