The Two-Million-Person Experiment

An impassioned argument for the essential role of the community college system in a more just and equitable vision of American higher education



“Norris’s voice is necessary and vital—and a call to take heed.” —Michael Datcher, author of Animating Black and Brown Liberation

Over forty percent of all undergraduate students in the United States attend community colleges, including a majority of Black and Latinx students. What do we know of their experiences, or the role this vibrant yet quiet wavelength of the American experiment plays both in the lives of these students and in shaping the landscape of American higher education writ large?


Essayist, novelist, and scholar Keenan Norris has spent his career teaching creative writing at community colleges across the country. In a work blending policy analysis, cultural criticism, and personal narrative, The Two-Million-Person Experiment examines the perennial dearth of resources, precarious labor conditions, and complex challenges of teaching students left behind by an increasingly stratified economy. With a keen eye and morally resonant voice, Norris argues for a radical refashioning of American higher education through greater attention to community colleges, including specific alterations to their curricula and institutional structure.


For readers of Mike Rose and Paul Tough, The Two-Million-Person Experiment offers an eye-opening tour of a little-known but vital part of higher ed—and a bold argument that community colleges hold the hidden key to an educational system that serves all students.