Jill Biden: Free community college ‘no longer part’ of Dem spending plan

(The Hill) – First Lady Jill Biden confirmed that the administration won’t be able to deliver free community college to Americans, acknowledging that a major provision of President Biden’s economic agenda is off the table.

“Congress hasn’t passed the Build Back Better legislation yet. And free community college is no longer part of that package,” Biden said in remarks at a community college summit on Monday.

“We knew that this wasn’t going to be easy. Joe always said that. Still, like you, I was disappointed because like you, these aren’t just bills or budgets to me, to you, right? We know what they mean for real people, for our students. And it was a real lesson in human nature that some people just don’t get that,” she added.

Two years of free community college to all eligible students was part of Biden’s Build Back Better agenda and a signature initiative for the first lady, who is a longtime community college professor.

Her announcement on Monday at the 2022 Community College National Legislative Summit delivers a major blow to community colleges, which originally were expected to receive $45.5 billion from Build Back Better to waive two years of tuition for students. That funding was intended to last for five years and then would decrease by 5 percent every year after that.

“We’ve seen how entire towns can be transformed when community colleges and private companies work together to train students for jobs that are desperately needed, with skills like manufacturing or modernizing our electrical grid,” she said.

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