Community college tuition and fees are rising faster than many citizens' ability to access them.  If those in need cannot obtain higher education services from them, they no longer fulfill their missions.  "Community" colleges cease to exist!   America's prosperity depends upon community college's open access and affordable education and career training.

Most economists and historians credit the GI Education Bill of 1944 as one of the leading causes of the great prosperity achieved since World War II.  It is easy to see why they came to this conclusion; millions of GIs went on to become college graduates. (The average WW2 GI's education was one year of high school!)  These GI graduates then became the entrepreneurs and leaders who made our continuing prosperity possible.

The presidents of two of the country's greatest universities both wrote letters to President Roosevelt opposing the GI Education bill.  They stated that opening up higher education to veterans (a poor uneducated group) would be a disaster for the United States and its universities.  What the university presidents did not see, was what individuals can accomplish when given the chance.  They also did not envision the tremendous return on investment higher education provides to both the individuals and to the nation.

Community colleges have been and are continuing to support this affordable open access higher education and our prosperity.  "Open access" and "affordable" however are being threatened, placing community colleges and our future prosperity in jeopardy.

Just as the GI Education Bill provided a tremendous return on investment, community colleges have and continue to do so. Community colleges are in the business of teaching.  They are not in the research business.  They have generated little or no information on their economic impact.   Hence, their heavy economic impact and their gigantic return on investment are not well known.   The present value of the cumulative return on local taxes invested in community colleges is in the thousands of percents!   That is correct. You put in $1.00 in local tax and the community receives back the $1.00 and almost $20.00 in community earnings!

Using Illinois data, one dollar of state funding of its community colleges results in the state receiving more than a dollar in increased tax revenue and saves Illinois over a dollar of state social welfare expenses. This allows the state to fund other programs. This leads us to the conclusion; "Community colleges are not a state budget problem, they are a state budget solution." A link to a white paper detailing the very large returns community colleges provide to the state of Illinois is included in our interesting links section.

Underfunding of existing community college missions has already priced out many Americans. The move to expand community college into four year institutions without commensurate funding will further reduce their availability. We hope this site will help to save them, to save community colleges as we know them.

Save Community Colleges Organization Inc. is an Illinois Non-Profit corporation and it is a listed 401 (c) 3 educational charity. All funds are used for educational activities and all work is preformed by volunteers. We have no paid employees or fund raisers. Tax deductible donations can be made to the: Save Community Colleges Organization Inc. c/o American Chartered Bank 459 S Rand Rd. Lake Zurich, IL 60047. Please email us at donor@saveccs.org with donor information so that we may thank you and supply you with a donation verification letter. Your information will not be used for any other purpose.