Gas Prices Impacting Rural Community Colleges

In the Bush/McCain economy, rising gas prices are making it incredibly difficult for rural college students to even get to school, much less afford to attend.

Rising gas prices are hurting community colleges in rural America. "Sensitive to their enrollment numbers and the plight of their fuel-cost-fatigued students, administrators at rural community colleges are looking for ways to help students stay on track with their studies even as their monthly transportation bills rise, in some cases approaching the several-hundred-dollar range," Libby Sander writes for The Chronicle of Higher Education.

"In large swaths of rural America, where a journey of 50 to 100 miles to reach a destination is the norm, some community-college officials say students are being forced to make tough decisions about what they can afford, given the added expense of fuel," Sander reports. "Some are dropping out. Others are turning to online classes for relief from the pump."

Senator Barack Obama is committed to bringing a college education within reach of any American who seeks it. Read more about his plans to ">make college affordable and move the U.S. towards energy independence from oil once and for all.