In our Balkanized political culture, community colleges are one of the few institutions and public spaces where individuals possessing divergent values, attitudes, and beliefs gather and discuss, debate, learn, and share a personal challenge (in this case, one that is primarily intellectual in nature). It is where people of varying ages, life experiences, ideologies, races and ethnicities, and socioeconomic backgrounds convene and discuss ideas and concepts. Most notably, there are three features of community college student diversity that are especially significant in countering U.S. political polarization: (1) generational heterogeneity; (2) the presence of military-connected students; and (3) student socioeconomic and racial diversity. As community college presidents Gail Mellow and DeRionne Pollard observed, “In the classrooms of our colleges, discussions of inequality, racism and immigration don’t need the ‘trigger warnings’ so hotly debated in some universities; our students live them every day.”

After watching the Assembly Chamber unanimously pass ACR 31 (with 67 co-authors signing on to the resolution) recognizing April 2019 as California Community College Month, I was reminded of just how far community colleges in California have advanced from their origins as extensions of K-12 school districts in the first decade of the 20th century.