The Los Angeles Times recently reported that the Golden State’s community college enrollment dropped to its lowest level in 30 years. The report notes that since pre-pandemic 2019, the state’s 115 campuses have lost about 300,000 students, a troubling 18% drop that could lead to significant funding cuts if enrollment does not increase. While these schools do not grab the headlines of places like Harvard, Stanford, and UC Berkeley, they educate a vast number of students. During the 2020–2021 academic year, there were about 2.4 million undergraduate students in California, and the community college enrollment during the year prior was close to 1.8 million or about three-quarters of all students enrolled in post-secondary education.

The problems in California are not unique. While community colleges are engines for opportunity and upward mobility, the precipitous decline in enrollment represents another problem: a decline in ideological balance in higher education and the eventual permeation of graduates into larger society. While higher education in general leans to the left, students on community college campuses are far more independent.