Rural community college enrollment has tanked

Community college enrollment nationwide plummeted an average of 9.5 percent since last March, according to a recently published study by the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center.

"Although college enrollment decreased across the board by an average of 4.5% across all types of institutions, decreases were most pronounced for rural community colleges (-9.9%) and urban community colleges (-10.3%)," Anya Slepyan reports for The Daily Yonder. "Data also suggests that the pandemic has had a disproportionate impact on rural students. Last December, the National College Attainment Network reported that the number of rural students who filled out the FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid), an important indicator of students’ intentions to go to college, dropped by more than 18%, 2 percentage points lower than urban students."

The decline in rural enrollment is likely because the pandemic has made it more difficult for many types of students who make up a large portion of rural community colleges' enrollment. That includes high school students in dual-credit programs and students with children, Slepyan reports. The trend contrasts with the last time the economy crashed, during the Great Recession, when community-college enrollment rose by 33% from 2006 to 2011.

"In a report by the Association of Community College Trustees, Rachel Rush-Marlowe outlined several of the reasons rural students are less likely to attend college than their urban and suburban peers. These include financial barriers; household incomes in rural areas were 20% lower than those in non-rural areas prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, according to a 2017 report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Economic Research Service. This economic disparity has likely grown even greater over the last year, as many small rural businesses have closed and rural unemployment rates exceeded the national average," Slepyan reports. "Rural students are also more likely to be first-generation college students and are less likely to perceive a college degree as a high priority." 

Also, "attending college often is seen as a barrier to working full time, and those going to school may be seen as selfish, a burden to their families, or shirking real responsibility," Rush-Marlowe wrote in the report. And, she wrote, "going to college can also be associated with leaving the community, a decision that carries with it its own set of economic and social implications."