It’s called the American Graduation Initiative, an Obama administration program to pump $12 billion into the nation’s community college over the next decade. While administrators at those institutions welcome the federal help, some wonder out loud whether the measure will have any meaningful impact and do what its name implies – graduate more individuals into the workforce.

Admission offices are bustling at the area’s community colleges. With the economy on a downswing, people are looking to acquire skills that will open the door to better-paying jobs. Others simply can’t afford the costs of four-year programs.

Yet, at a time when community colleges need money to support their expanding girth, they are grappling with drastic cuts in state funding. How do they continue to pay for facilities and programs to keep the doors to higher education open?

Many are pinning hopes on something called the American Graduation Initiative, recently signed by President Obama. The initiative promises to pump $12 billion in funding into the nation’s community colleges over the next 10 years. The White House hopes the plan will play a role in leading the economic recovery by improving job skills and thus putting more qualified individuals into the labor pipeline.

A rough rundown of the plan goes something like this: $9 million will be allotted to grants to help better-prepare graduates for four-year colleges and improve graduation rates. Some $2.5 billion will finance plans to modernize facilities, while the other $500 million will go to building online programs.

The Obama administration is touting the initiative as a giant step forward in federal government recognition of the important role community colleges play in higher education. In fact, some officials are calling it the most significant initiative since the original GI Bill and President Truman’s Commission on Higher Education.

But is it? And is the funding really enough to give community colleges the boost they need? And, finally, why has it taken the federal government so long to recognize community colleges?

Springfield Technical Com-munity College President Ira Rubenzahl said the funding amounts to a fraction of what schools actually need today, and that there are strings — in the form of highly competitive grant applications — attached to the money.

BusinessWest spoke with the presidents of several community colleges in the area about the Obama initiative and what they believe it means. While all agreed that the initiative is a positive step in the right direction, some believe it is simply not enough.

Portals to Higher Education

Like many, Robert Pura, president of Greenfield Community College (GCC), is greeting the bill with open arms. “Obama gets it,” he said. “This bill is a recognition of a powerful force in education.”

Indeed, community colleges play a unique role in the U.S. More than 50% of the nation’s students who go on to higher education do so through community colleges. This is because, unlike four-year colleges, which have somewhat stern entrance criteria, community colleges require only a high school degree or the equivalent for admission.

Community colleges are also relatively affordable. Many students don’t want to be saddled with the enormous debt load of a four-year college, which can run $30,000 to $50,000 a year. In contrast, a community college may cost only $3,500 annually, making it an effective kick-start to a four-year program. This open-door policy enables greater access to higher learning for some who might otherwise be stuck in low-wage jobs.

“Community colleges offer higher education to many for whom no other opportunity would exist,” said Paul Raverta, president of Berkshire Community College (BCC) in Pittsfield. “If students don’t come here, generally speaking, they would not be going anywhere else.”

Many who go to community colleges come from diverse backgrounds. “As of the last census, the population in Massachusetts is shrinking,” said Bob Messner, Holyoke Community College (HCC) president. “The only thing keeping it from shrinking more is growth among Latinos, African-Americans, and new immigrants — and these are the populations we serve.”

Community colleges break the mold in other ways, too. Students who attend them are, on average, older than those at four-year colleges. They are more likely to be holding down part- or full-time jobs. And often, they are the first in their families to access higher education, transforming the way the next generation perceives the importance of education.

In Western Mass, community colleges provide skilled labor for local businesses. “Ours is very much a college of the community,” said Pura. “Many of our nurses, firefighters, emergency medical technicians, and police officers graduated from here.”

Messner talked about the importance of creating skilled workers to support a proposed $100 million supercomputing center in Holyoke and green-technology industries such as wind turbines and the retrofitting of the community’s old buildings.

Still another unique element of community colleges is their flexibility to serve as what Obama calls “21st-century job training centers,” working directly with local businesses to custom-design vocational programs.

Making Do with Less

Historically, attendance at community colleges runs counter to the employment situation. Down times for community colleges come when everyone is working. Right now, Western Mass. community colleges are reporting double-digit increases in attendance.

“Our spring 2009 enrollment was up 9% over last year; it was the highest spring enrollment we’ve had since 1997,” said Raverta. “Our applications for fall 2010 are up 17%, and applications for financial aid are up 47%.”

Springfield Technical Community College saw a 5% increase for 2009 and is looking at possibly another 10% increase for 2010. “If that holds, it would mean a 15% increase in two years, which is extraordinary,” said STCC president Ira Rubenzahl. The current economic crisis is impacting interest in community colleges at much-higher level than previous recessions, he added.

Yet, while attendance up, state funding is down — dramatically.

GCC has seen a 17% ($1.5 million) reduction of funds in the last year, which Pura sees as part of a long, gradual decline. “When I first came into the Commonwealth in 1978, approximately 96% of the community-college budget was state-funded,” he said. “Today it’s less than 50%.”

Similarly, over the last year, STCC lost about $4 million in state funds.

The community-college presidents we spoke with say historical funding patterns, not to mention the recent and severe cuts, are difficult to justify given the expanded role the schools have assumed and the funding awarded to four-year institutions.

“In Massachusetts, we get more than 50% of all the students in higher education, yet only 25% of the appropriation annually from the state,” said BCC’s Raverta. “About half goes to UMass, a quarter goes to state colleges, and a quarter to community colleges.”

Looking for ways to stretch dollars, community colleges are expanding programs to off-hours and weekends and introducing more ‘brick-and-click’ classes that combine online and classroom training, as well as leaving positions unfilled.

While most are generally pleased that the federal government is stepping up to compensate for shortfalls in state funding, some are questioning the math. Take the proposed $12 billion and divide it up among the roughly 1,200 community colleges over 10 years, and it comes to roughly $1 million annually per school.

Is $1 million per year enough to modernize facilities and achieve Obama’s goal of 50 million additional college graduates by 2020?

A recent report by the Brookings Institute, a liberal think tank, revealed that community colleges receive less than one-third the level of direct federal government support as do public four-year colleges.

“It’s a small fraction of what the federal government gives to the four-year colleges every year,” said STCC’s Rubenzahl. “We have half the students; why aren’t we getting half the money?”

Strings Attached

Obama is comparing the American Graduation Initiative to the GI Bill, but there’s a big difference in how the money is apportioned.

The original GI Bill was a direct appropriation. After WWII, the federal government guaranteed full tuition, housing, and living costs for some 8 million veterans.

In contrast, the Obama initiative is competitive in nature. “This money has a lot of strings and language attached to it,” said Rubenzahl. “It has a series of conditions and grants, which only certain institutions can apply for. It’s nothing like the GI Bill. It doesn’t guarantee an education; it helps, though.”

What this means for a college such as STCC, which has lost that $4 million in state funding in the last year, is that it can’t plan for its $1 million from the federal government because it doesn’t know whether it or not it will even get it.

“With the GI Bill, it wasn’t a situation where there was only so much money and you had to apply and compete with other colleges for it,” Rubenzahl continued. “And that’s the difference between what we have and what I was hoping for with this legislation. I was anticipating at least some kind of ‘we’re going to support you, even though the state will not.’”

Some might ask, if the community college system is so essential to the health and growth of the nation’s labor force, why has it taken the federal government this long to acknowledge it?

Perhaps it’s because community colleges break the mold. They don’t represent a traditional graduate institution. The students are older, they often don’t take as many credits each semester, and the demographics are different.

It’s also possibly because of the constituencies served by those institutions.

“We have a lot of students with modest means,” said Rubenzahl, adding that this is a demographic that has, historically, not received as much attention as others. “But because the numbers are changing, the government is finally starting to take notice. It has to do with American democracy; when you get big enough, you get important.”

Others say community colleges are too fundamental. “Unlike the major research advancements coming out of some universities, what we do is not sexy,” Raverta said. “It’s solid, it’s critically important, it works day-to-day, but it’s not sexy.”

Meanwhile, as the American Graduation Initiative weaves its way through Congress, the region’s community colleges are watching to see what the new law will eventually look like.

“Like any piece of legislation, the detail will define its place in history,” said GCC’s Pura. “But let’s not let perfection get in the way of moving in the right direction. This is a wonderful thing.”