Obama to propose 2 free years of community college

President Barack Obama on Friday will propose making two years of community college free for students.

In a White House video posted Thursday evening, Obama said he wanted to offer “a little preview” of his plans for the Jan. 20 State of the Union address.

..“What I’d like to do is to see the first two years of community college free for everybody who’s willing to work for it,” Obama said. “It’s something we can accomplish, and it’s something that will train our workforce so that we can compete with anybody in the world.”

If all 50 states participate, the proposal could benefit 9 million students each year and save students an average of $3,800 in tuition, the White House said.

Interesting idea, with a very large price tag. Obama's plan would see the feds picking up 75% of the tuition costs, with each state covering the remaining 25%. That's a total bill of somewhere around $34 Billion per year... Many US states, including my own, are already in education funding desperation mode, running large deficits and cutting education spending to the bone of what the feds will allow.

My concern here is whether the president is earnestly presenting this or setting up a situation in which he looks like a good guy and the states are the fall guys, knowing full well any state currently in emergency education funding cuts mode cannot possibly participate in this program.

It's a shame, really. This should have been tackled 6 years ago when the money was instead being wasted on continuation of wars for other people's supposed freedoms and corporate bailouts... now the country is just too damn broke for this to realistically be in the books.

Can't afford it. Just can't. Too many people are living paycheck to paycheck as it is, and the only way most states could do this is if they hiked taxes on people who just can't afford to lose any more.

And I love how he says "people who are willing to work for it." If they were willing to work for it, we wouldn't be picking up the bill for it.

Nope.

Anything this guy does has an ulterior motive that only works for him. Just can't see it yet.

But it always has something to do with taxes or elections or both. He's up to something but by the time we figure it out it'll be too late to reverse. As always.

And he'll of course have the support while surrounding himself with young kids, parents. Who wouldn't vote for free education? Makes for great photo ops.

Peace

Oh good then the community colleges can hike the price up through the roof and they will end up only being able to cover half the cost.

Hope there is a plan in place for that.

I give Obama credit for wanting to create some good change through education and medical coverage.

a reply to: onequestion

Oh there is. It's called making college more affordable. How dare anyone escape 4-year college debt by taking other routes that might be less expensive?

Don't you know the government needs to make it all "free" so that our universities become more or less as inconsequential as most of Europe's?

Great idea!

Let's do 4 things to fund this:

1) Crack down on people who are receiving disability checks/social security/welfare while still working. It's sickening how many people are milking the government tit while still working.

2) Require all welfare recipients that aren't disabled to attend the free 2 years of college. If they can't/won't/don't earn at least a 2.5 GPA, they're off welfare.

3) Mandatory drug and alcohol testing for welfare recipients. If they fail 2 tests, they're off welfare. If you have enough money for drugs and booze, you're not so bad off that taxpayers should be supporting you.

4) Legalize Marijuana and tax it to help pay for the 2 years of free education.

a reply to: ketsuko

How about they take less of our money in taxes and we'll be able to make our own choices.

a reply to: Answer

God I hope your not serious, your not serious right?

originally posted by: onequestion
a reply to: Answer

God I hope your not serious, your not serious right?

You typically have a problem with logical solutions... so let's hear what your beef is this time.

Maybe he thinks this is necessary because of the failure of high schools.

It's like "mitigating" the public school damage.

a reply to: Answer

If you think poor people are the problem with our economy and these economic policies then your clueless.

Enjoy it.

originally posted by: jude11
Nope.

Anything this guy does has an ulterior motive that only works for him. Just can't see it yet.

Another Cloward Piven move?
Complicated intrusive government legislation into the private sector that is
ultimately a financial time bomb designed to fail and bring more chaos?
Hmmmm.........

a reply to: Answer

I can just see a bunch of stoned out former welfare recipients "studying" their bongs between classes.

a reply to: Answer

So your solution for big government is even more big government?

Rock on!

a reply to: onequestion

I was being sarcastic ...

Obama said he wanted to offer “a little preview” of his plans for the Jan. 20 State of the Union address.

Ought to get some mileage out of that.

His preview to propose some free stuff for the people…

a reply to: ketsuko

I realize that but that's what I thought of reading your post.

a reply to: burdman30ott6

Oh jeez, thanks big guy!!

Oh. you're making us pay.

Well, thanks for chipping in demorats.

An individual’s likelihood of being a Democrat decreases with every additional dollar he or she earns. Democrats have a huge advantage (63 percent) with voters earning less than $15,000 per year.

link

Oh, most demorats dont pay income taxes.

Well, thanks for stealing more of the money I work every day for, to give to those who dont.

A hole

a reply to: burntheships

That'd be my guess. They already opened that box by forcing people to buy healthcare from a private entity even though the person may not want/afford/ to.

How many times have we heard the govt say "in the intrest of national security" Now they can insert "education" and "healthcare" into the legal language and really go freaky lol boy i hope ya'll who wanted all this are happy lol

Who do ya suppose he plans to steel the money from to pay for this?