CCC has unique problems due to its location in a low income urban setting. The basic educational needs of students from local public schools were not met prior to coming to CCC and there fore they must take remedial classes before enrolling in regular college course work. Primarily these students come from poor households where education is not stressed. Most of these students find themselves lost in the system, lose interest and fail to succeed in college. Few complete their degree programs and far fewer transfer to four year universities.

Contra Costa College has a number of programs designed to work with federally funded assistance programs The goal here is to give training and job skills to get the student off welfare. The goal is admiral even necessary, but the flaw is these are the very programs putting CCC in debt. One example is the GAIN Program. This program is aimed at people on probation, in drug rehabilitation programs and teenage single mothers who did not finish high school. These people take courses at CCC free of charge. The college is compensated by the government for them only once they have completed training and have been successfully employed for six months. The vast majority of these people do not keep their jobs and CCC never sees the money from the government. Instead these students return to CCC and begin a new program.

Many students come to get something out of CCC, unfortunately most come for the money. A student at CCC can expect to receive over $3,000 per year in Federal Funding. The Pell Grant is financial aid given to students to help pay for their college education. Students also receive a Board of Governors Grant that fully pays for classes in addition to book grants that pays for textbooks and other material. So it�s questionable why a CCC student needs upwards of $1500 to pay for a community college education when all of his expenses have been paid for by other means. CCC will gladly exploit this to increase enrollment because the money comes from the Federal government not it�s own budget.

For many on campus the cure for all that ails CCC is Marketing. More marketing equals more students which leads to more money from the state, that�s the reasoning anyway. CCC and the district spend money on direct mailings, radio, TV, print and internet advertising hoping to draw more students to the school. Those in charge should deal with the real problems facing the school such as controlling spending and educating students.