Talk about coming late to the party: The Greater Washington Research at Brookings Institution, DC Appleseed and DC Fiscal Policy Institute are expected to announce Friday that the District needs a robust community college system.

In a closed-door conference with select officials, the three think tanks will discuss the Brookings report “Envisioning Opportunity: Three Options for a Community College in Washington, D.C.” (The report is embargoed until noon Friday.)

“[That] report and [Appleseed’s] report on working poor families are the catalyst for the meeting. It is designed to be a conversation with various stakeholders,” Appleseed’s Walter Smith explains. “One key recommendation in our report is the need to give greater [education and skills development] opportunities to low-income residents.

“But as Alice Rivlin at the Brookings says, a community college is a whole lot more than about just helping poor people,” Smith continues. “Hopefully the stars are aligned to bring greater attention and focus on the needs and on the benefits.”

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But faculty leaders at the University of the District of Columbia, like Sydney Hall and Wilmer Johnson, have been at the dance for a decade. Since 1999, they have asserted the need for a community college. City leaders have ignored these educators, who each year are confronted with academically unprepared District youth or adults. Policy wonks may have done the same.

“I don’t remember anyone talking to the faculty senate,” says Hall, responding to my question about whether he met with the recently minted community college boosters.

I won’t criticize the think tanks — neither will Hall. We choose to amplify the call.

“When we hear all the problems in the city, we have to point to our system of education,” Hall says. “The District deserves the same opportunity that all other states have, and that is numerous opportunities for post-secondary education.

“All we have is UDC,” he adds.

“Regardless of the change in demographics, residents are not going to be able to send their children to the private institutions in the District of Columbia; they are just too high,” Johnson says .

Once, the District did have a community college — Washington Technical Institute — and a four-year college. Officials chose to consolidate them. The faculty senate, then headed by Johnson, fought that merger — and for good reason. The mishmash of missions, combined with revolving and mostly incompetent leadership at UDC and an ill-suited board of trustees, has resulted in a mess.

Releasing a report doesn’t mean diddly, if elected officials and civic leaders don’t make a commitment.

“It needs to be done right,” Hall says, suggesting a planning committee of “eminently qualified people” be established. Johnson urges creating a “chancellor” to plan an entire post-secondary system.

“Fixing post-secondary education is as important as fixing [public] schools,” Smith says.

Can we get an amen?