Dive Brief:
- Nearly 1 million U.S. community college students — 8.5% of the nation's total community college students — don’t have access to federal student loans because their schools choose not to participate in the program, according to a new report.
- Access to federal student loans for community college students varies considerably according to their race and ethnicity, with Native American, black, and Latino students most likely to lack access, the Institute for College Access and Success reported.
- Students who attended community colleges in non-urban areas were more than twice as likely to lack access to federal student loans than students in urban areas.
Dive Insight:
The report notes that research has shown consistently that a lack of access to affordable student loans leads to reduced chances of completing a degree or certificate program. Among states, the report found that North Carolina had increased access to federal loans by requiring its community colleges to participate, but that requirement has ceased and many community colleges will stop participating by the 2014-15 school year. California has the largest number of community college students without access, at more than 250,000.
