Pros and Cons of a Community College Education

Community colleges are a low-cost and effective path to degrees and jobs for many people, especially full-time workers and first-generation Americans -- but bachelor's degree recipients who start out at the two-year institutions earn less than their counterparts who start at four-year institutions, a researcher at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis reports in an analysis released Tuesday. The study, "Community Colleges: A Route of Upward Economic Mobility," by Natalia Kolesnikova, an economist at the St. Louis Fed, will serve as the basis for a series of discussions in the Midwest about the role of community colleges.