Recession pushes parents to enroll at community colleges along with kids
Bonnie MILLER RUBIN, Chicago Tribune
Issue date: 3/10/10 Section: News
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As the 49-year-old leaves the Palatine, Ill., campus, her 19-year-old daughter is just arriving - same subject, different generation.
"I'm fine with my mom being here," said Anna Horton, who graduated last year from South Elgin High School. "But at the same time, it's a little weird."
Enrollment at many community colleges is at a record high. Within the surge, there is a boomlet of parents and children attending school together, experts say.
The phenomenon is a convergence of two market forces: A larger-than-usual crop of recent high school graduates diverted from pricier schools by the recession, and their elders who are back in the classroom, hoping that retraining is the path to more stable and lucrative employment.
It's hard to imagine any adolescent willingly embracing this arrangement. Back in high school, the mere prospect of passing Mom or Dad in the hall would have been a profound source of humiliation.
But now, the cringe factor is greatly diminished because the post-secondary environment means fewer cliques, more age diversity and a better shot at anonymity, the progeny say.
"It's OK as long as she doesn't follow me around," explained Marissa Gudowski, 19, who attends Prairie State College in Chicago Heights with her mother, Diana Gudowski, 52.
The daughter has only one iron-clad rule: "No moms in the same classroom," cracked the teen, while her mother expressed mock indignation.
Although the number of such pairs is difficult to measure, no one disputes that demand at the nation's 1,200 community colleges is strong and coming from across the age spectrum.
Illinois can count nearly 159,000 community college students age 40 and older - a group that accounts for about 23 percent of the state's enrollment, according to the Illinois Community College Board.
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