The community colleges fail to respond adequately to critics who say that they perpetuate social inequity and to proposals that they expand their role in community education. Critics who charge that the colleges serve to maintain the class structure in America fail to recognize that progress toward equality of educational opportunity cannot lessen inequality of condition or of effect. Community colleges cannot break down class distinctions or move entire groups from one social stratum to another; but, as the main point of entry and reentry into higher education, they can assist the upward mobility of individuals. The idea of community education or community building as the new mandate for the community college also confuses concept and purpose. Proponents, seeking community support through community services, fail to understand the difference between a sequenced, measured curriculum and the diffuse, unsequenced presentations typically offered in community education--between learning and the awarding of credits. The college leader should point out the distinctions between social equalization and equal access, between curriculum and presentations, to help his colleagues and constituents realize that the college that teaches best uplifts its community most. (Author/JDS)