Consider these two current national trends: the exploding cost of going to college and the widening American wealth and income gap.

Now consider the potential for the community college, higher education’s homely step-sister, to nudge these trends in a happier direction.

I’ll admit to partiality: I’ve been teaching English in a community college for more than 26 years and have considerable appreciation for the below-the-radar work that these unheralded institutions do.

Their numbers in our nation are 1,132, according to the American Association of Community Colleges, and around 45 percent of all U.S. undergraduates are enrolled in one. The majority of these colleges are public institutions and nearly all of them offer only two-year degrees or certificates.

Now, some generalizations: As a rule, community colleges are more closely connected to their local areas than they are to their states — hence the term “community” — and this relationship is reflected in funding, governance, and the makeup of their student bodies.

In general, they are nonresidential, they don’t have sororities and fraternities, and they manage without football teams.

Most of them are “open admissions” institutions, which means that anyone with a high school diploma and a pulse can enroll.

This characteristic provides considerable opportunity for students who don’t have the academic background to enroll in more exclusive institutions. Often the student bodies at community colleges have higher proportions of minority and economically disadvantaged students. To some this may imply inferior students, but my students range across a wide spectrum of abilities, from the very capable, who could do well at any four-year institution, to the not-so-much, who struggle. But I appreciate a society that offers everyone the opportunity to struggle.

Finally, community colleges are much more economical than four-year public colleges, costing about a third of their tuition and fees.

Thus, for many students, community colleges are well-positioned to provide a solution to the first trend, mentioned above, the rising cost of a college education. As conservative state legislatures increasingly see a college education as a “private good” rather than a “public good,” they are increasingly inclined to force the costs upon students.

And even though most colleges and universities work harder at holding costs down than legislators and the public might believe, the average student debt upon graduation is around $30,000. Community colleges could help with this.

Of course, they suffer from a long-standing image problem. The ideal in our culture is still the four-year, residential experience that includes a vigorous social life and, especially, intercollegiate athletics. These elements are generally not a part of life at community colleges, which, for some, makes them seem less like a “real” college and more like the 13th grade of high school.

No one I know — including my students — spends much time worrying about this, but because of who they are and whom they serve, community colleges rarely enjoy much clout with state legislatures. Therefore state support for community colleges — never lavish, and generally below university levels — has dwindled over recent decades and is under constant threat.

Local taxpayers are often equally reluctant to fund community colleges, as well, but a bigger threat, locally and nationally, is a misunderstanding of their comprehensive mission and a tendency to push them toward an emphasis on technical and vocational education, rather than toward transfer to four-year colleges and a professional track.

Technical education is something that community colleges do very well. At my institution, you can learn to be a welder, firefighter or dental hygienist. But community colleges also help students with enough brainpower and initiative — and there are lots of them — to overcome weak academic backgrounds and limited financial resources to achieve upper-level degrees.

Which leads to the second national trend: the widening American wealth and income gap. The interests that don’t care about this are well served by a system that keeps everyone more or less in his place. Community colleges are in a position to help, but their funding and support are essential to their ability to push back on an unhealthy and worsening trend.

John M. Crisp, an op-ed columnist for McClatchy-Tribune, teaches in the English Department at Del Mar College in Corpus Christi, Texas. Email at jcrisp@delmar.edu.