The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is giving fifteen community colleges a necessary shot in the arm with a $16.5 million dollar grant. Each community college will receive over $700,000 over three years, a gift that these colleges will certainly put to great use. Not only will retention rates increase, but programs offered by the community colleges will become more robust and varied in order to offer students the best education possible.

This program, named the Developmental Education Initiative, is part of a fifteen year struggle to strengthen schools and students by giving them much needed motivation and resources. A silent civil war has been waging within the United States, with students and poorly funded schools clashing on the battlefield of apathy. The peace process, ironically enough, can only begin when direct action is taken. Bill and Melinda Gates are the forerunners of this unity, taking the necessary financial steps to help keep students in schools that have enough funding to hold them.

Community colleges are a cornerstone of our educational history and of Americans’ success. Low income families are no longer prisoners to their bank accounts or under-education. Slow starters are able to get back onto the fast track of success by earning a degree at a community college. Minority students who may face both of these obstacles can seize the American dream and earn a chance at prosperity. This is why the Gates Foundation, in conjunction with the Achieving to Dream national initiative, is so important to the United States.

The 133,000 students enrolled in remedial education courses (what the initiative hopes to strengthen in the community colleges) represent the future of the American workforce. Since 2005, the first year this national initiative focusing on community colleges began, there has been a 20% increase in students enrolling in remedial education in the 15 colleges selected. Bill and Melinda Gates hope that the financial gift will motivate more positive change in these precious institutions.

The reason that the initiative is focusing on remedial courses is that 60% of students enrolled in community colleges rely remedial classes. Within a community college population, over 90% of low income and minority students rely on remedial classes to secure their success. Obviously the way to secure the success of community colleges and its students is to provide funding where it will be most useful. Certainly remedial courses are the hotbed of need in these schools.

Bill Gates is a proven winner and brilliant investor. He knows that to invest in the education of tomorrow’s workforce is to invest in the success of tomorrow’s America. We have too long kept American education on the bottom of our to-do list. Our silence has made more noise than thunder, and has had more shocking consequences than lightning. Bill and Melinda Gates are forecasting change in our future, making the financial investment to let everyone have the best chance at success. Do you have the courage to seize the chance they’ve provided?