Community College Funding and its Association to Nontraditional Students

The funding of community and technical colleges has been a major topic of discussion in many states because community and technical colleges are critical for states\u27 economic development and talent development strategies. The purpose of this study was to identify the relationship between the type of funding at community and technical colleges in southeastern states and their nontraditional student enrollment trends. The researcher investigated the growth of community and technical college enrollment by analyzing southeastern United States community and technical colleges\u27 part-time 25 to 44 year-old undergraduate enrollment rates for the years of 1995, 2000 and 2005, and how the funding of these schools was associated with the states\u27 enrollment of nontraditional students. It was found that community and technical colleges that received local appropriation revenue for the years of 1995, 2000, and 2005 had higher percentages of nontraditional students enrolled in their systems than community and technical colleges that did not receive local appropriation. Community and technical college administrators and their governing boards can use these findings as additional justification to policy makers for support options to include the use of local appropriation revenues or maintain local appropriation revenues for community and technical colleges as an alternative to increasing tuition and fees