Date: November 17, 2022
Author(s): Madeline Brozen, Rasik Hussain, Nicole Matteson
Abstract
Community college students spend more on transportation than their counterparts at public and private four-year colleges, partly due to the lack of on-campus or nearby affordable housing. Recent research highlights how transportation challenges are an overlooked but basic need for community college students (Access, Affordability, Food & Housing Access Taskforce, 2021). While the empirical evidence is somewhat limited, there are established connections between transportation access and educational outcomes. For example, a quasi-experimental study with Rio Hondo Community College in the Los Angeles region found that students who received deeply discounted transit passes had higher student success rates than their comparative peers (Clay and Valentine, 2021). This evidence suggests that transportation investments for California’s community college students are worthwhile to explore in efforts to boost community college completion rates.
About the Project
Community college students spend more on transportation than their counterparts at public and private four-year colleges, partly due to the lack of on-campus or nearby affordable housing. Recent research highlights how transportation challenges are an overlooked but basic need for community college students.