Dr. Jill Biden, an English instructor at Northern Virginia Community College and, oh yeah, the wife of Vice President Joe Biden wrote a great column that was published on the Forbes.com Web site.

It’s also hard to ignore the financial advantages. In today’s challenging economy, community colleges are an increasingly affordable way for students from middle-class families to complete the first two years of a baccalaureate degree before moving on to a four-year university.

From a policy perspective, community colleges make sense; from an economic perspective, they make sense. But I am a teacher, and my experience with community colleges is personal. People sometimes ask me why I choose to teach at one and why I have continued to teach since moving to Washington, D.C. I’m always surprised by the question because there was never a doubt in my mind that I would stay in the classroom. The reason is simple: The students are inspiring.

Dr. Biden goes on to mention that across the nation, community colleges are educating 11.5 million students this year.  That’s an incredible number when you think about it and it is only going to get bigger as more people pursue their dream of a better future despite the economy.

The numbers are staggering here in Virginia as well.  Virginia’s Community Colleges educate two out of every three undergraduate students in the state.  When you add in the individuals who are benefiting from our workforce development programs, our colleges are serving more than 370,000 people!