Today, more people are expected to begin their college education at community colleges, which sit at the bottom of the pecking order for funding for higher education. The country spends about three times more to educate students at four-year universities than to educate community college students, Education Department data show.

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The Los Angeles Community College District has prepared its own $3.5-billion property tax increase to repair and replace aging campuses -- and train students to use "green" technologies. And other tax boosts are expected to compete for voters' increasingly light pocketbooks.

This spring, East Los Angeles College unveiled 5,952 solar panels that generate nearly half of the college's energy. The LACCD is undergoing one of the largest green building efforts in the country's public sector, with more than 40 buildings planned and all facilities set to employ only renewable energy.

Some of the nation’s biggest banks have closed their doors to students at community colleges, for-profit universities and other less competitive institutions, even as they continue to extend federally backed loans to students at the nation’s top universities.