Community colleges are reeling. 'The reckoning is here.’

Santos Enrique Camara, 27, who dropped out of Shoreline Community College at age 19 in 2015, prepares food at Capers + Olives Friday, March 24, 2023, in Everett, Wash. where he works as a sous-chef and cook. Advocates for community colleges defend them as the underdogs of America’s higher education system, left to serve the students who need the most support but without the money to provide it. Critics contend this has become an excuse for poor success rates and for the kind of faceless bureaucracies that ultimately led Camara to drop out after two semesters. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)