To President Biden and many of his allies, free community college is one of the best vehicles of upward mobility, a “ladder to the middle class,” as one economist put it. Earlier this month, Senate Democrats began the process of fulfilling this longstanding priority for their party, including a $109 billion expenditure on free community college in their sweeping budget plan. The administration is seeking to make higher education more accessible in other ways, proposing a $85 billion increase in federal Pell Grants that help cover the costs of college.
At the state level, financial support for college has steadily grown more generous, as nineteen states have enacted free community college tuition over the last four years. This shift represents a major investment in providing community college for all, even if many of these programs are “last dollar” programs that kick in after all other grants have been applied to their tuition, while students still pay other significant costs – room, board, transportation, and books.
Biden’s proposals and these state programs aim to spend more public money on the same systems, based on the premise that many students would complete either a two- or four-year degree if only costs were lower. But increasing educational opportunity is more complicated than that. The President’s plan acknowledges the complexity of the issue, including “$62 billion to invest in evidence-based strategies to strengthen completion and retention rates at community colleges and institutions that serve students from our most disadvantaged communities.”
I’m all for free college!! That means that any teachers/professors can’t collect a paycheck. If it is truly free they don’t pay people to maintain the building. No cafeteria workers to have to pay. Everything is free!! Oh yeah the books are free also. Why should tax payers pay to send OTHER people to school. College would be affordable again if they took away the government loans. Once they offered loans the price became unaffordable and the people aren’t paying it back anyway!
We need to pray for wisdom for our leaders; it’s clearly lacking!
This will be the Golden Ticket for community colleges to increase tuition costs to ridiculous levels. Why should CC tuitions be more than a county receives from the state and fed for public school annual per-student revenue, anyway?