Thank you Chairperson Porter and members of the committee for this opportunity to speak about community colleges. My name is Joseph J. Cipfl and I am President and Chief Executive Officer of the Illinois Community College Board. The Board provides leadership and service to the 49 public two-year colleges in Illinois.
Community colleges are, in fact, the largest sector of higher education.
Figures from the American Association For Community Colleges show that, nationwide in fiscal year 1997, community colleges enrolled approximately 5.3 million credit students and served approximately 5 million non-credit students. The Illinois Community College System is the third largest in the nation. Illinois community colleges serve nearly one million students in credit and noncredit programs each year. That is nearly 10 percent of the total for the entire country. The average age of our community college students is 31 years.