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Sixty-billion dollars for free community-college tuition will undoubtedly be a tough sell to a Republican-controlled Congress. But in statehouses and city halls around the country, advocates for free tuition are hoping that the national discussion thepresident’s proposal has unleashed will help them make the case that government-funded education should extend beyond 12th grade to include two years of college.
Two of those programs, in Tennessee and Chicago, are familiar to anyone who’s been following the debate thundering around the proposal President Obama promoted in Tuesday’s State of the Union address. His plan, which Republican leaders have already denounced and many presidents of two-year colleges have cheered, calls on the federal government to cover three-quarters of students’ tuition costs, with states providing the rest. The proposal is largely modeled on a plan in Tennessee known as the Tennessee Promise. Mr. Obama also cited Chicago’s versionof the idea as evidence that if a Republican governor and Democratic mayor could agree on an approach, a bitterly divided Congress could as well.
That’s probably not going to happen. But that hasn’t stopped advocates elsewhere from pushing the idea in their states. Even before the president’s announcement, similar plans and proposals were kicking around in states like Minnesota, Mississippi, and Oregon, while New Mexico and some parts of Michigan have pursued their own versions of the free-college strategy.
Many have encountered the same kinds of issues and questions that have been hotly debated this week. Questions like:
- Who benefits most when tuition is free?
- What, if any, academic requirements should students have to meet?
- Should the tuition scholarship be in addition to or instead of Pell Grants for the neediest students?
- Where will the money come from, and how will colleges faced with an influx of students provide the counseling and support they need?
'On the National Agenda'
Morley Winograd leads a nonprofit group, the Campaign for Free College Tuition, that promotes similar programs across the country. He has been meeting with officials in five states that are considering plans like Tennessee’s (he isn’t saying which yet), and he expects some to be announced this year.
"The president’s proposal put the question of free college on the national agenda," he said. "Every governor is going to have to have a response to constituents who want to know, ‘What are you doing about it here?’"
Asked whether some state lawmakers might be holding off to see if the federal plan is approved, Mr. Winograd said that’s unlikely. "Given the makeup of Congress, I don’t think most people are sitting around expecting to get federal money for this," he said.
One criticism of many of the free-tuition plans and proposals is that they require students to attend college full time, which only about 40 percent of today’s community-college students do.
"We do think it’s important for students to try to complete in the expected time frame," said Mr. Winograd, who is also a senior fellow at the University of Southern California’s Annenberg Center for Communication Leadership and Policy. "They’re getting free tuition, so we think it’s possible for them to attend full time or close to it." Others point out, though, that tuition makes up a small portion of an annual bill that can top $16,000.
Details and Drawbacks
A look at some of the programs and proposals around the country offers a glimpse at some of the challenges advocates face in crafting plans that are affordable and reach their intended targets.
Among the best-known programs is Tennessee Promise, a statewide program that, starting next fall, will use lottery money to cover community-college tuition for any of the state’s graduating high-school seniors who choose to attend. Students must enroll full time and maintain at least a 2.0 grade-point average. More than 90 percent of the state’s high-school seniors have applied, although far fewer are expected to actually attend community or technical colleges.
In October, Chicago announced its own community-college scholarship for high-school graduates. To qualify for the free scholarships to City Colleges of Chicago, starting next fall, students must have a high-school grade-point average of 3.0 and need no remedial instruction in either mathematics or English.
Some advocates of free tuition say that the Chicago plan’s strict academic requirements make it essentially a merit scholarship, and that most students who qualify would probably be heading to college anyway. College officials have acknowledged that only about 3,000 of the city’s roughly 20,000 high-school graduates would qualify for the program.
The scholarship was announced by the city’s Democratic mayor, Rahm Emanuel, and the chancellor of City Colleges of Chicago, Cheryl L. Hyman.
New Mexico offers a scholarship, paid for by a state lottery, that covers a portion of college tuition for full-time students who meet certain criteria. Unlike most such plans, which cover only community-college tuition, this one applies to four-year public universities as well.
But it kicks in only after a student completes a 15-credit-hour semester with a grade-point average of 2.5 or better. As long as the student remains enrolled full time and completes a two-year degree within four semesters or a four-year degree within eight, the scholarship—worth up to $2,447 per semester for the 2014-15 academic year—continues until graduation.
Timing and Money
"Giving the scholarship to students only after they’ve ‘proved themselves’ may be more politically popular, but the money may come too late to help some students," said Sara Goldrick-Rab, a professor of educational-policy studies and sociology at the University of Wisconsin at Madison who is one of the nation’s most influential proponents of free college tuition.
She also disagrees with those who suggest that free-tuition plans primarily help upper-middle-income and wealthy people because the most needy students already get Pell Grants that usually cover their tuition costs. That argument, she said, is "kind of naïve" and doesn’t consider what drives college decisions for different income groups.
"Bill Gates’s kids are not going to be induced to enroll in community colleges just because it got a little cheaper," she said.
Many beneficiaries of free-college plans include lower- and solidly-middle-income people who make too much money for Pell Grants but not enough to avoid hefty debts, Ms. Goldrick-Rab said. Policies that are open to all students, not just the most financially needy, are also more likely to get continued support from state lawmakers, she said.
As states move forward with free-tuition plans, they should be thinking carefully about whom they’re targeting, said Evelyn N. Waiwaiole, director of the Center for Community College Student Engagement at the University of Texas at Austin. The Tennessee Promise plan is limited to recent high-school graduates, for instance, while the president’s proposal would also be available to older adults.
"The average age of community-college students is 28, so if you make a plan aimed just at high-school seniors, you’re leaving out a lot of people," said Ms. Waiwaiole, whose center studies practices that help more students succeed.
Even though tuition makes up a small fraction of students’ costs, there is no doubt that easing their financial burden would prompt more to attend college, she said. More than 70 percent of community-college students responding to a recent survey by her center said that financial troubles could cause them to drop out.
Other States' Debates
Elsewhere, lawmakers are debating the pros and cons of making tuition free.
A bill introduced in Minnesota would cover tuition expenses for high-school seniors to attend a public community or technical college. Some lawmakers have argued that the proposal wouldn’t do enough to help the neediest students, and advocates for four-year universities worry it would drain money away from them.
Lawmakers in Mississippi who last year rejected a free-tuition proposalwill consider this year a different one that would require students to maintain a 2.0 average and participate in mentoring and community-service activities.
In Oregon, the sponsor of a free-tuition plan recently told The Oregonianthat his plan, which carries a price tag of $25-million, would require qualifying students to pay $50 per course. Another way the Oregon proposal would keep the price down is that, as with the Tennessee Promise, it would make the scholarship a "last dollar" plan that kicks in only after Pell Grants and other financial aid are applied.
Free-tuition proposals have also been debated in places like New York, where some local politicians have asked the city to eliminate tuition at its seven community colleges. It’s not a new idea; community-college tuition used to be free there, as well as in two-year colleges across California.
Thomas R. Bailey, director of the Community College Research Center at Columbia University’s Teachers College, said that the idea of free college sends a powerful message to students, but that, at the same time, more attention needs to be placed on making the changes needed to improve completion rates.
"If we’re going to get more students into the colleges, we ought to make sure they’re doing a good job with those students, helping them navigate confusing systems and creating simpler, more structured, and coherent programs of study," he said.
"We’re asking colleges to enroll many more students and do a better job with them," he said, "but without giving them the resources" they need to accomplish it.
Read more at The Chronicle of Higher Education: http://chronicle.com/article/Where-Free-Community-College/151357
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