Obama's proposal could allow two years of free community college

Obama's proposal to make two years of community college free is a positive strategy one official at Ivy Tech Community College said. 

“The reality is, and particularly true in East Central Indiana, we’re still helping high school students and recent high school graduates understand that a college education is absolutely necessary in order to provide a good livelihood moving forward,” said Andrew Bowne, East Central and Richmond Regional Chancellor at Ivy Tech Community College. 

Chris Munchel, director of undergraduate admissions at Ball State, said he isn't able to speculate on the impact the proposal would have on the university.

"There's just too many variables to offer anything of substance," he said.

Obama unveiled a proposal Jan. 8 to make two years of community college free to those who are "willing to work for it."

“It’s not just for kids; we also have to make sure that everybody has the opportunity to train themselves for better jobs, better wages, better benefits,” he said in a video posted on Facebook.

In order for students to get the aid, they must attend community college as at least a half-time student, maintain a 2.5 GPA and make steady progress to their degree, according to whitehouse.gov.

Students must work toward either a program that is fully transferable to a public four-year college or an occupational training program that could get them hired right out of college.

Federal funding would cover three-quarters of the cost of community college, and the state will cover the rest of the remaining cost, according to whitehouse.gov.

Although the proposal has generated concerns as to whether it is actually plausible, Bowne said he thought it was doable.

“It has to work its way through the legislative process, so it becomes [a matter of whether] it is considered to be a wise investment of tax payer dollars,” Bowne said.

in the 2013-2014 school year, Ball State had 374 people transfer from a two-year institution, and 333 from a four-year institution, according to the Ball State fact book. 

Ball State has a transfer program set up with Ivy Tech to help students who were not admitted to the university out of high school. 

The transfer program, Connect, ensures admission. Connect counselors at Ivy Tech help students to choose classes that meet the transfer requirements. 

If Obama's proposal is implemented by the states, it could save full-time community college students $3,800 in tuition per year and benefit about nine million students per year, according to whitehouse.gov.

Tennessee was the first state to offer tuition-free community college. Beginning with the class of 2015, all high school graduates can apply for the Tennessee Promise scholarship, which can give them two-years of free community college in Tennessee, according to Tennesseepromise.gov.

“Obviously [Tennessee] sees it as a state as a really good move,” Bowne said. “We’ve looked pretty closely at the Tennessee model and have seen tremendous benefits from it. It gets more students going to college and it’s better for both the economy of the household, as well as the economy of the community and of the state and of the nation.”

Bowne said a potential downside to the proposal for some would be that a federally funded education might potentially take control out of the local and state levels. But even so, he said something had to be done.

“If we’re going to change the equation for families, change the equation for us as a state and as a nation we’ve got to do something significantly different and this proposal will certainly do that.”

Morley Winograd, the president of Campaign for Free College Tuition, a non-profit organization helping to push Obama's proposal, said he thought the proposal is a real game-changer in the debate of how to finance higher education.

“We’re in 100 percent support of the president’s proposal,” Winograd said. “Right now there are a lot of students in community colleges who have to juggle work and school in order to pay for the tuition. Even though its less than regular college, it’s still a significant outlay of funds.”

He said when students have to take time off from studying to work, either their grades go down, or it extends the amount of time they have to be in school, which further increases the cost.

“We think the impact of this would be increased grad rates, better performance and an opportunity for everybody to recognize that we don’t ask people to pay to get into high school and we shouldn’t ask people to pay for a school who’s educational outcomes and goals are exactly what the country needs by way of a skilled workforce,” Winograd said. 

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