{
  "id": 19667576,
  "title": "America's Best Community Colleges 2027",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/11/12/americas-best-community-colleges-2027",
  "topic": "culture",
  "section": "Culture",
  "published": "2026-11-12T14:44:08.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Time",
    "slug": "time",
    "url": "https://time.com/article/2026/11/12/best-community-colleges-2027/"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "The 2027 report by Statista and TIME highlights the top 250 community colleges in the United States, based on various factors such as student-faculty ratio, core expenditure, diversity, and graduate earnings. The enrollment at these institutions has been growing steadily, now accounting for 44% of all undergraduate students in the country. Despite being often perceived as secondary to four-year colleges, community colleges play a crucial role in higher education. They offer affordability, with tuition costs typically being half that of public four-year institutions. Many students choose to transfer from community colleges to four-year universities, while others use them for continuing education, GED completion, or ESL classes. High school students are also enrolling in community college courses to earn credits and reduce the cost of their degrees. According to recent data, the majority of community college degrees are awarded in Liberal Arts and Sciences, General Studies, and Humanities, as well as Health Professions. To remain competitive in the era of AI, some community colleges are offering specialized certificates, such as those provided by Austin Community College in Texas and West Valley College in California, to prepare students for the growing demand in the semiconductor industry.",
  "summary": "An unranked list of 250 top community colleges in the United States",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}