In a recent ranking of the nation’s best community colleges by Washington Monthly magazine, Minnesota placed seven colleges in the top 50. To put that in perspective, with less than 2 percent of the nation’s population, Minnesota has 14 percent of its very best two-year colleges. As I argue in my regular commentary in the Capitol Report, this is a great talking point for countering the drumbeat of anti-government rhetoric in this fall's election campaigns. In Minnesota we typically outclass most other states on quality measures of government goods and services, and here we are again among the best in the nation. I’m reminded of a very intelligent conservative who confided to me some 25 years ago that it was harder to generate anti-government zeal in Minnesota than in other states, mainly because our governments and public employees worked too well here. And at a time when our organization and others are trying our best to convince the next governor and the next Legislature to make higher education attainment the number-one priority for state government in Minnesota, it’s helpful to know that our own public two-year colleges are among the very best places in the nation to send more and more of our high-school graduates.
Dane Smith
I can only speak for Normandale Community College. I attended it in the early 1990's and ... a few years before that (after graduating from high school ...). I have nothing but praise for it!
Posted by: Pam Pommer | September 05, 2010 at 04:49 PM