With a proposal that would send millions of students to community colleges free, President Obama joins a line of national leaders who have asked taxpayers to foot other people’s tuition bills for the greater public good.
The president’s plan, still short on details, has been described by higher-education experts as a clarion call in the spirit of the original GI Bill, which became law in 1944, or the Pell Grant program, which was created by Congress in 1972. The GI Bill sent almost eight million veterans of World War II to college, and the Pell Grant program assists millions of low-income students each year.
Given the polarized political environment, there is considerable skepticism that President Obama’s proposal has any realistic chance of passing through the Republican-controlled Congress. Nevertheless, the president has spawned a national conversation about whether the cost burden for community-college tuition ought to be shifted from individuals to taxpayers.
Read more at The Chronicle of Higher Education: http://chronicle.com/article/Free-College-Plan-Evokes/151151