AEI education expert Mark Schneider and Lu Michelle Yin explore the harmful consequences of low community college graduation rates and propose policy solutions in the latest edition of Education Outlook.

An ever-increasing number of individuals are turning to community college for their higher education. Online delivery of classes and competency-based models of higher learning should be employed and innovations from for-profit schools should be borrowed to increase the number of Americans completing their associate’s degrees.

This is the season of generational twaddle. At graduation ceremonies across the country, politicians, authors, actors, and businessmen take to the stage to tell young people they are fantastic simply because they are young. This year, the ritual is more pathetic than usual because there’s a presidential election in the offing.

Community colleges are subsidized through direct state and local government appropriations and through student grant programs. Every student who drops out represents an investment loss by the taxpayers in that student's uncompleted education.

Many students choose a college based on program offerings, cost, and distance from home, but they may be overlooking a vital piece of information: the school's graduation rate.

Not all colleges are created equal when it comes to getting their students over the finish line. One step toward a better outcome is improving the information available about quality and costs.

In their new research study, AEI's Andrew P. Kelly and Mark Schneider used an experimental survey to test whether providing graduation-rate information affects the way parents choose between two public, four-year colleges in their state.

President Barack Obama has been on a tour of college campuses touting proposals to lower student loan repayments for college graduates. He hopes to rekindle the enthusiasm of young voters, who in 2008 favored him over Sen. John McCain by more than two-to-one.

Ironically, these same young Americans...