The Louisiana Community and Technical College System saw a 10% drop in enrollment during the 2020-2021 school year.
LCTCS spokesperson Quintin Taylor said there are a number of factors they believe are behind the decline in enrollment. First, there were COVID-19 safety concerns particularly in the Fall of 2020 and second many of their students have children and the chaotic situation in K-12 education during the worst of the pandemic made it hard for parents to pursue their own education.
“Because our students are average age 27, many of whom have dependents, they had to press pause because they needed to know what the children were going to be doing in the K-12 space,” said Taylor who added that Louisiana community colleges did a bit better than the national average which was closer to a 12% decline in enrollment.
Taylor said another factor was other higher ed institutions temporarily relaxing ACT admissions criteria due to how hard it was to schedule and hold safe testing dates.
“That had a lot to do with first-time college freshmen not coming to our college but then having an opportunity to go to the four-year schools,” said Taylor.
Enrollment seems to now be recovering. Taylor noted that state community colleges are seeing enrollment rebounds of 5% to 10% for the current summer semester and are looking at further rebounds in the upcoming fall semester.
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