The Lucky Ones Are on the Iceberg, Even as it Melts

We've linked to previous writing by Wick Sloane, who is "embedded" at Bunker Hill Community College in Boston with a modest fellowship to write about the finances and inequities in community colleges. He starts this essay by noting that he has just been asked by a publisher for a student's permission to publish his English essay in a textbook, but Sloane can no longer even locate his previous student.

We know the six million credit students now in community colleges have little chance of completing even an associate degree. Yet, community college is voluntary. These are individuals who, against the odds, choose education over extra food in the kitchen and who, often on top of 50- and 60-hour work schedules, choose to come to school and learn.

Here’s an e-mail from a student last week: “My 10 mo. old daughter is very sick and I have been at the hospital since last night. She will get monitored all day today to track her progress. I will email some assignments later today. Thanks in advance!” His daughter has meningitis. He did e-mail me the homework.

Causes need a visual. I can’t find one for community colleges. With the Wal-Marting of America, the students have perfectly normal clothes. Their pain and their wounds are of the soul.