In terms of return on investment (ROI), community colleges provide a much better value for students, who earn on average $4.80 in future wages for every dollar they spend on tuition.
According to the Huffington Post, the new report comes from the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC), but reveals similar findings to several recent studies. The report also found that community colleges are more cost efficient for taxpayers.
Thanks to lower tuition costs, students can take classes they would be enrolled in at a much more expensive school. Hamilton Place Strategies recently predicted, if tuition and student loan costs continue to rise, it will be "more attractive to get an associate's degree, rather than a bachelor's degree, in 2065."
According to 2012 data, the year used for the report, 11.6 million Americans enrolled in a community college. That year, such schools made up 42 percent of the country's population of college students.
"Community colleges are too often overlooked in the higher education discussion," AACC President Walter Bumphus told the Huffington Post. "We are proud of our open access public institutions and believe the public should have an accounting of what they contribute."
According to the report, taxpayers would receive a return of $6.80 for every tax dollar spent over the course of a community college student's career. In total, a taxpayers would save a total of $19.2 billion due to better lifestyles, lower health care costs, reduced crime and no more need for safety net programs. Additionally, federal, state and local governments would collect about $285.7 billion in tax receipts.
Despite the growing cost of school, college graduates are earning more money than high school graduates by rates at an all-time high. According to the Associated Press, diploma holders make 62 percent of what a degree holder would make, down from 81 percent in 1965.