Community College Funding: Legislators’ Attitudes

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to examine the impact of the Obama Administration’s Community College Initiative (CCI) on state legislators’ attitude toward economic funding for community colleges. Data on legislators’ attitude toward community colleges funding were collected using a customized Community College Goals Inventory (CCGI) survey developed by the Educational Testing Service (ETS), the American Association of Community and Junior Colleges. Data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics including measures of central tendency and dispersion as well as ANOVA, regression analysis, t-test or F-test. The results indicated that President Obama’s Community College Initiative has had a positive and statistically significant influence on state legislators’ attitude toward community college funding. Additionally, demographic characteristics and information sources, that is, where legislators obtain their knowledge to make decision about educational policies both had a positive and statistically significant impact on legislators’ attitude toward community college funding. The article provides insight into funding-attitude markers, that can be used as capital by community college presidents to shape funding policies affecting their institutions.