California Community Colleges - The Best Kept Secret

I have had the pleasure, the luxury, and the honor of studying at, working at, and teaching at some of the greatest of California community colleges. In 1977, I moved across country from back east with two suitcases and 300 dollars, to take advantage of the educational system in California in general and of California community colleges—for starters—in particular. Not only were they at the time unbelievably affordable but remarkably reputable as fine preparatory, or transitional, institutions of higher education. In fact, my first semester at College of Marin, for example, besides buying my texts, I paid only $3.00 for the whole semester. That was for the Health Fee.

California community colleges are not quite so inexpensive—though they are still affordable—these days, but they are still wonderful first- and second-year colleges and trade/occupational training sites. People graduating from the neighboring high schools or returning to college after years away attend courses and programs in almost all of the major disciplines and/or take vocational courses such as those in the Automotive Mechanics or Cosmetology divisions at almost all of the 72 regions’ California community colleges.

As the Chancellor of the California community colleges reveals in the mission statement (at http://www.cccco.edu/faq_cccco.htm#mission), basic aims of all of the California community colleges are to offer “essential and important functions” such as basic skills instruction, English as a second language (ESL, or, English for speakers of other languages, ESOL) education and practice, adult non-credit instruction, and student and community support services.

While funding is the contingency (and often the bane), some California community colleges engage in research, outreach, and other related projects and programs. They often provide a small degree of health services, offer social and academic guidance and support (for honors charters, for example) and extracurricular access (by way of, for example, sports teams and student associations and clubs).

While I taught and worked at and am therefore partial to select California community colleges in the Bay Area (in Northern California), there are some of the best kept secrets throughout the state. Here is a partial list with individual colleges you can get more information on by typing in the name of the college and dot net, or dot cc dot ca, or dot edu, usually:

American River College, Sacramento
Butte College, Oroville
College of San Mateo, San Mateo
Diablo Valley College, Pleasant Hill
East Los Angeles College, Monterey Park
Feather River College, Quincy
Grossmont College, El Cajon
Hartmon College, Salinas
Imperial Valley College, Imperial Valley
Laney College, Oakland
College of Marin, Kentfield
Ohlone College, Fremont
Palomar College, San Marcos
College of the Redwoods, Eureka
Skyline College, San Bruno
Taft College, Taft
Ventura College, Ventura
West Hills College, Coalinga
Yuba College, Marysville