"By the end of this decade, two out of three job employers will require a college education," President Barack Obama said. In his State of the Union address, the President proposed to make community college free to qualifying students who make a 2.5 GPA, or higher, for the two years. Although this idea has its perks and gives high hopes to prospective students, arguments have surfaced criticizing the rationalization of Obama's proposal to address income inequality.
The proposal is modeled after the incredible success from Tennessee's free college program, called the Tennessee Promise. According to The New York Times, "It has drawn 58,000 applicants, almost 90 percent of the state’s high school seniors, and more than twice as many as expected."
Some may argue that the real finance struggle for lower-class students does not come from paying for their tuition, but rather from living expenses. Every semester, the price to buy my textbooks for fifteen credit hours ranges from $300 to $800. For students who are eligible for the Federal Pell Grants, the costs cover their tuition and does not cover huge wallet-crunchers, like textbooks.
Another popular argument against the proposal is funding students to go to a community college where there is less competition and less notoriety. The point of college is to prepare a student for the workforce and most two-year community colleges cannot provide that type of education to their students. Some employers may say a four-year college education is not enough to land a job, and education beyond an undergraduate degree is more attractive.
President Obama wants to make education free for everyone, yet in reality, he is charging taxpayers for college and creating a bigger debt for the country. It is difficult to have the skills employers require with the education provided at community colleges. The problem lies with the teaching strategies. Those need to become stronger before this proposal is enacted.
Is the proposal really the cure to rebuilding the shaky U.S. economy? Only time will tell.