JFF Associate Vice President Lexi Barrett recently took part in a discussion about declining community college enrollments in an episode of the Inside Higher Ed podcast “The Key.”

In the October 6 episode, “Federal Policy and Part-Time Students,” Inside Higher Ed Contributing Editor Paul Fain asked Barrett how concerned she is about that fact that community college enrollments are down and potentially large numbers of vulnerable students are leaving the postsecondary education and training pipeline amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I’m really worried,” Barrett responded, explaining that everyone who follows trends in education “is really concerned when we see those numbers going down,” because it looks like the people who are putting education and training aside “are not going somewhere else.”

“They’re just not enrolling in higher education right now,” she added, “and that’s a real concern if they’re losing jobs, [because] those jobs may or may not come back, and it makes getting more education and getting more skill development all the more critical for their futures. So seeing those numbers go down is really concerning.”