Sasha pointed out an article in the chronicle of higher education, which followed nicely on a conversation we had at the weekend. A friend of mine teaches at a community college, and noted that she has to defend sometimes the fact that the students have to learn the material she is teaching, because the students want a strictly utilitarian education - they are there to get a degree so they can get a job, and so they want to know how the class she teaches will do that.
So the article in the chronicle is written by someone from an Ivy League school, who thought about applying for a community college position, but ultimately decided she didn't think she could make that defense. She also notes that schools that aren't Ivy assume she doesn't really want to work for them, because they are a 'step down'.