PRESIDENT Barack Obama announced on Jan. 8 his newest plan to make two years of community college publicly funded, free and available to all Americans. The sweeping, multibillion-dollar proposal would make higher education as accessible as a high school diploma to boost weak US wages and improve lifelong skills for the modern workforce.
In a public video posted to the White House official Facebook page, the president, sitting at his desk aboard Air Force One, outlined his goals for the new year, including education reform.
“[Education] is the key to success for our kids in the 21st century,” he said. “But we also understand is that it’s not just for kids, but we also have to make sure that everybody has the opportunity to constantly train themselves for better jobs, better wages, better benefits.”
“Put simply, what I’d like to do is to see the first two years of community college free for everybody who is willing to work for it,” he said. “It’s something that we can accomplish, and that will train our workforce so that we can compete with anybody in the world.”
Speaking in the midst of a three-day tour to preview the agenda he will be outlining in his upcoming State of the Union address on Jan. 20, President Obama encouraged Americans to tune into the conversation (using the hashtag #FreeCommunityCollege) and ongoing debate about education reform, and shared his hope to embolden Congress to back up a proposal that would benefit everybody.
The program is expected to cost the federal government at least $60 billion over 10 years, said White House spokesman Eric Schultz, and faces a Republican majority in Congress, which is heavily opposed to big new spending programs.
Administration officials said that funding details for the program would be released next month along with the president’s budget proposal. They estimated that roughly 9 million students could participate and save an average of $3,800 in tuition per year—which suggests an annual federal cost in the tens of billions of dollars.
Under President Obama’s new proposal, students would be able to earn the first half of a bachelor’s degree, or earn the technical skills needed in the workforce all at no cost, the White House website stated.
Qualifying students must attend community college at least half-time, maintain a 2.5 GPA, and make steady progress toward completing a degree or certificate program. Participating schools would also have to meet certain academic requirements, including offering programs that fully transfer credits to local public four-year colleges and universities, or occupational training programs that lead to high graduation rates, in-demand degrees and certificates.
The White House said the federal government would pick up 75 percent of the average cost, and the final quarter would come from participating states opting into the program.
The president also proposed the new American Technical Training Fund, which will “expand innovative, high-quality technical training programs across the country.” The Fund will award programs with strong employer partnerships and work-based learning opportunities, accelerated training, and will accommodate part-time work.
White House domestic-policy director Cecilia Muñoz said the proposal is a federal-state partnership, with funding covered by both, and congressional legislation will first be needed to fully approve the president’s plan. Details about the funding source would come in the president’s budget for the next fiscal year due next month.
On Thursday, Obama’s education reform ideas received a “chilly response” from House Speaker John Boehner’s office.
“With no details or information on the cost, this seems more like a talking point than a plan,” said spokesman Cory Fritz.
Muñoz did not say how the president hoped to pass the legislation through Congress, and the White House had yet to run it by lawmakers on Capitol Hill.
In his State of the Union address in 2013, Obama suggested a similar education reform proposal to make preschool universal, but Congress did not approve it because of costs. Muñoz pointed out that even without federal action, many states are taking up the idea and expanding preschool.
She also mentioned how Republican Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam signed a law last year which pioneered the Tennessee Promise, a scholarship program which provides free community and technical college tuition for two years. The program has drawn over 55,000 applicants, which is almost 90 percent of the state’s high school seniors.
Obama’s plan, nicknamed America’s College Promise, was inspired by the Tennessee plan and other similar education reform programs.
(With reports from Associated Press, TIME, ABC News, WhiteHouse.gov)
(www.asianjournal.com)
(LA Weekend January 10-13, 2015 Sec. A pg.1)
