The COVID pandemic quickly showed the United States who was “essential:” First Responders, EMTs, allied health professionals, nurses, police and fire officials, food chain workers, etc. These are the people who we needed most and most of them are trained at a community college.

Community colleges have long been the leaders in distance education, now called remote learning, and have been able to pivot quickly to offering more courses and are ramping up to offered core courses to students who will not be returning to their university in the fall.

Finally, community colleges will be in the frontline of helping people affected by the rapidly changing economy because of their ability to offer both “traditional” higher education and workforce development training.

When looking at your region’s critical assets to economic and human vitality be sure to include your community college.