Giving Compass' Take:

· Writing for The Hechinger Report, Marva Craig explains how high transportation costs for community college students are leading to lower student success rates.

· Should universities provide free transportation services for student? What other challenges do transportation costs create? 

· Check out this article to read more about the real cost of college and transportation.

Be it car, bus or subway, students often overlook the cost of transportation when calculating the price of attending community college.

Commuters comprise 99 percent of all community college students, with just 28 percent of their institutions offering on-campus housing.

Excessive transportation costs can not only impair students’ academic performance but also force students to change from full-time to part-time studies so they can work. This, in turn, increases the amount of time it takes for students to graduate, if they graduate at all.

Here in New York City, as the agency that oversees the Metropolitan Transit Authority public transit system mulls whether it will raise subway and bus fares, we in positions of leadership at colleges are reminded of the daily financial struggles that many of our commuter students face just getting to class.

Read the full article about transportation costs for students by Marva Craig at The Hechinger Report.