“Almost half of undergraduates in the United States start at a community college,” says Fellow Adela Soliz in this podcast. Soliz, a new fellow in the Brown Center on Education Policy at Brookings, identifies challenges faced by students looking to transfer from community colleges to four-year institutions, reacts to President Obama’s proposal to make community college free, and discusses the conflict between for-profit colleges and community colleges. Regarding the conflict between the two, she says, “From an institutional perspective, there is a lot of potential for competition to be a beneficial thing. If the community colleges are losing students to the for-profits, then that could encourage them to increase their efficiency and increase their quality. [However] there are a couple of reasons why that may not be happening.” Also in this episode, Fellow John Hudak, managing editor of FixGov blog, offers his "What's Happening in Congress" update. Show Notes: Increasing community college student transfer rates Will free college lead to more degrees? Subscribe to the Brookings Cafeteria on iTunes, listen on Stitcher, and send feedback email to [email protected].