Community colleges, an immensely important though often underappreciated sector of higher education, have always been the most affordable postsecondary pathway. According to the latest College Board report on cost, community college students spent an average of $2,076 on tuition and fees in 2004-05, compared to averages of $5,132 for students attending four-year public institutions and $20,082 for students at four-year private institutions. These days, however, rising costs are having a huge impact on these two-year schools. First of all, community college students paid 8.7 percent more for their education in 2004-05 than in the previous year. What’s more, enrollments are rising at community colleges — even though these institutions already serve nearly half of the nation’s undergraduates.

Enrollment hikes have been steepest in California and Florida where, in 2003, community colleges were compelled to turn away students because of overcrowding. But the trend is widespread, and it’s clearly demonstrated by the average age of students attending community colleges.

At the beginning of the decade, students 25 and older were the norm on community college campuses. With an average age of 29, some were displaced workers obtaining new skills or certification in computer technology and other fields. Just as many were men and women jump-starting educations deferred by raising families and other circumstances. Today, the average age is closer to 27, said George R. Boggs, president and CEO of the American Association of Community Colleges. He and other experts say more and more of these younger students are recent high school graduates who are staving off the rising prices at four-year residential institutions by staying home and attending two-year schools.

From a financial standpoint, persuading students to finish prerequisite courses at community colleges makes good economic sense for four-year colleges and universities, said David A. Longanecker, executive director of the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education. “Four-year institutions get higher graduation rates if they take students with two years behind them,” he pointed out.

Faced with an enrollment rate that grew by 14 percent in the 1990s, Boggs said, two-year schools have responded by filling vacant full-time faculty positions with adjuncts and by forging more partnerships with community and business interests.

“Community colleges have learned to be efficient because they have to be,” said Boggs, pointing out that two-year schools generally lack large endowments and rarely obtain large research grants. Consequently, he added, two-year institutions need to strengthen development efforts that tap alumni, corporations and private donors.

If community colleges are a bit behind the curve when it comes to fund-raising, they have been on the cutting edge of integrating technology into the undergraduate education and campus operations. The Internet was just becoming a fixture in American households when Arizona’s Rio Salado Community College — a classic correspondence school — looked at online technology and saw the future of learning. It was 1996, and 2,000 students responded to Rio Salado’s invitation to participate in college classes via computer. Today, the school has 24,000 students participating in online classes.

“Our infrastructure is technology,” said Carol Scarafiotti, the dean emeritus who played an integral role in moving Rio Salado into the online world. That infrastructure is cost-effective for students and the school. Because classes are taught almost entirely by adjuncts working by computer from their own homes, Rio Salado minimizes its outlay for salary and benefits. Thanks to the college’s flexible course structure, new sections of 90 percent of Rio Salado’s 350 online classes begin every two weeks. This allows students to learn at their own pace, reducing the amount of time to graduation.

On average, said Scarafiotti, Rio Salado students pay 37 percent less than their counterparts enrolled in the 10 other colleges in the Maricopa County Community College District — the nation’s largest. “We are so cost-effective, in fact, that if there was no Rio Salado, there may not be any of the other colleges,” said Scarafiotti. “We carry them because we can control our costs.”

Aware of the institutional tension between the two-year and four-year sectors, Boggs responds cautiously when asked to cite the lessons in cost-effectiveness that four-year schools can draw from community colleges.

Because they are smaller in size and budget, he answered, two-year institutions typically make maximum use of facilities, offering classes at night and on weekends to accommodate students.

“But I think we have a lot to learn from each other across the educational sectors,” Boggs continued. “Too often we have on our blinders from thinking that (four-year) colleges are better than community colleges, and community colleges are better than high schools. We have to stop that kind of thinking, help each other out and realize that this is an educational pipeline. It’s not going to work unless we all work together.”