Obama to propose free community college

Gregory Korte | USA TODAY

Show Caption Hide Caption Obama to propose free community college Ahead of the State of the Union, President Obama announced his plans to propose two free years of community college for anyone "willing to work for it."

WASHINGTON -- President Obama will propose two years of free community college for American workers Friday, part of what the White House says is an effort to make community college as universal as high school is today.

Obama teased his community college proposal in a video uploaded to Facebook on Thursday and will deliver a speech Friday in Tennessee.

"Put simply, what I'd like to do is to see the first two years of community college free for anybody who's willing to work for it," he said aboard Air Force One amid a three-state tour to preview his State of the Union Address. "It's something we can accomplish, and it's something that will train our workforce so that we can compete with anyone in the world."

The program would require action from a Republican-dominated Congress. "With no details or information on the cost, this seems more like a talking point than a plan," said Cory Fritz, a spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio.

The White House said details on the cost and funding would come in the State of the Union Address on Jan. 20 and the president's budget request Feb. 2. But the White House expects 9 million students to participate and save up to $3,800 a year for two years. That would place the cost at nearly $70 billion, though there are questions about building capacity at the nation's 1,100 community colleges.

The federal government would pay three quarters of the cost, at least initially.

In some ways, the community college plan is a bookend to Obama's 2013 proposal to pay for universal pre-Kindergarten through a state and federal partnership. That $75 billion proposal, which relied on dwindling tobacco tax money to provide federal matching funds, never got traction in Congress.

But Cecilia Munoz, Obama's domestic policy adviser, said Obama's pre-K proposal spurred state and local governments to increase the number and quality of preschool offerings, and hopes the college proposal will do the same. "We don't expect the country to be transformed overnight, but we do expect the conversation to begin tomorrow," she said.

Obama, joined by Vice President Biden, will announce the plan at Pellissippi Community College in Knoxville, Tenn. Obama's plan is modeled after the Tennessee Promise -- a state-level free-college plan starting this fall, paid for with Tennessee Lottery proceeds.

That plan, Munoz noted, has support from Republican lawmakers in Tennessee.

Munoz said the college plan would require the cooperation of states, community colleges and students. States would have to pick up a quarter of the cost -- more or less depending on how much they currently fund community colleges.

"Community colleges have to raise their game by establishing standards to allow students to transfer those credits to a four-year degree," she said. "And students must take responsibility for their education, earn good grades and stay on track to graduate in order to earn free tuition."

The America's College Promise program would be available to traditional and non-traditional college students, she said, and would support those seeking the first two years of a bachelor's degree, an associate's degree, or even just job training.

Obama said a world-class education starts with children, but that adults need training, too. "It's not just for kids, we also have to make sure that everybody has the opportunity to constantly train themselves for better jobs, better wages, better benefits."

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