One out of every two students who attend Community College drop out. Only 1 in 5 will get their degree in four years. Why?

I’m Nikolas Harter, and in this three part series produced out of the KCSF studios at the City College of San Francisco, I interview students and administrators, and break down statistics to come to some surprising conclusions about our flawed system of higher education.

If you don’t know what career you want to pursue, is going straight to college after high school really the best option? How is acquiring an education connected to success, happiness, and becoming an adult? These days, is our system of higher education even capable of raising the financial well-being of its students, or does it perpetuate society’s inequities?  

In Part 1, I approach this question of why 47% of students drop out of school by breaking down the data. Did you know “work responsibilities” is the number one reason students report for dropping out of school? It’s ironic, because “financial struggle” is the number one reason students go to college in the first place! We’ll meet a couple CCSF community members, and put some faces to the data. 

Music by Sam Vanderlist and Cory Foss